Account of the Miracles of the Holy Martyrs Cyrus and John, the Unmercenary Healers

And also to John, the heavenly martyrs, Sophronius, rejoicing, having received the light of his eyes, Gratefully offered these small gifts of a book.

NARRATION OF THE MIRACLES OF THE HOLY AND WISE PHYSICIANS CYRUS AND JOHN, BY SOPHRONIUS THE MONK AND SOPHIST

^A 1. Concerning Ammonius the collector of the eighth-tax, who had scrofula on his neck.

I consider it just, in embarking upon the narration of the miracles, first to relate those things belonging to the city in which the admirable conflict of the martyrs was accomplished, and where their venerable basilica has been built; so that we may neither grieve the Alexandrians by preferring others to them in their own land, nor do an injury to the city itself, which is most great and beautiful and lovely, and for this reason worthy to be put first, so that the miracles which hold the beginning of the narrative, being witnessed by such a populace and such a city as true, may also lend credibility to those things which are to be told hereafter. ^B Let Ammonius, therefore, begin the miracles for us, since he also was one of the foremost of the city, distinguished by wealth and glorified by his noble father. For he for no short time managed the Church of the Alexandrians, being the father of Eulogius who governed that see most excellently; while he himself held the authority over the *octava* (this ends in the eighth), being collected unjustly, but administered piously, which he ^C exacted before his departure.

This Ammonius, then, while he was still a youth, and adorned the years of adolescence with the beauty of his body, had a grievous affliction in his throat, which physicians rightly call scrofula, because they are similar to such animals as produce this sickness, making of the necks of wretched men a new pigsty. These, therefore, had encompassed the neck of this youth, and were nourished as in a mother’s womb, and growing little by little constrained his throat, and by binding it and ^D suffocating the young man through the stretching of the skin, had brought him to great misery.

^A For this reason, his father, calling together the more elegant of the physicians, demonstrated the young man's affliction, and entreated that they might bring help to the boy in peril, and proposed rewards appropriate for the treatment before they undertook the care. They, however, swearing that they held Julian—for this was the father's name—in high honor, and that they loved the boy, and being further enticed by the burden of the rewards, promised to furnish the cure of the disease as one owed due to the reverence and honor of the father, and the affection and love for the boy. But when they had performed all things that belong to the art, and, if it must be said, what is beyond the art, and it availed nothing, because the salvation of this boy was being preserved for the martyrs, the father took him away from these physicians and led him to the true physicians, Cyrus and John; and watering their venerable shrine with tears, he besought them to render aid to the boy, and not to overlook his son beset by such a ^B heavy wave. They, hearing the old man and not dishonoring his tears of prayer, both healed the boy of his disease and delivered him from that terrible swelling that flowed about him.

I consider it unjust, however, if I should not also make mention of his cure. For seeing that same young man lifted up by pride, and puffed up to arrogance by the swelling of wealth, they did not calm the tumors of his bodily neck before they had healed the inflammation of his soul; for they care more for the healing and freedom from passion of souls. Looking, therefore, ^C at Ammonius (for such was his name) sick in both soul and body, and both of his necks miserably disposed, they thought him worthy of cure in this way: first, indeed, commanding that the veneration of their sacred shrine be performed, so that he might learn not to think more highly than he ought to think, but, bowed down earthward—whence he was taken, and whither in a little while he is to return—might learn, just as the Lord says to Adam: "For earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou go, until thou returnest unto the earth from whence thou wast taken" 32. And as the inspired David says to God: "Thou shalt take away their spirit, and they shall fail, and return unto their dust" 33.

When, therefore, they had wasted away the swelling of the young man’s soul, and compelled him to learn who he was, they sent the medicine ^D to the tumors of his bodily neck. This was a miraculous plaster from their cerate, which they commanded to be mixed with bread and applied to his throat; and by the command of the saints having come to pass, the boy was delivered from the affliction. For the tumors could not resist the medicine for many days; for once the remedy was placed upon them, they were quickly put to flight, just as if by some scourger or pursuer, and suddenly bursting and laying open the tumor of the neck, and breaking apart that which had enfolded them, they fell before the shrine of the saints. They were sixty and seven in number, as they were said to be by those who counted them; which those who ministered in the temple at that time, for many days before the shrine of the saints,

^A demonstrated the strength of the martyrs, exciting all to praise God. And Ammonius, having received a double cure for his double illness, was restored to his father in good health.

