Apostle Zacchaeus of the Seventy

Zacchaeus is the chief tax-collector of Jericho whose encounter with Christ is recorded in the Gospel of Luke (19:1-10). A wealthy man who was short of stature, he climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus as he passed through the city; Christ called him down by name and lodged at his house, prompting Zacchaeus to pledge half of his possessions to the poor and the fourfold restitution of anything he had extorted. Orthodox tradition identifies this Gospel figure with the Apostle Zacchaeus numbered among the Seventy, and commemorates him on April 20.

According to the tradition received in the Church, after the Ascension of Christ Zacchaeus accompanied the Apostle Peter on his travels. Peter is said to have appointed him bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, where he served the Gospel and, by the same tradition, died in peace. Beyond the Gospel account of his conversion, the details of his episcopal ministry are preserved only in this later tradition rather than in the New Testament itself.

Zacchaeus holds a further place in Orthodox liturgical life through the Sunday of Zacchaeus, on which Luke 19:1-10 is appointed to be read. Falling in the weeks that lead toward Great Lent, the reading is understood as marking the first stirring of repentance and the desire to draw near to Christ, and so introduces the penitential season.