ZENAS. – A jurist (γυμνός), a disciple of St. Paul (ZĒNAS, an abbreviation of ZĒNODŌROS = 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. would have been a doctor of Mosaic law, but his name, which reflects pagan mythology, scarcely supports this hypothesis. Pseudo-Dorotheus (Chron. Pasch., 53: PG 92, 524) places Z. among the seventy disciples of Christ. A late Greek legend makes him bishop of Diospolis (Lydda). In the Greek Menologia he is commemorated on 25 Aug. as the author of the Acts of Titus. In the Latin Church he is remembered on 27 Sept., though his name is absent from the Roman Martyrology.
BIBL.: Acta SS. Septembris, VII, Paris-Rome 1767, p. 354 under the name of Zeno; R. A. Lipsius, Apokryph. Apostelgesch., I, II, Brunswick 1884, pp. 401-404; M. Meinertz, s. V. in LThK, X, cols. 1055.