saint zeno of verona

Travelling from Mantova (Mantua) to Venice, I had to change trains in Verona, and since the friend who was with me also had to change there, we decided to break our journey. My friend knows the town, so we jumped on a bus to go to the Basilica di San Zeno. This is stunning church, which I have just discovered is supposed to be where Romeo and Juliet married, but the thing that attracted me besides the beauty of the place was the story of Saint Zeno himself. Zeno was (probably) the bishop of Verona towards the end of the fourth century CE - and he was African:

The marquis Scipio Maffei, and some others, pretend from his name that he was a Grecian: but the Ballerini show, from the natural easiness, and the sharpness and conciseness of his style, that he was by birth, or at least by education, a Latin, and an African; which is confirmed from his panegyric on St. Arcadius, a martyr of Mauritania*. From the African martyr, called Zeno, it is clear this name was there in use. Our saint seems to have been made bishop of Verona in the year 362, in the reign of Julian the Apostate. We learn, from several of his sermons, that he baptized every year a great number of idolaters, and that he exerted himself with great zeal and success against the Arians, whose party had been exceedingly strengthened in those parts by the favor of the emperor Constantius … The church of Verona was purged by his zealous labors and holy prayers, in a great measure, both of heresy and of idols. His flock being grown exceeding numerous, he found it necessary to build a great church, in which he was liberally assisted by the voluntary contributions of the rich citizens.

Taken from Vol. IV of "The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler, the 1864 edition published by D. & J. Sadlier, & Company.

Zeno is the patron saint of fisherman, and of newborn babies as well as (marvellously) children learning to speak and walk. This may have something to do with the legend that he was stolen at birth and briefly replaced by a demonic changeling. Life was so much more interesting in those days!

*Actually Mauretania - which was pointed out to me by a Mauritanian...