Saint of the Day – 23 August – St Zaccheus (2nd Century) the 4th Bishop of Jerusalem. Also known as – Zacharius, Zaccheus.
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Jerusalem, St Zaccheus, Bishop who governed the Church of that City, the 4th after the blessed Apostle, James.”
The Roman Martyrology lists only two Saints named Zacchaeus, one the Bishop of Jerusalem with a Feast Day on 23 August and the other, the Martyr of Caesarea in Palestine together with St Alphius.
Zacchaeus as the Bishop is mentioned by St Eusebius (265-340), the Bishop and Historian of Caesarea, who in his “Historia Ecclesiastica” lists the names of the first 4 Bishops of Jerusalem, namely St James Apostle, St Simeon, Justus and Zacchaeus.
Therefore, Zacchaeus was the 4th Bishop of Jerusalem and lived in the 2nd Century. Unfortunately, nothing else is known of his life and his time as the Ecclestical shepherd of Jerusalem.
Tthe Hagiographer Adone († 875) was the first to include him in his ‘Martyrology’ from which it passed to that of Usuard († 877) and from there to the ‘Roman Martyrology’ compiled by Cardinal Caesar Baronius in the 16th Century.
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