Saint of the Day – 24 January – St Zama (Died c268) the 1st Bishop of Bologna in Italy. It is believed that he was Consecrated and sent forth by Pope St Dionysius (Died 268) (the Bishop of Rome from 22 July 259 until his death on 26 December 268). Also known as – Zamas.
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Bologna, St Zamas, the first Bishop of that City, who was consecrated by Pope St Denis (Dionysus’s) and there wonderfully propagated the Christian Faith.”
We have almost no information of our Saint except that he was sent by St Dionysius to Bologna and there he fulfilled his Ecclestical Office with immense zeal, devotion and success.
There is a famous Crypt in Bologna, see the image below. The story of the Crypt is linked to the birth of the first Christian community in Bologna. It has long been believed that St Zama established this first Cathedral because, in this sacred place, were buried the remains of the first Bishops of Bologna, starting with our St Zama himself.
Most probably this area was one of the first Christian cemeteries where too, the Bishops of Bologna were buried. At that time, until the 5th Century, to bury the dead within the City walls was illegal.
Faustinian, the Bishop successor to St Zama, contributed to increasing the fame of the Sanctuary by building a larger Basilica and changed the title of the Church to SaintiNaborre and Felice, Martyrs of the Milanese Church, from which See, Bologna depended. All the Bishops of the Bolognese diocese were inhumed here until the 8th-9th Centuries.
The current Cathedral stands on the ruins of what was the house of Sts Vitale and Agricola , the two holy Protomartyrs of Bologna . The Crypt is a monument of great importance from both an artistic and historical point of view, because the Christian roots of the Emilian Capital, Bologna, are rooted in this place.
AnaStpaul 