African Teacher

The beautiful church of S. Zeno Maggiore in Verona celebrates the city’s patron saint. Zeno came from North Africa, and the sculpture in the church shows him to be dark skinned with distinctive facial features. As the biography of Augustine makes clear, Italy and Africa were of course closely connected during the Roman Empire, so it makes fine sense that an African would lead the church in northern Italy. Still, given the current hostility towards African refugees, the story and sculpture’s presence does seem marvelous.

Struck with the grandeur of the church and the enigma of Zeno himself, I started reading up on the bishop once I returned from Italy. Studying is my way of extending the loveliness of travelling in Italy. The sensual wonder of great architecture reverberates in the tomes that describe its inhabitants and namesake.

Zeno preached in Verona during the period we would now recognize as the transition where the Roman Empire became Christian. Emperor Constantine’s conversion set a slow process in motion whereby the old temples were phased out. Reports from 332 and 346 indicate that temples were being demolished and taken over, however Constantine continued to appoint priests. Constantine passed a law banning offerings and closing temples on pain of death, however the law was rarely enforced. His successors Gratien and Theodosius were more energetic in confiscating temples and redirecting religious taxes for the military. For the state the appeal of taking over old houses of worship must have been similar to the motives felt by Protestant princes during the Reformation—suddenly a wealthy, well-landed institution falls into the hands of the government.
Zeno’s collecting sermons cover the decade around 360, a time when pagans still worshipped openly and proudly.

From his sermons you get a sense of the domestic life in the early Church in Verona.

The treatment of women in Christianity distinguished it from pagan practices. One of Zeno’s sermons deals with the question of adultery. Under Roman law only women were subject to judgment for breaking their marriage vows. Christianity introduces the possibility that women could publically object to their husbands having other sexual partners. Constantine had introduced a law forbidding married men from holding concubines in 326. Zeno preached that Christian laws were needed to punish adulterous men. He assures his audience that in his Christian community women would have the same standing as men.

Another issue for the Christian church at the time was the marriage between Christians and pagans. Church fathers acknowledged that in previous times Christians had married outside their religion, but they warned that those who did so were throwing the bones of Christ to the unbelievers, opening the temple of Gods to the devil. Zeno also preached in this vein, drawing tears to his eyes at the thought that in his community Christians were married to pagans. If a Christian wife refuses to accept her pagan husband’s beliefs, the house will be filled strife, God’s name cursed. If she does not respect his gods, will he understand her reserve as just a matter of faith?

Zeno warned that there were many pagan rituals in early Christianity. Church goers would still go out at night to pour libations over graves in order to satisfy the dead. Christians claiming to celebrate martyrs festivals would find a secluded place to hold a drinking bacchanal.

The sermons reflect the competition between sects and religions in the Roman Empire. He preaches against Jews as no longer being the chosen people, as blind. Andreas Bigelmeier writes frankly about the anti-semitism of the early church. The most serious conflict however was with the followers of the priest Arius of Alexandria, who taught that Jesus Christ was not equal in divinity with God the Father, but that he was the First Creation, a supernatural being between the eternally divine and the mortal. Arianism split the early church; it was far and away the most serious challenge to its teaching. As Christianity grew, the large masses that converted did not have the same intense devotion and rigorous understanding of doctrine as the first generations of believers. Zeno responded to the charge that he was too mild in reproaching heretics.

He preached against the excessive wealth of Christians in contrast to their neighbors who starved and froze during the winter. Like many, he used the familiar example of the wealthy Christian woman who spent much of the day in front of her mirror, applying makeup and arranging her hair. His sermons against luxury must not have been successful, for he returns to the topic often. He celebrated the Christian ideal of serving the unfortunate, ransoming the imprisoned, aiding the poor and the abandoned. The doors of Christian house stood open to the wanderer. The Verona church gathered every day to Zeno’s sermons. Easter was the most important holiday, the culmination of the year, for included by baptismal celebrations.

Best source on Zeno, so far: Andreas Bigelmeier, Zeno von Verona (Münster: Aichendorfflichen Verlag, 1904)
picture found at http://santiebeati.it/immagini/?dispsize=Original&mode=view&album=49300&pic=49300E.JPG