Sophronius of Jerusalem, in his Miracles of the Saints Cyrus and John (32), recounts how *Kyros and Ioannes/Cyrus and John (physician and soldier, martyrs of Egypt, S00406) punished with death a pagan Alexandrian, Agapios, for sacrilegiously taking communion at their shrine at Menouthis (near Alexandria, Lower Egypt). Written in Greek in Alexandria, 610/615.
E07361
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Sophronius of Jerusalem, The Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John, 32
Summary:
There was a certain money-dealer Agapios who, to this infamous practice, added the fact that he was a pagan and venerated idols. Because of his impiety he was arrested in the imperial city [Constantinople] and chastised. He escaped justice, however, not due to a change of his beliefs and opinions, but thanks to distributing money, which was an act of extreme impiety. He thus escaped death, but did not escape from the Divinity.
When he was liberated from prison, he fled Byzantium and arrived in Alexandria intending to hide himself there, because he did not know that the power of God is omnipresent. So in Alexandria he was again captured and chastised, not by the hand of the law as on the previous occasion, but by a severe disease which affected his entire body; it was paralysis. Since he ignored the true cause of the disease and thought it to be a physical infirmity, he kept visiting physicians. These treated him with various measures of the medical art, but in fact knew very well that he was condemned and that his case was incurable. However, since they received remuneration for their treatment, they were content to cheat their patient.
At the end of one year, the paralysis developed to the point that it also affected his tongue, so Agapios could no longer emit articulate sounds. Many people advised him to go to the martyrs Cyrus and John, as they could heal him, if only he approached them with belief and tears.
Agapios, out of fear they discover his paganism if he chose not to go to the martyrs, went to their sanctuary. When he came there, he saw the martyrs in a dream in the form of Christodoros, the manager (oikonomos) of the sanctuary, as he was making a tour of the sanctuary, burning incense in honour of God. They approached Agapios and asked him in a menacing voice why he, who was so impious, came to their sanctuary, and if his goal was to mock them. They warned him that they were going to publicly whip his back so that he would learn who were those whom he intended to mock.
Agapios woke up trembling in terror and tried to communicate with those who looked after him. Christodoros, the oikonomos, was also present, since it was the time of censing. Agapios commanded his servant with a sign that he wanted to be moved. When he was moved, he caught the feet of Christodoros and begged him not to whip him. Christodoros, who did not know of the vision that Agapios had received, in surprise promised not to do that to him.
Shortly afterwards, he was forced to pretend to be a heretic when he refused to take communion. However, since other sufferers in the sanctuary began to murmur against him because of this, he eventually took communion in order to avoid suspicions. Then a ferocious demon caught him, and Agapios fell to the ground in convulsions. He had his eyes distorted and emitted through his mouth a foam resembling that of a sea wave. In this manner he was tortured by the demon for three days and his assistants thought he was going to die. Thus they decided to take him to Alexandria so that he might die at home. On leaving the sanctuary of the martyrs, he died after a very short distance, and did not see his native city again. He thus met the much-deserved end of a most impious man.
Ἡμεῖς δὲ καὶ δι’ αὐτοῦ καὶ τῶν πρὸ αὐτοῦ τὴν μαρτυρικὴν ἀλκὴν τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς μετανοοῦσιν καὶ τοῖς οὐκ ἐπιστρέφουσιν ὑπογράψαντες, καὶ πρὸς ὄνησιν τῶν εὐσεβούντων κηρύξαντες, ἵνα μὴ μόνας τὰς ἰάσεις θεώμενοι ἀργοτέρους πρὸς ἄμυναν τοὺς μάρτυρας οἴοιντο, καὶ ταύτῃ βλαβῶσι δι᾽ἄγνοιαν, πρὸς καταφρόνησιν καὶ ῥαθυμίαν ἐκκλίναντες.
'We have described by the example of him and of those before him, the power of martyrs towards those who convert and those who do not, and proclaimed this for the benefit of pious people, lest, seeing only healings, they should think that martyrs are less effective in punishment, and thus be misled through ignorance, lest they should incline to disregard and indifference.'
Text: Fernández Marcos 1976, lightly modified in the light of Gascou 2007
Summary and translation: J. Doroszewska
Eucharist associated with cult
Censing
Cult PlacesMartyr shrine (martyrion, bet sāhedwātā, etc.)
Non Liturgical ActivitySaint as patron - of a community
Incubation
MiraclesMiracle after death
Punishing miracle
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
Other miracles with demons and demonic creatures
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesPagans
Demons
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 Theodoros is not mentioned, but this miracle occurs in the first half of Sophronius' collection, dedicated to miracles effected on 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.
Julia Doroszewska
12/01/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00406 | Kyros and Ioannes/Cyrus and John, physician and soldier, martyrs of Egypt | Κῦρος καὶ Ἰωάννης | Certain |
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