Martyr John of Alexandria

Martyr John was a pious Christian soldier from Edessa. When the persecution of Diocletian began, he left military service and, hearing of the fame of the unmercenary physician Cyrus of Alexandria, set out to find him — traveling to Jerusalem, then Alexandria, and finally into the Arabian desert where Cyrus had taken up monastic life.

Having found Cyrus, John became his devoted companion, and together they devoted themselves to healing the sick without payment and comforting persecuted Christians. Learning that a Christian woman named Athanasia and her three young daughters were imprisoned at Canopus near Alexandria, Cyrus and John secretly visited them to strengthen their faith before trial.

Both were denounced, arrested, and after severe torture were executed alongside Athanasia and her daughters in 311 AD. Their relics were later moved to Menouthis near Canopus, where numerous healings were reported.

Their feast is kept on January 31/February 13.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the entry's former sole image turned out to depict an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT saint — the Apostle John the Theologian (Evangelist) — removed. The duplicate entry martyr_john_the_physician has been merged here: sources uniformly title this exact saint "John of Alexandria, Physician Without Reward," confirming it is one and the same person, not two distinct saints. IMPORTANT: the title "John the Warrior" is deliberately NOT used — that is a separate, independent saint (4th c., soldier under Julian the Apostate, died peacefully, feast July 30/August 12), and conflating him with this John would introduce a new error.