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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Sophronius of Jerusalem, in his Miracles of the Saints Cyrus and John (17), recounts how *Kyros and Ioannes/Cyrus and John (physician and soldier, martyrs of Egypt, S00406) healed Ioannes, a rich Alexandrian, from a thigh disease at their shrine at Menouthis (near Alexandria, Lower Egypt). Written in Greek in Alexandria, 610/615.

Evidence ID

E07057

Type of Evidence

Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles

Sophronius of Jerusalem, The Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John, 17


There was a certain Ioannes who came from the aristocracy and took pride in his gold, hence he was nicknamed Chrysones ('the Golden'). But he would not be mentioned here if he had not received health from the martyrs, which is more radiant than gold and which is given by the martyrs according to their will without excluding anyone of those who seek it, unless these persons are too infamous and unfaithful.

This Ioannes had a terrible illness which was incurable by medicine. His thighs were consumed by the disease as if out of divine wrath. The skin which covered his thighs was rotting and because of the excess of putrefaction, the flesh under the skin, deprived of this natural covering, separated from the bones and fell down to the soil. The illness was prolonged, causing great pain, and the physicians could not help at all. Thus Ioannes turned to Cyrus and John.

Οἱ δὲ ὄντως ἰατροὶ χρηματίζοντες μάρτυρες, τῆς θείας αὐτῶν δεῖξαι δυνάμεως καὶ τῆς ἰατρῶν ἀσθενείας θέλοντες τὸ διάφορον, οἰκτρῷ τοῦτόν τινι βοηθήματι ὄναρ ὀφθέντες ἰάσαντο, ἅλας σὺν κυμίνῳ μιχθὲν ἐν τῷ τρίβεσθαι πάττειν τοὺς μηροὺς ἐπιτρέπουσιν.

'The martyrs who rightly bear the name of physicians, wanting to show him the difference between their divine power and the weakness of the physicians, appeared to him in a dream and cured him by a compassionate remedy: they told him to apply salt, mixed by rubbing with cumin, on his thighs.'

The man did it immediately once he woke up and regained his health.


Text: Fernández Marcos 1976, lightly modified in the light of Gascou 2007
Translation and summary: J. Doroszewska

Cult Places

Martyr shrine (martyrion, bet sāhedwātā, etc.)

Non Liturgical Activity

Incubation

Miracles

Miracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation

Source

Sophronius (c. 560-c. 637) was born to a Chalcedonian family in Damascus, and was probably familiar with both Greek and Syriac culture. He was educated as a teacher of rhetoric, but in c. 580 became an ascetic while in Egypt, and entered the monastery of St. Theodosios near Bethlehem. He travelled widely to monastic centres in Egypt, the Near East, Aegean, and North Africa, accompanying his friend, the monk and writer John Moschus, who dedicated to him his treatise on the religious life, the Spiritual Meadow (Leimon pneumatikos). In 633-634, Sophronius travelled to Alexandria and to Constantinople in order to persuade the patriarchs to renounce Monoenergism. In 634, he was elected patriarch of Jerusalem. He is venerated as a saint in the catholic and orthodox churches; in the Byzantine rite he shares with John Moschus a feast day on 11 March. He died in Jerusalem in about 637.

His extant doctrinal writings include a
Letter to Arcadius of Cyprus and the Synodical Letter against Monenergism. Other works have also been preserved, such as an encomium on the Alexandrian martyrs Cyrus and John (in gratitude for healing his vision), The Miracles of the Saints Cyrus and John, a collection of 23 Anacreontic poems, and several patriarchal sermons on such themes as the Muslim siege of Jerusalem and on various liturgical celebrations.

The Miracles of the Saints Cyrus and John comprise 70 stories; this number, as explained by the author in the Preface to the Encomium on the saints Cyrus and John, consists either of 7 decades or 10 heptades, both of which refer to biblical and pagan (Pythagorean) arithmetic, where 7 is a mystic number and 10 is a perfect number. References to the number 7 and its multiple (14) recurs in the work several times (Miracles 5, 15, 23, 39, 43; Gascou 2006: 11 with notes). The significance of other numbers has also been noted: for the number 3, see Fernández Marcos 1975: 42, n. 15; for the number 67 (Miracle 1), see Nissen 1939: 377, n. 2. 

