Saint Zacharias Patriarch of Jerusalem

The Fall of Jerusalem and the Captivity

In 614, during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, Sasanian Persian forces under the emperor Chosroes (Khosrow II) overran Byzantine Syria and took Jerusalem. The synaxarion accounts relate that the city was looted and that the invaders withdrew bearing the Life-Creating Cross of Christ together with a large number of Christian captives. By tradition, as many as ninety thousand of the captured Christians perished.

Patriarch Zacharias was taken among the prisoners and carried into Persia along with the True Cross. The Orthodox sources record that he and the Cross were held in bondage for fourteen years, so that he passed most of his episcopate in exile. During his absence, the affairs of the Jerusalem church were administered by Modestus, who acted as locum tenens (administrator) of the patriarchal throne.

The Return of the Cross and the Patriarch

In 627, after rebuilding his army, Heraclius advanced into Persia and won a decisive victory at Nineveh, defeating Chosroes. This compelled the Persians to return both the True Cross and the surviving captives, including Patriarch Zacharias. According to the accounts, Heraclius himself carried the Cross on his shoulders into the Holy City. One Orthodox source notes that the restoration was marked by a renewed triumphal feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, dated to March 21, 630.

Zacharias was thus restored to his see. He reposed around 633 (the external sources give the year 632), and was succeeded by Modestus, who had administered the patriarchate during the captivity.

Veneration

Saint Zacharias is commemorated in the Orthodox Church on February 21. He is remembered as a confessor and a champion of the Holy Land who endured imprisonment together with the True Cross. He is also venerated in the Roman Catholic Church, where his name is attached to a sacramental known as the 'Plague Cross of Saint Zacharias of Jerusalem,' approved at the Council of Trent (1545-1563).