Echoes from Ancient Times: Anniversary of the death of San Zenone of Verona (12 April 371)

Statue of San Zeno in Verona

Today, in Verona and elsewhere we celebrate the death of its patron Saint Zenone (in Veronese "San Zen") the 8th Bishop of Verona from 361 to 371. Though this is the very early history of Christianity, barely 50 years after the alleged conversation of Roman Emperor Constantin in 312 AD, we know quite a lot about San Zeno because he was a prolific writer. Recently, his sermones in Latin have even been made available on Googe Play Books. In these sermons he would point out, for example, Christians should keep down the wailing during funerals, since after all for Christians the dead would be in a better place.

The Roman Empire covered much of the Mediterranean, North Africa and Northern Europe and was therefore multi-ethnic, though Latin and Roman law were adopted across the whole empire. We know for instance that Zeno was probably from Mauretania (today's Marocco), like his contemporaries Saint Augustine from Pavia who was from today's Algeria. Their use of language and frequent use of humour betray their origins. Zeno's statue in Verona seems to show his smile and dark skin. By contrast, another contemporary of theirs, Saint Ambrose of Milan was of Romano-Germanic origin from today's city of Trier.

My favourite story is how San Zenos exorcised the daughter of the Roman Emperor Gallienus and thus was allowed to convert the many pagans in the City of Verona. An image in bronze of this exorcism is on the door of San Zeno basilic in Verona. You can see the devil leave her mouth. My grandfather, Giovanni Battista Pighi wrote extensively about the early history of the Veroneses Church, and produced a scientific edition of the sermones and legends around San Zeno.

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_of_Verona

Exorcism of Emperor Gallienus' daughter