ZACCARIA, patriarch of GERUSALEMME, saint. — Born in the second half of the sixth century, died in 631.
Few details are known about his life. He was a bishop in 609, and during the Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614 he was taken prisoner and brought to Persia.
From there he wrote a deeply moving letter to his Church of Jerusalem, exhorting it to penance and mercy. When the Byzantine emperor Heraclius achieved his great victory over the Persians in 628, the Patriarch was also able to return, bringing the relic of the Holy Cross back to his see. He died shortly thereafter. His feast is celebrated on 21 February.
BIBL.: PG 86, 2327-34 (the letter written during his captivity); Bardenhewer, V, p. 41; Chr. A. Papadopulos, Ἱστορία τῆς ἑκκλησίας Ἱσροσόλου, Alexandria 1910, pp. 235-45; Fliche-Martin-Frutz, V, nn. 61, 66, 76, 94 ff. Giorgio Hofmann