ZENAS. — Jurist (νομικός), disciple of St Paul (Ζηνάς, abbreviation of Ζηνόδωρος = gift of Jupiter), sent by him to Titus and the faithful of Crete, together with Apollo, probably as bearers of the letter to Titus (v.).
According to some, Z. was a doctor of the Mosaic law, but his name, which reflects pagan mythology, lends little support to this hypothesis. Ps. Dorotheus (Chron. Pasch., 53; PG 92, 524) places Z. among the 70 disciples of Christ. A late Greek legend makes him bishop of Diospolis (Lydda). In the Greek menologia he is commemorated on 25 August as the author of the Acts of Titus. In the Latin Church he is commemorated on 27 September, but his name is absent from the Roman Martyrology.
BIBL.: Acta SS. Septembris, VII, Paris–Rome 1767, p. 354 (with the name Zeno); R. A. Lipsius, Apokryph. Apostelgesch., II, 11, Brunswick 1884, pp. 401–404; M. Meinertz, s. V. K. X, cols. 1055. Pietro de Ambroggi