Sophronius of Jerusalem, in his Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John (70), recounts how *Kyros and Ioannes/Cyrus and John (physician and soldier, martyrs of Egypt, S00406), aided by *Theodore 'Stratelates' (general and martyr of Amaseia and Euchaita, S00136) and *Thomas (the Apostle, S00199), healed a disease of his eyes, at their sanctuary at Menouthis (near Alexandria, Lower Egypt), and how he has composed this book in gratitude. Written in Greek in Alexandria, 610/615.
E07827
Literary - Hagiographical - Collections of miracles
Sophronius of Jerusalem, The Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John, 70
§1-7: Here the author of the work speaks of himself. His name is Sophronios and he is from Damascus in Phoenicia. He is a monk of the monastery founded in the desert by Theodosios, who surpassed all the Palestinian monks in his virtue, both his predecessors and his successors. He [Sophronios] came to Alexandria and there succumbed to an eye disease. He suffered from incessant pain, and thus turned to those who were considered the best physicians. They came up with conflicting diagnoses and different cures, but to no avail. Other people told him of the innumerable miracles performed by Cyrus and John; so he went to their sanctuary.
§8-9: The saints appeared to him in a dream on the third night after he had come to the shrine. One of them, Cyrus, wore a monastic garment and took the form of Ioannes [= John Moschus], the spiritual father and master of the sick man, who was also present in the sanctuary to pray for Sophronios’ healing. The other martyr, John, appeared in the guise of the praetorian prefect Peter of Alexandria and was dressed in a shining mantle (chlamys). John asked Cyrus (at one point addressing him as if addressing a master) if he had a disciple called Homer, who, as everyone knows, became blind through a cataract he developed in old age. Cyrus responded under oath to John, that he had a disciple but none by the name of Homer, and indeed that he had never read a verse by Homer. The saints expressed their gratitude that the disciple did not bear this name, and then disappeared, thereby persuading Sophronios to never entangle himself with the [pagan] blindness of Homer.
§10: Some days later, they reappeared to Sophronios in a dream, dressed in monastic garments. They commanded him to apply to his eyes their salve (kerote), mixed with oil (elaion) from the lamps surrounding their tomb. Sophronios executed the order and partially recovered.
§11-17: The saints decided to heal him completely, and reappeared to him in three further, complex and strange dreams. In the first of these, Sophronios saw his master John [Moschus] feasting a large number of people in the portico of the shrine, around a circular table. At the table were Cyrus, reclining between his 'brother' John [the martyr] and the martyr Theodore (for this saint too was much venerated by the sick Sophronios), with a host of the sick also present. Still in the dream, Cyrus then granted John [Moschus] his prayer that he would look favourably on him and his fellow monks, while Sophronios asked saint Theodore to intercede with Cyrus for his health, which 'the general Theodore' (ὁ στρατηλάτης Θεόδωρος) duly did. Cyrus blessed Sophronios, thereby signalling that a cure would eventually follow.
§17-21: A few days later, in a second dream, Sophronios dreamt he was in one of the oratories of his monastery where he was visited by a figure that he recognised to be the Apostle Thomas (S00199). Since in Sophronios' home town of Damascus, this saint is much honoured, having effected many wonderful miracles (including curing the author's brother of a disease that had afflicted him for six months), Sophronios entreated his help, though uncertain whether this was really the Apostle Thomas, or Cyrus appearing in his guise. The saint made the sign of the cross three times over Sophronios' left eye, while stating that the right eye was not badly afflicted, and did not require attention. Sophronios awoke, saddened that his other eye had not been touched.
§22-23: He fell asleep again, and had a third dream. In this John, the companion of Cyrus, appeared to him in the guise of Ioannes 'the rhetor', a man with the rank of prefect [and a known follower of the then bishop of Alexandria, Eulogios], and reassured him that that both eyes would be cured, kissing the right eye three times.
§24-27: Having received the cure of his eyes from the martyrs, Sophronios has at once written this book in gratitude and in fulfilment of a vow, and humbly offers it to them. He asks that they accept his humble service, deliver him from sin and protect him in this life, and help him to achieve the reward of the blessed in the life to come.
Text: Fernández Marcos 1976, lightly modified in the light of Gascou 2007
Summary: J. Doroszewska
Martyr shrine (martyrion, bet sāhedwātā, etc.)
