Hieromartyr Zenobius, Bishop of Aegae, and His Sister Zenobia (†285) — October 30 / November 12 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, October 30 according to the Julian Calendar (November 12 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates the Hieromartyr Zenobius and the Martyr Zenobia.

The Hieromartyr Zenobius, Bishop of Aegae, and Zenobia were brother and sister. Raised in the fear of God by Orthodox parents, they distributed their entire inheritance to the poor. For his holy life Zenobius was consecrated bishop. The blessed hierarch tirelessly preached the Christian faith among the pagans and, by a gift granted him by God, healed the sick without payment. When the Emperor Diocletian (284–305) began to persecute the Orthodox, Saint Zenobius was seized and brought before the tribunal of the governor Lysias. The lawless ruler addressed the hierarch: “I will not waste words — I offer you this: life, if you worship our gods, and death, if you do not.” The blessed one replied: “This passing life without Christ is not life but death. It is better for me to endure temporary torments for my Creator and thereafter to rejoice with Him inseparably, than to deny Him for the price of a fleeting life and share in the eternal torments of hell.”

By order of Lysias the hierarch was crucified. The bishop’s sister Zenobia denounced the cruelty of the tormentors and boldly confessed Christ, and for this the godless subjected her too to many kinds of torture. At last the martyrs were beheaded. The priest Hermogenes committed the holy bodies of the Lord’s chosen ones to the earth. This took place in the year 285.