Zosimas of Palestine

Zosimas of Palestine was a monk and priest of the Holy Land whose memory is preserved almost entirely through his role in the life of Saint Mary of Egypt. By tradition he became a monk in a Palestinian monastery at a very young age and acquired a reputation as an experienced elder and ascetic, sought out by visitors from neighbouring monasteries. He is commemorated on April 4.

Late in life he settled at a strict community in the wilderness near the Jordan River, where he spent his remaining years. According to the tradition, it was the custom of that monastery for the brethren to go out into the desert for the forty days of Great Lent, passing the time in solitude, fasting, and prayer, and not returning until the approach of Pascha. It was during one such Lenten withdrawal that Zosimas is said to have encountered Mary of Egypt.

The whole of what is known of Zosimas derives from the Life of Saint Mary of Egypt, a work attributed to Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (in office 634–638), who is said to have drawn on oral tradition handed down among the monks of Palestine. Within that narrative Zosimas serves as the witness and recorder of Mary's account, communing her on the banks of the Jordan and afterward burying her in the desert. The sources reckon that he lived to nearly a hundred years and reposed around the year 560.