CYRUS AND JOHN, Saints, Martyrs. - The biographical information concerning them is extremely scanty. According to the legendary Passio, C. was a physician in Alexandria; having become a monk, he was killed in the persecution of Diocletian together with the soldier J., a native of Edessa. Their bodies lay in the basilica of St. Mark in Alexandria when, in the first half of the 5th century, St. Cyril transferred them to Menuthis to set up a Christian sanctuary in opposition to the temple of Isis, whose cult was deeply rooted among the people.

In the 6th century the sanctuary of Menuthis became famous for the pilgrimages and the healings that C. and J. worked there, and to them was attributed the title of anargyri (v.). An interesting collection of 70 miracles was composed in the 7th century by Sophronius of Jerusalem. The relics of the two martyrs were subsequently transported to Rome and placed in a small church on the via Portuense which, through a singular popular corruption from Abbaciro, is called today S. Passera; four other very ancient small churches were dedicated to the two martyrs in the City.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: Acta SS. Ianuarii, III, Paris 1867, pp. 696-710; P. Sinthern, Der römische Abbacyrus in Geschichte, Legende und Kunst, in Römische Quartalschr., 22 (1908), pp. 196-239; L. Duchesne, Le sanctuaire d'Abouhir, in Bulletin de la société archéol. d'Alessandrie, 12 (1910), pp. 3-14; H. Delehaye, Les saints d'Abouhir, in Analecta Boll., 30 (1911), pp. 448-50; id., Les recueils antiques des miracles des saints, ibid., 43 (1925), pp. 19-32; C. Huelsen, Le chiese di Roma nel medioevo, Florence 1927, pp. 151-62, 246-47; H. Delehaye, Les origines du culte des martyrs, 2nd ed., Brussels 1933, p. 223.

@incollection{ec3_ciro_e_giovanni_santi_martiri, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Ciro e Giovanni, santi, martiri}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1735--1736}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ciro-e-giovanni-santi-martiri} }

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Cyrus and John, Saints, Martyrs

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