Saint Zosimas the Hermit lived in the fourth century in Cilicia, a region now part of Turkey. He chose a solitary life in the desert, and through his devotion to God, he received many spiritual gifts.
One day, the regional governor, Dometian, a fervent idolater, went hunting and encountered the holy elder. He was astonished to see Zosimas conversing peacefully with wild animals, who scattered at the approach of the hunters.
Upon learning that Zosimas was a Christian who confessed Jesus Christ as the incarnate God, Dometian ordered his arrest and subjected him to cruel torture in Nazareth, a city sacred to every Christian.
In the stadium, before a large crowd, Zosimas’s ears were burned with red-hot iron. He was thrown into a huge vat of sewage and hung upside down with a heavy stone tied around his neck. Throughout his ordeal, he quietly prayed to Christ.
Suddenly, a magnificent lion, which had lived near the saint in the wilderness, bounded into the stadium. It approached Zosimas and began to support the stone hanging from the martyr’s neck with its paw. Dometian, astounded by this miracle, ordered the release of the saint.
Athanasius, the prison guard, deeply moved by Zosimas’s faith, also believed in Christ the Saviour. He was baptised by the saint, and together they retreated to the desert. There, in a cave on a mountainside, they dedicated themselves to prayer and peacefully surrendered their souls to the Lord.