After some time, however, he was again lifted up in his mind, and having fallen into forgetfulness of his former discipline, he was again chastened by bodily infirmity, and was taught by the punishments of the martyrs to have wiser thoughts. For having fallen quite seriously ill, he was in danger because of his stomach—or rather, the followers of Asclepius called the ailment "colic"—and, comparing the difference in pain to the state of the stomach, and observing that these pains were greater than those of the stomach, they saw that he could not take any nourishment that he would not immediately vomit up; for his belly, being unable to receive what was sent down from the stomach, because it was constricted by cramps and subject to bitter pains, would not tolerate food remaining within it, but would immediately send it back up and throw it out through the mouth, not allowing it to pass through. Though the physicians and those who wear the tribon ^B and pride themselves on the cleverness of their speech (for they all swarmed in) were able to learn of this ailment, they were unable to provide a cure, even though they searched for it intently and were eager to be rewarded, so that they might acquire both the splendid wages of silver and the even more splendid glory of successful healing.

Therefore, Ammonius, having rejected them all and finding no help from them, except only that he learned of their inability to deal with this illness—and that they were indeed most capable in words, but in no way effective in healing—betook himself again to Cyrus and John, trusting that they alone, after God, would be his healers. ^C Whence he quickly received his cure, obtaining a reward fitting for the faith he had in them. For the stomach, oil and wax were the remedy—the very things that cause their shrine to shine with a radiance of light—while the vanity of his soul the martyrs rebuked with a fitting medicine. For coming to Ammonius by night, they ordered him to put off his soft and flowing garment and to wrap himself instead in a rough, coarser covering, having a fabric made of tow, called a "sack" because of the sack-like roughness, which the very poor wear because of its extreme cheapness and low value; this they commanded him to put on in place of his expensive and luxurious clothing. Moreover, they ordered him to carry the drinking water ^D for the ailing brethren upon his shoulders, not bearing one jar, but commanding him to carry two, one on each shoulder; and they said they would not cure him until he had first accomplished what was commanded. He, for his part, fulfilling the command of the saints and obediently drawing the water while wearing the aforementioned garment, received the health promised by such an act. Thus did Ammonius escape this illness as well, and after praising the healers who had driven away this and his previous infirmity, he departed. And we, too, singing a hymn of praise to the saints—for they are the ones who, after God, are the healers of these sufferings...

let us proceed to their other admirable miracles.

II. — Of Theodorus who had white spots in both his eyes.

^B Let Theodorus also, after Ammonius, come forward for our narration—he who also possessed the city of Alexandria, but had moderate, care-free wealth, and, what is best of all, was content with his lot. He was suffering from the dimness of his bodily eyes; and since Theodorus was distressed over these, and found no suitable treatment, he developed darkish white spots in both eyes. Having these, and having learned from the physicians that they were incurable, he betook himself to the shrine of the martyrs, setting before himself one hope that would not put him to shame: an unfeigned faith in them, and the visitation that comes from them to those who believe in such a way. Coming, therefore, to the venerable basilica of the martyrs, he reaped the fruit of the faith he cherished for them in his inmost heart. For having remained there for a very short time, he obtained the fruit—not one cultivated over much time, but one nourished by the simplicity of faith. The saints, compensating him in return, commanded him to go out to their spring and use its waters for the recovery of his sight. He, most readily doing what was commanded, went away, guided by the hand to the stream, and having washed his eyes in it, and wiped them with a napkin, he caught sight of things, having cast off not only the moisture of the waters but also the white spots from his eyes. And these, having dropped from his ^C eyes by some divine power and finding themselves on the napkin, he displayed to all who were to be found in the temple, presenting himself as a model of faith and proclaiming the magnitude of the healing that arises from faith.

III. — Of Calus who shattered his own foot.

Calus, a man who was rightly so called—for he possessed a disposition consistent with such a name, and actions consistent with his will and name—was tripped while coming down a ladder through the plots of the enemy, who cunningly struggles against good endeavors, and having been tripped, he was brought down violently to the ground in a fall from a height. Whence, having shattered his foot, he was in danger, having broken the bone of his foot, as it were, into a thousand pieces. But when ^D he saw that the coming of the physicians was of no avail for the affliction, as the bones of his foot had almost failed him through the gradual shedding and discharging of parts, and the flesh had been consumed along with the flowing of the ichors, he fled for the aid of the holy Cyrus and John, accusing himself exceedingly for having preferred physicians to the saints, and asking with many entreaties to obtain indulgence for this, and to have them grant him healing along with that indulgence. Being one who petitioned with an unquestioning faith, he obtained it; he was anointed with oil from the lamp according to the command, and by this he replenished the deficiency of the bones that had fallen out. Such, then, is the narrative of the same Calus, and the record of the miracle that was performed in his case.