All 70 stories concern miraculous healings performed by the two martyrs, considered saints of the first rank by Sophronius (
Miracle 29), in their sanctuary at Menouthis, near Alexandria. The first 35 miracles concern Alexandrians, the next 15 Egyptians and Libyans, mostly of the Alexandrian region, and the last 20 foreigners of whom some were settled in Alexandria. Sophronius wanted to flatter in this way the self-esteem of the Alexandrians who were the possessors of the saints' relics. He also argued that the miracles of Alexandria were particularly credible, since they delivered plenty of verifiable facts. For the same reason, the miracles selected by him were limited to those of his own times and concerned persons who were still alive and could testify to the events. Sophronius seems also to have had at his disposal earlier and parallel collections. A powerful feature of the miracle stories is a disdain for secular doctors, but not medicine per se, who are seen as ineffective in comparison to the power of the saintly healing of Cyrus and John. The collection is also notable for Sophronius’ polemic against Miaphysites, who evidently attended the shrine.

The most recent edition of Sophronius' text is Fernandez Marcos 1976, but Gascou in his translation of 2007 includes several textual emendations which we have followed when they occur.


Discussion

The home town of Ioannes is not stated, but this miracle story is placed in the first half of Sophronius' collection, amongst those effected for Alexandrians.

Bibliography

Text:
Fernández Marcos, N., Los thaumata de Sofronio. Contribución al estudio de la "Incubatio" cristiana, Manuales y anejos de "Emérita" 31 (Madrid, 1975), 243-400.

Translations:
Gascou, J., Sophrone de Jérusalem, Miracles des saints Cyr et Jean (BHGI 477-479) (Paris, 2006). French translation and commentary.

Peltier, D., "Sophrone de Jérusalem, Récit des miracles des saints Cyr et Jean" (unpublished dissertation; Paris 1978).

Further reading:
Duffy, J., “Observations on Sophronius' Miracles of Cyrus and John,” Journal of Theological Studies 35 (1984), 71-90.

Duffy, J., “The
Miracles of Cyrus and John: New Old Readings from the Manuscript,” Illinois Classical Studies 12:1 (1987), 169-177.

Gascou, J., “Religion et identité communautaire à Alexandrie à la fin de l'époque byzantine, d'après les Miracles des saints Cyr et Jean,” in: J.-Y. Empereur and C. Décobert (eds.),
Alexandrie médiévale, 3 (Cairo, 2008), 69-88.

Gascou, J.,
Les origines du culte des saints Cyr et Jean (2006); online document: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00009140/

Le Coz, R., “Les Pères de l'Eglise grecque et la médecine,”
Bulletin de Littérature Ecclésiastique 98 (1997), 137-154.

Maraval, P., “Fonction pédagogique de la littérature hagiographique d'un lieu de pèlerinage: l'exemple des Miracles de Cyr et Jean,” in:
Hagiographie, culture et sociétés (IVe-XIIe siècles), Actes du Colloque organisé à Nanterre et à Paris (2-5 mai 1979) (Paris, 1981), 383-397.

Nissen, T., “Sophronios-Studien III, Medizin und Magie bei Sophronios,”
Byzantinische Zeitschrift 39 (1939), 349–81.

Papaconstantinou, A.,
Le culte des saints en Égypte des Byzantins aux Abbassides. L'apport des inscriptions et des papyrus grecs et coptes (Paris, 2001).

Sansterre, J.-M., "Apparitions et miracles à Ménouthis: de l'incubation païenne à l'incubation chrétienne," in E. Dierkens (ed.),
Apparitions et miracles (Brussels, 1991), 69-83.

Schönborn, C.,
Sophrone de Jérusalem. Vie monastique et confession dogmatique (Paris, 1972).

Wipszycka, E., “Les confréries dans la vie religieuse de l'Egypte chrétienne,” in: E. Wipszycka,
Études sur le christianisme dans l'Égypte de l'antiquité tardive (Rome, 1996), 257-278.


Record Created By

Julia Doroszewska

Date of Entry

05/11/2018

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00406Kyros and Ioannes/Cyrus and John, physician and soldier, martyrs of EgyptΚῦρος καὶ Ἰωάννης Certain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Julia Doroszewska, Cult of Saints, E07057 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07057