Martyr
Martyr Cyrus of Alexandria
† ок. 311
Also known as: Кир и Иоанн бессребреники
Martyr Cyrus of Alexandria — an unmercenary physician who healed the sick without payment, later a monk; together with the soldier John he went to Canopus to encourage the imprisoned Christian woman Athanasia and her three daughters before their execution, was seized together with them and beheaded c. 311; his relics, translated by St. Cyril of Alexandria to Menouthis, became famed for numerous healings.
Martyr Cyrus was born in Alexandria to a Christian family in the 3rd century. Having studied medicine, he treated the sick without payment — his medical workshop was later converted into a church. He healed not only bodily but also spiritual ailments, saying: "Whoever wishes to avoid illness should refrain from sin, for sin is often the cause of bodily illness." As Diocletian's persecution intensified and he was slandered, he fled Alexandria for Arabia, where he became a monk, abandoning medical practice for asceticism, through which he gained the gift of healing.
The soldier John, hearing of his holiness, came to Jerusalem to fulfill a vow, then to Alexandria and on to Arabia to join Cyrus as a companion in ascetic life.
During the persecution at Canopus (near Alexandria), a Christian woman named Athanasia was arrested along with her three young daughters — Theoctista, Theodota, and Eudoxia. Fearing the girls might not withstand torture and would recant, Cyrus and John left their retreat and came to encourage them. All six were arrested together, tortured, and beheaded at Canopus c. 311. Their bodies were buried in the church of the Apostle Mark in Alexandria.
In 414, St. Cyril of Alexandria translated the martyrs' relics to Menouthis (near Canopus), deliberately establishing a Christian healing shrine there on the site of a pagan oracle. The shrine became famed for numerous healings; St. Sophronius of Jerusalem, healed there of an eye disease, wrote an account of Cyrus and John's miracles in gratitude.
Their feast is kept on January 31/February 13 (martyrdom) and June 28/July 11 (translation of relics to Menouthis).