Saint Zenobius ( ) (337 –
417) is venerated as the first bishop of Florence
. His
feast day is celebrated on
May 25.
Life
Born of a Florentine noble family, he was educated by his
pagan parents. He came early under the influence of
the holy bishop Theodore, was baptized by him, and succeeded, after
much opposition, in bringing his father and mother to the
Christianity.
He embraced the clerical state, and
rapidly rose to the position of archdeacon, when his virtues and notable powers
as a preacher made him known to Saint
Ambrose, at whose instance Pope
Damasus I (366-86) called him to Rome
, and
employed him in various important missions, including a legation to
Constantinople
. On the death of Damasus he returned to his
native city, where he resumed his apostolic labours, and on the
death of the bishop of that see, Zenobius, to the great joy of the
people, was appointed to succeed him. His
deacons are venerated as
St. Eugene
and
St. Crescentius. He evangelized Florence and
its outskirts completely and combated
Arianism.
According to his biographer and successor in the See of Florence,
Antonius, he died in his ninetieth year, in 424; but, as Antonius
says that
Pope Innocent I (d. 417)
was at the time
pope, the date is
uncertain.
There is
ground for believing that he actually died in 417, on 25 May, on which day the ancient tower where he is supposed to have lived, near the
Ponte
Vecchio
, was annually decorated with flowers.
His body
was first buried in the Basilica di San
Lorenzo di Firenze
(consecrated by St. Ambrose in 393), and was later
translated to the church of Santa Maria del Fiore
.
In the back of the middle of the three
apses is
the altar of Saint Zenobius. Its silver
shrine, designed around 1440, a masterpiece of
Ghiberti, contains the
urn with his
relics. The central
compartment shows us one his miracles, the reviving of a dead
child. Above this shrine is the painting
Last Supper by
Giovanni Balducci. There was also a
glass-paste
mosaic panel
The Bust of
Saint Zanobius by the 16th century miniaturist
Monte di Giovanni, but it is now on
display in the Museum Opera del Duomo.
Miracles
Extraordinary
miracles, including several
instances of the restoration of the dead to life, are attributed to
him. Zenobius is said to have
resurrected several dead people. It is also
said that after his death, a dead
elm burst into
life after his body touched it while being borne to the
cathedral for burial.
A legend states that a child was once run over by a
cart while playing. His mother, a widow, wailed as she
brought the dead child to Zenobius'
deacon.
By means of a prayer, St. Zenobius revived the child and restored
him to his mother.
In art
Zenobius is often depicted with a dead child or man in his arms, or
a flowering elm, both in reference to his miracles.
Baptism of St. Zenobius and His
Appointment as a Bishop
Sandro Botticelli depicted the
life and work of St. Zenobius on four paintings. In the first
scene, St Zenobius is shown twice: he rejects the bride that his
parents intended him to take in marriage and walks thoughtfully
away. The other episodes show the
baptism of
the young Zenobius and his mother, and on the right his
ordination as
bishop.
On the
wall of the Palazzo
Vecchio
are frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio, painted in
1482. The
apotheosis of St.
Zenobius was painted with a perspectival illusion of the
background.
Image:Florenca113b2.jpg|St. Zenobius, façade
of Santa Maria del
Fiore, FlorenceImage:Firenze.Palvecchio.HallLilies.JPG|Wall
fresco of Saint Zenobius in the Hall of Lilies (Sala dei Gigli),
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.Image:Fra Angelico 041.jpg|
The Madonna with St. Dominic (right) and St.
Zenobius (left), by
Fra
AngelicoImage:Firenze.Duomo.painting04.JPG|St. Zenobius seated
with his deacons St. Crescentius and St. Eugenius kneeling at
either side.
Painting on a pillar in the Duomo Santa Maria del
Fiore, Florence.
Notes
References
- George Ferguson, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1961), 147.
External links
Wikis
Map
Search
