Hieromartyr
Venerable Hieromartyr Zoticus the Orphan-feeder
IV в. (при имп. Константине Великом и Констанции II)
Also known as: Зотик Сирота, Кормилец
Hieromartyr Zoticus the Orphan-feeder — a Roman nobleman who became a presbyter in Constantinople and founded shelters there for lepers and orphans, killed by order of Emperor Constantius II for refusing to abandon care for the sick.
IMPORTANT NOTE: the name "Zoticus" is also borne by one of the five martyrs of the Nicomedia group (Victor/Zoticus/Zeno/Akindynos/Severian, feast April 18/May 1, already documented in our database via a parallel entry for Martyr Zeno of Nicomedia, martyr_zeno) — for this separate, standalone entry, the significantly more fully attested and independently venerated Zoticus the Orphan-feeder was chosen, to avoid duplicating a thinly differentiated group biography.
Hieromartyr Zoticus, a Roman nobleman, was summoned by Constantine the Great to Constantinople, where he renounced worldly honors and was ordained a presbyter. During a leprosy epidemic, when the emperor ordered the afflicted drowned at sea, Zoticus requested funds from the treasury, ostensibly to buy precious stones, but instead ransomed and sheltered the lepers, establishing a refuge on the Eleon hill — an early forerunner of a leprosarium and orphanage.
Later, during a famine, he was blamed by the authorities; the Arian-leaning Emperor Constantius II (son of Constantine the Great), hostile to his continued care for the sick, had him bound to wild donkeys and driven into open country to his death. Tradition holds the donkeys miraculously spoke, denouncing the emperor's cruelty, and a healing spring arose at the site of the saint's death.
His feast is kept on December 30/January 12.