| Honorific Prefix: | Saint |
| Zayya | |
| Birth Date: | Thursday of Christ’s Ascension, 26 May (Old Style) 309 AD |
| Death Date: | Wednesday, 7 January (Old Style) 431 AD |
| Feast Day: | September 13 |
| Venerated In: | Assyrian Church of the East Ancient Church of the East Chaldean Catholic Church Chaldean Syrian Church Syro-Malabar Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Birth Place: | Roman Palestine |
| Death Place: | Mātā d-‘Umrā d-Mār Zay'ā, Jilu (present-day Çevrecik, Hakkâri province, Turkey) |
| Titles: | Blessed and Handsome |
| Patronage: | Jilu, travellers; protects against hail, famine, plague, anger, illness, disease and the Angel of Death. |
Saint Zayya (Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܙܝܥܐ) was a travelling mystic, holy man and healer who made his way from Palestine to the mountains of northern Mesopotamia and Kurdistan spreading Christianity with his disciple St. Tawor. The Church of the East honours both Zayya and St. Tawor for their missionary efforts in northern Iraq and the region of Upper Dasen (modern Hakkâri province, Turkey) during the late 4th and early 5th centuries. He is also the patron saint of travellers and the Jilu district, where he is buried, and is invoked for protection from hail, famine, plague, anger, illness, disease and the Angel of Death. Zayya is often depicted in miniatures from manuscripts of the Book of Protection as an equestrian saint, spear in hand, and attacking the Angel of Death.
He is a Saint in the Assyrian Church of the East. Since he lived before the so-called 'Nestorian schism,' he is also acknowledged as a Saint by Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians.
According to the calendar of the Church of the East, the birth of St. Zay'ā is celebrated on May 26, and a three-day rogation (fast) precedes the commemoration of his death on the first Wednesday of January.
Traditionally, the Assyrians of Jilu celebrate the Feast (Syriac: Shahrā) of St. Zay'ā on September 13 every year on the Feast of the Cross. The reason given for this is that the Saint's other festivals fell on dates when the weather was too cold for pilgrims to be able to travel to the main shrine for the celebration. Often, the Jilu District was snowed in for six months of the year. Holding the Saint's Feast day on September 13, when the weather was more agreeable, not only meant that they could take advantage of the brighter light of moon at night, it also meant that those Jīlū men who planned on travelling before the first snows could pray for a safe and successful journey and make their vows to the Saint before departing.
Other feasts to the Saint are also celebrated by the Assyrians of Arbūsh (Tell-'Arbush) and Halmon (Tell-Jum'ah) in the Khabur district of Syria, as well as by Assyrians from the Amadiya district of Iraq, and some Assyrians from the Urmia region of Iran.
A prayer commonly attributed to St. Zay'ā is:[1] This prayer appears in a shorter form in the Saint's Vita, and also in different versions of the Book of Protection, from which amulets and talismans were copied.