Non Liturgical ActivitySaint as patron - of a community
Incubation
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Apparition, vision, dream, revelation
RelicsContact relic - oil
Contact relic - wax
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
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
Monastery founded by Theodosios - this was the famous cenobium situated to the east of Bethlehem founded by an ascetic of the 5th century (Gascou 2006: 220, n. 1303).Praetorian prefect Peter of Alexandria - a personage bearing this title is not otherwise recorded; perhaps he can be identified with Peter, the Augustal Prefect of Alexandria of the end of the emperor Maurice's reign (602); see The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire III B, 1011, 'Petrus 56' (Gascou 2006: 221, n.1316).
The mention of Homer in the discussion between Cyrus and John is a clear allusion to the literary talent, as well as the eye problems, that Sophronios believed he shared with Homer, while at the same time distancing himself from Homer's paganism.
The reference to saint Theodore as a 'general' (stratelatēs) is important: with a reference in Miracle 8 (E06263) to Theodore stratopedarchēs, it is a very early reference (perhaps the earliest surviving) to Theodore 'the General' (Stratelatēs), a saint who grew out of the figure of the martyr Theodore 'the Recruit' (Tērōn), and assumed an independent identity (though sharing more or less the same hagiography as that of Theodore the Recruit). See Haldon (2016, 6-12) for this development, though he is unaware of these Sophronius references and therefore dates the emergence of Theodore Stratelates to a considerably later period.
Delehaye in his article of 1925 (at p.73) rightly observed that this cure and these dreams, experienced by the author himself, are much more confused and confusing than the probably tidied-up stories recounted elsewhere in the Miracles of Kyros and Ioannes.
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:
Sophrone de Jérusalem, Miracles des saints Cyr et Jean (BHGI 477-479), trans. and comm. J. Gascou (Paris, 2006).
Collections grecques de Miracles, sainte Thècle, saints Côme et Damien, saints Cyr et Jean (extraits), saint Georges, trans. and comm. A.-J. Festugière (Paris, 1971).
Sophrone de Jérusalem, Récit des miracles des saints Cyr et Jean, trans. and comm. D. Peltier (Paris, 1978, unpublished).
Further reading:
Delehaye, "Les recueils antiques de miracles des saints," Analecta Bollandiana, 43 (1925), 5-85 and 305-325.
Déroche, V., "Représentations de l'Eucharistie dans la haute époque byzantine," Mélanges Gilbert Dagron, Travaux et Mémoires 14 (2002), 167-180.
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 Manuscript,” Illinois Classical Studies, 12 (1987), 169-177.
Gascou, J., "Recherches de topographie alexandrine: le Grand Tétrapyle," Ktema 27 (2002), 337-343.
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, C. Décobert (eds.), Alexandrie médiévale, 3 (Cairo, 2008), 69-88.
Gascou, J., Les origines du culte des saints Cyr et Jean, electronic version at https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00009140/document
Haldon, J., A Tale of Two Saints: The Martyrdoms and Miracles of Saints Theodore 'the Recruit' and 'the General', (Translated Texts for Byzantinists, vol. 2; Liverpool 2016).
Le Coz, R., “Les Pères de l'Eglise grecque et la médecine,” Le 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, p. 383-397.
Nissen, Th., “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 (Bruxelles: Éditions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 1991), 69-83.
Schönborn, Ch., Sophrone de Jérusalem. Vie monastique et confession dogmatique (Paris, 1972).
Wipszycka, E., “Les confréries dans la vie religieuse de l'Egypte chrétienne,” in her Études sur le christianisme dans l'Égypte de l'antiquité tardive (Roma, 1996), 257-278.
Julia Doroszewska
02/11/2019
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00136 | Theodore 'Stratelates', general and martyr of Amaseia and Euchaita | Θεόδωρος | Certain | S00199 | Thomas, the Apostle | Θωμάς | Certain | S00406 | Kyros and Ioannes/Cyrus and John, physician and soldier, martyrs of Egypt | Κῦρος καὶ Ἰωάννης | Certain | S00480 | Theodore, soldier and martyr of Amaseia and Euchaita | Θεόδωρος | Certain |
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