Zinoviy Chesnokov was born in 1988, in Schepetovka,a small city in Western Ukraine. For many years Zinoviy’s father was the cell-attendant of Elder Zenobius, and named his firstborn son in his honor, at his birth three years after the Elder’s repose. Zinoviy graduated in 2010, from the prestigious Moscow Orthodox Theological Seminary, and is currently (2013) pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Fribourg Switzerland. He has a talent for languages, with a knowledge of English, Italian, German, and French, in addition to his native Russian.