Zoticus, Saint, Martyr

ZOTICUS, Saint, Martyr. - The martyr Z. is commemorated in the Hieronymian Martyrology on January 12 together with Castulus and on February 10 with the topographical indication of his tomb: "Via Luvicana miliario X", followed by the name of Amantius; by means of the historical martyrologies (H. Quentin, Les martyrologes historiques du moyen âge, Paris 1908, p. 49) a third martyr can be added: Hyacinth.

The cemetery, at the tenth mile of the Via Labicana, in the locality of Torre Nuova, was discovered in 1715, visited and ransacked in that year by M. A. Boldetti and by G. Marangoni, who wrote their names there. At that time a tomb was found closed by a tile with the inscription of a "Detercalia"; in 1717 a chapel was entered with images and the inscription of a "Ianuarius". In 1850 it was visited by G. B. De Rossi, who published the inscription of a Lepusclus Leo who died in 404 (Inscr. chr. Urbis Romae, I, Rome 1861, p. 530) and that of a Proiectus who died in 424 (ibid., p. 639). Later it was explored by E. Stevenson, who found again the descending stairway in the cemetery, the chapel seen by Boldetti, and identified the images as those of the martyrs Z., Irenaeus, Hyacinth and Amantius. There was found a marble transenna containing at the top the epitaph placed by the parents "Refrigerius c(larissimus) v(r)" and "Valeria Sebera Lacontia c(larissima) f(emina)" for their son "Refrigerius c(larissimus) p(uer)" (G. B. De Rossi, in Bull. arch. crist., 2nd series, 3 [1872], pp. 173-75). In an arcosolium the same Stevenson identified three images in tunic and pallium, with the capsae containing the volumes at their feet and the faded figure of a fourth person. In the area above there was a church dedicated to St. Z., restored by Pope Leo III (Lib. Pont., II, pp. 2, 34, n. 11) and called in a bull of Paschal II "SS. Zotici et Amantii". A monastery was annexed to this church, as is attested by the inscription "Dominicus, Domini gratia abbas, ec porticu(m) cum turri fieri iussit". Scenes of the martyrdom of St. Z. were painted in the 10th century in S. Maria in Pallara on the Palatine.

Enrico Josi