Hierarch Zacharias, Patriarch of Jerusalem

St. Zacharias occupied the patriarchal throne of Jerusalem in the early 7th century, during one of the most tragic periods in the city's history. In 614 the Persian king Khosrow II captured Jerusalem: the city was plundered, numerous churches burned, and tens of thousands of inhabitants killed. Patriarch Zacharias, together with part of the clergy and laity, was led away captive by the Persians into Persia, where the Persians also carried off the greatest relic of the Christian world — the True Cross of the Lord, discovered in the 4th century by St. Helena Equal-to-the-Apostles. Zacharias shared with his flock all the hardships of a fourteen-year captivity, sustaining the captives' faith. After peace was concluded between Byzantium and Persia and Emperor Heraclius's victory, the Persian campaign ended with the release of the captives and the return of the Cross of the Lord, solemnly brought back to Jerusalem in 630 — it is held that the aged Patriarch Zacharias either did not live to see that day by very little, or returned to his see shortly before his death in 632 or 633.