Letter Z — The Catholic Expositors of the Divine Volumes

Z

Zacharias, Bishop of Chrysopolis, a man most celebrated in his time, explained the four Gospels — brought by Ammonius of Alexandria into one continuous body — in four books of commentaries: which, woven from the opinions of the fathers into one chain, he fitted together with beautiful skill. The beginning of the work is, On the excellence of the Gospel, and its difference from the law, etc. He flourished in the year 1100 from the childbirth of the most blessed Virgin.

Zacharias, Bishop of Hierocaesarea, illustrious in the Second Nicene Synod, wrote in the Greek tongue a Dialogue of continuous narration, explaining the golden statue from the second chapter of Daniel, whose title is ΧΡΥΣΕΙΚΩΝ [Chryseikōn], that is, THE GOLDEN STATUE OF MAN.

Zeno, Bishop of Verona and martyr, is said to have written very many sermons on various passages of the divine scripture: in place of which [i.e., under whose name] Guarino of Verona, the orator, a hundred years ago published a volume of sermons of various kinds; in which the sermons pertaining to the exposition of the sacred letters are of this kind:

On the beginning of Genesis — two sermons.
On Genesis 12, On Abraham — 1 sermon.
On Genesis 28, On the dream of Jacob — 1 sermon.
On Genesis 38, On Judah and Tamar — 1 sermon.
On Exodus — 5 sermons.
On Deuteronomy 15, upon Take heed to thyself — 1 sermon.
On Job — 1 sermon.
On the beginning of Psalm 79 — 1 sermon.
On a verse of Psalm 100 — 1 sermon.
On Psalm 126 — 1 sermon.
On Psalm 127 — 1 sermon.
On Psalm 128 — 1 sermon.
On Psalm 129 — 1 sermon.
On Psalm 139 — 1 sermon.
On Isaiah — 4 sermons.
On Daniel — 1 sermon.
On the three young men — 1 sermon.
On Susanna — 1 sermon.
On Jonah — 1 sermon.
On Luke 12, On the rich man who had a fruitful field — 1 sermon.
On John 11, On Lazarus — 1 sermon.
On 1 Corinthians 15, upon that [text] The first man is of the earth, earthy — On the body and the spirit — 1 sermon.

It is agreed that these sermons were for the greater part collected from various authors, who were nearly two hundred years later than Zeno. For the sermons which expound the Psalms enumerated by us were transcribed from the commentaries of Hilary, not even a word being changed; the sermon upon that [text], Take heed to thyself, together with another discourse On spite and envy, which follow this [one] in the same volume, is [the work] of St. Basil. But the other sermons — or rather fragments of sermons — on account of the diversity of style, argue various authors; and even the author of the sermon On continence, which is contained in this work, affirms that he was distant from the birth of Christ by four hundred years and more. But Peter, Bishop of Equilium [Pietro de’ Natali], writes that Zeno lived under the Emperor Gallienus, and that he divinely healed the daughter of that same [emperor], who was oppressed by a desperate disease — namely, in the year of the redeemed world 260.