Zeno of Verona - Life and Historicity

Life and Historicity

According to a Veronese author named Coronato, a notary of the 7th century, Zeno was a native of North Africa, from Mauretania (northern Morocco and Algeria). He taught many children of Africa about the Catholic religion and he also helped them with their school work. The children could rely on someone who could help them. Another theory is that Zeno was a follower of Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, who accompanied his master when the latter visited Verona in 340.

The style of the 90 or so Sermones attributed to Zeno has also been considered evidence of his African origins due to its literary style, since Christian African writers of the time frequently used neologisms and wordplay. Many of the Sermones concern Old Testament exegesis and "have a definite anti-Semitic element in them".

Staying in the city, Zeno entered the monastic life, living as a monk until around 362, when he was elected successor to the See of Verona after the death of Bishop Gricinus (Cricinus, Cricino).

Zeno had "received a good classical education", and as bishop baptized many people, won converts back from Arianism, lived a life of poverty, trained priests to work in the diocese, set up a convent for women, reformed how the Agape feast was celebrated, and forbade funeral masses being accompanied by attendees' loud groans and wailing. Zeno’s other reforms included instructions concerning adult baptism (which occurred by complete immersion) and issuing medals to people newly baptized to the Catholic faith.

Zeno's episcopate lasted for about ten years, and the date of his death is sometimes given as 12 April 371.

Zeno is described as a confessor of the faith in early martyrologies. Saint Gregory the Great calls him a martyr in his Dialogues; Saint Ambrose, a contemporary of Zeno, does not. Ambrose speaks of Zeno's "happy death", although as a confessor, Zeno may have suffered persecution (but not execution) during the reigns of Constantius II and Julian the Apostate. There is an entry in the Roman Martyrology for the Bishop of Verona who was martyred by Roman Emperor Gallienus on 12 April 371. There are problems with this date, however, as Gallienus' rule ended in 268.

The first evidence for his existence is found in a letter written by Saint Ambrose to Bishop Syagrius of Verona in which Ambrose refers to the holiness of Zeno. Later, Bishop Saint Petronius of Verona (r. 412–429) wrote of Zeno’s virtues and also confirmed the existence of a cult dedicated to Saint Zeno.

A poem written between 781 and 810, called the Versus de Verona, an elegy of the city in verse, states that Zeno was the eighth bishop of Verona.