Zoïlus of Alexandria
ZOÏLUS OF ALEXANDRIA
Chalcedonian patriarch, 540 to 551. He was a Palestinian monk, chosen patriarch of Alexandria by the Apocrisiarius Pelagius (later pope) after the deposition of Paul of Tabennisi at the Council of Gaza (540). He was a staunch Catholic, though not learned, and pursued the anti-Monophysite policies of his predecessor. Compelled to sign the Edict of justinian i against the Three Chapters in 543 or 544, he sent two messengers to Pope vigilius at Catania in Sicily early in 546 to protest that he had complied only under pressure and to excuse his weakness. He was forced to flee Alexandria during a local revolt and took refuge in Constantinople, where in July 551 Justinian had him deposed because of his refusal to condemn the three chapters.
Bibliography: j. maspero, Histoire des patriarches d'Alexandrie (Paris 1923) 150–156. e. stein, Histoire du Bas-Empire, tr. j. r. palanque, 2 v. in 3 (Paris 1949–59), 2:391, 628, 637, 640, 647.
[v. ricci]