Zotik Ioasafovich Yeremeev was born into a big family of hereditary Old Believers of the Belaya Krinitsa denomination in the village of Syrkovo (Serkovo) of the Rezina district (Moldova). Possessing a natural keen mind and industriousness, from the age of 5 he learned church literacy ‒ reading, and then church znamenny chant.
After graduating from junior secondary school, the future bishop graduated from a vocational school and at the same time finished the course of high school. Then for a year he worked as an electrician at a bakery, after which he was accepted into the same school as a master of industrial training. There he worked for three years and taught three graduations of electricians. Then, in 1970 the Vocational Education Committee sent Zotik to the Orekhovo-Zuevo Industrial Pedagogical College to receive special education in this speciality as a full-time student. After graduation from the college in 1973 with honours, he was free to choose where to go to work (received the ‘free assignment’).
In the 1970s, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church expressed the wish that representatives of the Old Believer denominations study on preferential terms in Moscow and Leningrad theological educational institutions. Five candidates were sent from the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church, including Zotik Yeremeev, who entered the Moscow Theological Seminary in 1973 and graduated from it in 1977.
For a long time he served as an ustavschik in the church of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church in the village of Gubino, Orekhovo-Zuevo district, Moscow region. In 1990, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia Alimpiy (Gusev) ordained him a priest to that church, and in 1992 the Consecrated Council of the Russian Orthodox Old Believer Church elected Fr. Zotik as Bishop of Chisinau and all Moldavia. At that time, the spiritual father of Fr. Zotik’s family was the priest-monk Sevastian (Ozerskiy). He convinced and blessed Fr. Zotik to agree to the Council’s decision. He also convinced his wife Tamara to become a nun. Father Zotik became priest-monk Zosima, and his wife became nun Taisiya; later she became the abbess of the convent in the village Belaya Krinitsa (Ukraine). In May 1993, Metropolitan Alimpiy (Gusev), concelebrated by Bishop Siluyan (Kilin) and Bishop Ioann (Vitushkin), ordained the holy monk Zosima as Bishop of Chisinau and All Molavia.
Having become the head of the Chisinau diocese in 1993, Bishop Zosima became fully involved in pastoral activities. The Bishop began by establishing canonical discipline in the churches of the diocese and uniformity in church singing and reading, for which he published the books: Obednitsa, Obikhod, Irmoses, Festive Singing, Service to Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God “The Burning Bush,” Service for the Holy Pentecost. He also published the brochure “Rules of Pious Conduct in the House of God” (Chisinau, 2001), and since 2000, the bishop has published the annual diocesan Church calendar with materials on current topics.
A significant achievement in the spiritual life of Old Believers of Moldova under the leadership of Bishop Zosima was the restoration of the convent in the village of Kunicha. Bishop Zosima showed serious attention to the younger generation of the diocese: a summer Sunday school was organized at the monastery, where young Christians were taught church reading and singing, spiritual values and traditions of their ancestors. Training for parish ustavschiks was also organised there: they learned the Typicon and church singing.
After a temporary transition to the jurisdiction of the Belaya Krinitsa Metropolis, on October 22, 2004, Bishop Zosima was appointed the head of the Don and Caucasus diocese.
On January 12, 2016, in the Church of the Intercession in Rostov-on-Don, during the Divine liturgy in commemoration of Hieromartyr Zotik, in honour of the 70th anniversary of Bishop Zosima, Metropolitan Korniliy elevated him to the rank of archbishop.
Since July 29, 2023, Bishop Zosima was in the intensive care unit of the Sechenov Clinical Hospital in Moscow. On August 15, 2023, the bishop departed to the Lord. The burial ceremony of Archbishop Zosima was performed during the Divine Liturgy on Friday, August 18, at the Intercession Cathedral on Rogozhskoye. After this, the body was taken to the homeland of Bishop Zosima, to Moldova, and interred in the village of Kunicha.
