Martyr Zosimas the Hermit of Cilicia

Zosimas the Hermit was a desert-dwelling ascetic of Cilicia, in Asia Minor, who is numbered among the martyrs of the early Church and commemorated on September 19. According to the synaxarion, he lived during the fourth century, withdrawing from the cities to pursue a solitary life in the wilderness, where he was remembered for living peaceably among wild animals.

The tradition relates that a governor named Dometian, while hunting, came upon the elder calmly conversing with the beasts, which fled at the hunters' approach. Questioned about his manner of life, Zosimas answered that he was a Christian and could not dwell in the city among the enemies of Christ. Suspected of sorcery for his power over the animals, he was arrested and brought to trial.

Refusing to renounce his faith, Zosimas was subjected to torture. The accounts describe him being hung head downward with a heavy stone fastened about his neck and his body torn with iron hooks. When his persecutors mockingly demanded that he summon a beast as proof of divine aid, a lion is said to have come and lifted the weight of the stone to ease the martyr's suffering. The governor, alarmed, ordered him released, but the saint had already died of his wounds and surrendered his soul to God.