Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/675

 CYRRHUS

597

CYRUS

Cyrrhus, a titular sec of Syria. The city of the same name was the capital of the extensive district of Cyrrhestica, between the plain of Antioch and Commagene. The origin of the city is unknown ; ac- cording to a false tradition, it was said in the sixth century to have been founded by Cyrus, lung of Persia; this, however, was only a play upon the name. It became at an early date a suffragan of Hierapolis in Provincia Eupliratensis. Eight bishops are known before 536 (Lequien, II, 929; E. W. Brooks, The Sixth Book of the Select Letters of Severus, II, 341). The first was present at Nicaea in 32>5. The most celebrated is Theodoret (423-58), a prolific WTiter, well known for liis role in the liistory of Nestorianism and Eutych- ianism. (His works are in Mignc, P. G., LXXX- LXXXIV.) He tells us that his small diocese (about forty miles square) contained 800 churches, which supposes a very dense [xjpulation.

At CjTrhus a magnificent basilica held the relics of SS. Cosmas and Damian, who had suffered martjT- dom in the vicinity about 283, and whose bodies had been transported to the city, whence it was also called HagiouiX)lis. Many holy personages, moreover, chief- ly hermits, had been or were then living in this terri- tory, among them SS. Acepsimas, Zeumatius, Zebinas, Polychronius, Maron (the famous patron of the Maron- ite Church), Eusebius, Thalassius, Maris, James the Wonder-worker, and others. Theodoret devoted an entire work to the illustration of their Wrtues and miracles. The city was embellished and fortified by Justinian. At the same time it became an indepen- dent metrojwlis, subject directly to Antioch. The patriarch. Michael the SjTian, names thirteen Jacobite bishops of Cyrrhus from the ninth to the eleventh century (Revue de I'Orient chretien, 1901, p. 194). Only two Latin titulars are quoted by Lequien (III, 1195). The site of the city is marked by the ruins at Khoros. nine miles northwest of Kills, in the vil- ayet of Aleppo; these ruins stand near the river Afriu ilarsyas, a tributary of the Orontes), which had been banked up by the aforesaid Theodoret.

TiLLEKONT, Memoires, XV, 217-239.

S. V.\1LHE.

Cyrus and John, Saints, celebrated martyrs of the Coptic Church, surnamed $av/mTovpyol avapyvpoi be- cause they healed the sick gratis (Nilles, Kalendarium utriusque Ecclesise, Inn.sbruck, 1896, I, 89). Their feast day is celebrated by the Copts on the sixth day of Emsir, corresponding to 31 January, the day also ob- served by the Greeks ; on the same day they are com- memorated in the Roman Martyrology, regarding which see the observation of Cardinal Baronio (Mar- tyrologium Romanum, Venice, 1.586). The Greeks celebrate also the finding and translation of the relics on 28 June (see " Menologium Basil." and "Menaia"). The principal source of information regarding the life, passion, and miracles of Sts. John and Cyrus is the encomium \sTitten by Sophronius, Patriarch of Jeru- salem (d. 6.38). Of the birth, parents, and first years of the saints we know nothing. According to the Arabic "SjTiaxarium" (Forget, Synax. Alexan- drinum, Beirut, 1906, II, 2.52), compiled by Michael, Bishop of .\thrib and Malig, Cyrus and John were both Alexandrians; this, however, is contradicted by other documents in which it is said that Cj'ras was a native of Alexandria and John of E(le.ssa. Cyrus practised the art of medicine and had a work-shop (ergasterium) which was afterwards transformed into a temple dedicated to the three boy-saints, Ananias, Mi.sael, and Azarias. He ministered to the sick gratis and at the same time laboured with all the ardour of an apostle of the Faith, and won many from pagan 8U|)erstition. Tliis took place under the Emperor Diocletian. Denounced to the prefect of the city he fled to Arabia of Egypt where he took refuge in a town near the sea called Tzoten. There, having

shaved his head and assumed the monastic habit, he abandoned medicine and began a life of asceticism.

