Pope Zosimus

Pope Zosimus

Pope Saint Zosimus was born in Mesoraca, Calabria and was Pope from 18 March 417 to 26 December 418 (or 27 December).

He succeeded Innocent I and was followed by Boniface I. Zosimus took a decided part in the protracted dispute in Gaul as to the jurisdiction of the See of Arles over that of Vienne, giving energetic decisions in favour of the former, but without settling the controversy. His fractious temper coloured all the controversies in which he took part, in Gaul, Africa and Italy, including Rome, where at his death the clergy were very much divided.

According to the Liber Pontificalis, Zosimus was a Greek and his father's name was Abram. Historian Adolf von Harnack deduced from this that the family was of Jewish origin, but this cannot be certain.

Nothing is known of the life of Zosimus before his elevation to the Papal See. His consecration as Bishop of Rome took place on 18 March 417. The festival was attended by Patroclus, Bishop of Arles, who had been raised to that See in place of Bishop Heros of Arles, who had been forcibly and unjustly removed by the imperial general Constantine. Patroclus gained the confidence of the new pope at once; as early as 22 March he received a papal letter which conferred upon him the rights of a metropolitan over all the bishops of the Gallic provinces of Viennensis and Narbonensis I and II. In addition, he was made a kind of papal vicar for the whole of Gaul; no Gallic ecclesiastic being permitted to journey to Rome without bringing with him a certificate of identity from Patroclus.

In the year 400, Arles had been substituted for Trier as the residence of the chief government official of the civil Diocese of Gaul, the "Prefectus Praetorio Galliarum". Patroclus, who enjoyed the support of the commander Constantine, used this opportunity to procure for himself the position of supremacy above mentioned, by winning over Zosimus to his ideas. The bishops of Vienne, Narbonne and Marseille regarded this elevation of the See of Arles as an infringement of their rights, and raised objections which occasioned several letters from Zosimus. The dispute, however, was not settled until the pontificate of Pope Leo I.