Saint Zenobius of Florence

Saint Zenobius (Italian: San Zanobi, Zenobio) (337–417) who was the first bishop of Florence. Venerated in the Catholic Church, his feast day is celebrated on May 25. Born of a Florentine noble family, Zenobius was educated by his pagan parents. He came under the influence early of the bishop Theodore, was baptized by him, and succeeded, after much opposition, in bringing his father and mother to Christianity. He embraced the clerical state, and rapidly rose to the position of archdeacon, when his virtues and notable powers as a preacher made him known to Saint Ambrose, at whose instance Pope Damasus I (r. 366–386) called him to Rome, and employed him in various important missions, including a legation to Constantinople. On the death of Damasus he returned to his native city, where he resumed his apostolic labours, and on the death of the bishop of that see, Zenobius, to the great joy of the people, was appointed to succeed him. His deacons are venerated as Saint Eugene and Saint Crescentius. He evangelized Florence and its outskirts completely and combated Arianism. According to his biographer and successor in the See of Florence, Antonius, he died in his ninetieth year, in 424; but, as Antonius says that Pope Innocent I (d. 417) was at the time pope, the date is uncertain. There are grounds for believing that he actually died in 417, on 25 May, on which day the ancient tower where he is supposed to have lived, near the Ponte Vecchio, was annually decorated with flowers. His body was first buried in the Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze (consecrated by Saint Ambrose in 393), and in the 9th century was later translated by Bishop Andrea to the church of Santa Reparata, over which the current Florence Cathedral was built. In the back of the middle of the three apses of the cathedral is the altar of Saint Zenobius. Its bronze shrine, designed around 1440, a masterpiece of Ghiberti, contains the urn with his relics.