John belonged to the army, ui which he held a high rank; the "Synaxarium" cited above adds that he was one of the familiars of the emperor. Hearing of the virtues and wonders of Cyrus, he betook himself to Jerusalem in fulfilment of a vow, and thence passed into Egypt where he became the companion of St. Cyrus in the ascetic life. During the persecution of Diocletian three holy virgins, Theoctista (Tlieopista), fifteen years old, Theodota (Theodora), thirteen years old, and Theodossia (Theodoxia), eleven years old, to- gether with their mother Athanasia, were arrested at Canopus and brought to Alexandria. C'yrus and John, fearing lest these girls, on account of their tender age, might, in the midst of torments, deny the Faith, re- solved to go into the city to comfort them and encour- age them in undergoing iflartyrdom. This fact be- coming known they also were arrested and after dire torments they were all beheaded on the 31st of Janu- ary. The bodies of the two martyrs were placed in the church of St. Mark the Evangelist where they remained up to the time of St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria (412-444). At Menuthis (Mepov8r]s or Mej-oOflis) near Canopus there existed at that time a pagan temple reputed for its oracles and cures which attracted even some simple Christians of the vicinity. St. Cyril thought to extirpate this idolatrous cult by establishing in that town the cultus of Sts. Cyrus and John. For this purpose he transferred thither their relics (28 June, 414) and placed them in the church built by his predecessor, Theophilus, in honour of the Evangelists. Before the finding and transfer of the relics by St. Cyril it seems that the names of the two saints were unknown; certain it is that no written records of them existed (Migne, P. G., LXXXVII, 3508 sq.). In the fifth century, during the pontificate of Innocent I, their relics were brought to Rome by two monks, Grimaldus and Arnulfu.s — this according to a manuscript in the archives of the deaconry of Santa Maria in the Via Lata, cited by Antonio Bosio (Roma Sotterranea, Rome, 1634, p. 123). Mai, however, for historical reasons, justly assigns a later date, namely 634, vmder Pope Honorius and the Emperor Heraclius (Spicilegium Rom., Ill, V). The relics were placed in the suburban church of St. Pas- sera (Abbas Cyrus) on the Via Portuense. In the time of Bosio the pictures of the two saints were still visible in this church (Bosio, op. cit., ib.) Upon the door of the hypogeum, which still remains, is the fol- lowing inscription in marble: —

Corpora sancta Cyri renitent hie atque Joannis Qu» quondam Roma; dedit Alexandria magna

(Bosio, ib.; Mai, Spic. Rom., loc. cit.). At Rome three churches were dedicated to these martyrs. Abbas Cyrus dc Militiis, Abbas Cyrus de Valeriis, and Abbas Cyrus ad Elephantum — all of which were transformed afterwards by the vulgar prommciation into S. Passera, a corruption of Abbas Cy''>'s; in the Coptic Difnar, Apakiri, Apakyri, .\pakyr; in Arabic, 'Abaqir, '.\buqir (see Armellini, Le Chiese di Roma, Rome, 1891, 179 sq., 563 sq., 681, 945 sq.).

.SopiinoNirs. Laudes in SS. Cyrum et Joannrm in Migne, P. G., LXXXVII, 3379-3676 (the other two lives, 3677-3696, are not of Sophronius); see also Bardenhewfr, Patrol. (It. tr., Rome. 1903), 111,41; Ada SS., Jan.. II. 1081 sq.; Petrus Par- THF.sopEssls.SS. Cyri et Joannis pafsio inSpicileffium Homanum (Rome, 1S40), IV. 26S-280: Analecia Bollandiana (Brussels, 1889). VIII, 9.')-96; Deubnkr. De incubalionr capita quattuar (Leipzig, 19(K)); cf. Analecia Bollandiuna (1901), XX, 31!4 .sq.; (1906) X.XV, 233, 40; Reiiue de VOrient chrit. (Paris. 1902,) 37.'> s<iq.

P. J. Balestri.

Cyrus of Alexandria, a Melchite patriarch of that see in the .seventh century, and one of the authors of Monothelisin; d. abotit641 He had been since 620 Bishop of Phasis, in Colchis, when the Emperor