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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 (24), recounts how *Kyros and Ioannes/Cyrus and John (physician and soldier, martyrs of Egypt, S00406) healed two women of Alexandria (one rich, one poor), both named after the martyr Iouliana (perhaps *Iouliana/Iouliana, the fellow martyr of Paulos of Ptolemais, S01535), respectively from a chest disease and blindness, at their shrine at Menouthis (near Alexandria, Lower Egypt). Written in Greek in Alexandria, 610/615.

Evidence ID

E07099

Type of Evidence

Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles

Sophronius of Jerusalem, The Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John, 24

Summary:

There were two women of the same name, Iouliana, after the female martyr (Ἰουλιανῆς δὲ τῆς μάρτυρος ὑπῆρχε τὸ ὄνομα). They were, however, completely different in all other respects. One of them was rich and suffered terribly in her chest. The other was poor and incurably blind. The former consulted physicians in order to regain her health; the latter could not afford medical treatment. Yet, in fact, both were incurably ill: one because of the helplessness of the physicians, the other due to her poverty. Thus both turned to the martyrs Cyrus and John who do not accept wages for healing.

They came to the shrine asking for health, but made use of their rank when there. The rich one in her vainglory and haughtiness, which is detested by God, lay on her bed in front of the martyrs' tomb (
ἐπὶ κλίνης πρὸ τοῦ μνήματος ἔκειτο). The poor one was cast outside of the shrine and placed herself by the gate like Lazarus. The martyrs appeared in the same way to both of them and, correcting the former's vanity and comforting the latter's humility of soul, offered health to both.

They commanded the rich Iouliana to lie on the ground, which was to be the remedy for the illness of both her body and soul. When she left her bed, she was delivered from her chest disease. The poor one they told to use roasted crocodile meat. When she put the powder [of the crocodile meat;
xerion] on her eyes, she was healed too.


Text: Fernández Marcos 1976, lightly modified in the light of Gascou 2007
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

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Women

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 these two women is not stated, but this miracle story is placed in the first half of Sophronius' collection, amongst those effected for Alexandrians.

The identity of the saint Iouliana, after whom the women are named, cannot be established with confidence (Gascou 2006, 84, n. 495).


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

14/11/2018

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00406Kyros and Ioannes/Cyrus and John, physician and soldier, martyrs of EgyptΚῦρος καὶ Ἰωάννης Certain
S01162Iuliana/Juliana, martyr of Nicomedia, buried at Pozzuoli/CumaeἸουλιανήUncertain
S01535Paulos and Iouliana/Juliana, martyrs of Ptolemais, ob. 270. ἸουλιανήUncertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Julia Doroszewska, Cult of Saints, E07099 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E07099