IV. — Concerning Isidore who was ill in his lungs.

^B But Isidore, observing himself in these circumstances, and knowing that no hope of salvation remained for him from men, possessing faith in the holy martyrs Cyrus and John—faith that moves mountains into the sea and raises the dead from their tombs (for the Savior granted such power to them, duly rewarding the affection that they have for Him)—comes to these same omnipotent physicians from the city. The martyrs, admiring his faith, revealed themselves to him not in a dream of the night, but in a vision; they did not order him to do this or that, but offering him a piece of a citron, they commanded him to eat it. ^C He, however, thinking it was one of those who were present in the basilica, gratefully received what was given to him, and eating it gladly, while he was still chewing the last part of the citron he was eating, he was moved to vomit; and being disturbed by this, along with the food, he cast out the worm that was devouring his lung; and by casting it out, he also cast out his disease, and immediately received health.

V. — Concerning Menas the philoponus who had an obstruction.

^A relief from the suffocating necessity that oppressed him.

He endured this danger for twice seven days, and being no longer able to bear it, he rushed to the martyrs Cyrus and John, committing his life and death to them. He did not come on foot, nor by riding beasts, nor sitting in a litter, which is the seat customarily used for transporting the sick—for indeed he could not sit, as his internal organs were so greatly distended by the swelling that he presented a strange sight—but he was carried lying on a cot by sixteen men in relays.

When he arrived, the martyrs, feeling compassion for him with a merciful zeal, visited him that same night, offering him a single dried fig, which they commanded him to eat, as it was able to deliver him from his sickness, or rather from Hades. Waking up—for it was a vision he had seen—he supposed he was holding the dried fig; but not finding it, he despaired as if he were losing his life. Nevertheless, he called his wife and narrated what he had seen, and ordered her to bring him a dried fig. She, hearing his words and looking closely at the bed, observed a dried fig lying there, one which she immediately seized and showed to her husband while he was still speaking and describing the vision. Receiving the fig, he declared that this was the one given to him in his dream, and he immediately felt his former joy return. Having eaten the fig that the ^B martyrs had given him for his salvation, he attained salvation.

For while he was still chewing and eating it, the blockage was nearing its end. The bonds of his stomach having been swiftly loosened, he felt a desperate urge to go to the latrine. Having gone there and discharged all the matter that had been stored up and blocked within him, he was restored to such a level of thinness as he had possessed before suffering the blockage. Having attained perfect health, he became a grateful herald of the grace of the saints. For he lifted onto his shoulders the cot on which he had been carried when he arrived, and ran vigorously to Alexandria, emulating in his deed the sick man who had lain by the Sheep Pool, whom Christ, after thirty-eight years, healed and commanded to take up his bed, shouting to all of the ineffable power of the saints and the miraculous work which they had wrought upon him. ^C

VI. Concerning Gegdaeus the boatman who had a fistula.

From this spectacle, the boatman draws us to the contemplation of himself; his name was Gegdaeus, and his affliction was the disease of a fistula, which he had in the groin. It is impossible to describe how he was afflicted, being constantly lashed by it, with the liquid collected from his whole body flowing out from there in streams. But Gegdaeus, desiring to be completely delivered from this torment,

^A was constantly haunting the vestibules of the physicians, frequenting and constantly approaching those who were said to be superior to the majority. But when, having tried everyone, he did not obtain health, and having spent everything, he was not freed from the fistula, he came to the sanctuary of the martyrs, not having a physician to whom he could devote himself for a cure, and not having money to spend on expenses; but considering these to be physicians who do not need fees and who nourish the needy, and having become worthy of the kindly visitation of the martyrs, he heard through a vision the remedy for the fistula. This was a mixture of sesame and honey, mixed with paxematic bread and crushed, and a single poultice made from both; and he was commanded to use this, both for eradicating the fistula and for filling up the wound. Shaking off his sleep, he quickly carried out what was said, and by this deed he reaped the healing. For, the most powerful aid having been sent to him, the fistula immediately departed, having recognized the command of the saints, and the cavity of the fistula was immediately filled, obedient to the bidding of the martyrs.

VII. Concerning Mennas the ^B loripes (the slow-footed).

We, admiring the skill of these divine physicians and praising the grace granted to them by God, shall move on to Mennas the loripes, and make him the subject of our song to the martyrs. Mennas was swift of foot, like a gazelle in the field, according to the divinely inspired saying, equaling that Asael who is wondrous in the Scriptures for the swiftness of his feet. And while he was using these most rapid courses, falling into a long illness, he was changed from a swift-footed man into a slow-footed one. And though he had with difficulty at last escaped from the long illness, he did not get rid of its offspring; but he remained immobile in his bed, even after he had been snatched from the sickness. But as the physicians were conquering the long infirmity, yet were despairing of the illness that had been born from that malady, Mennas turned to the memory of the grace of the saints; and having faith as ^C provision for his salvation, carried on the feet of others, he reached their house; having arrived there and offered saving prayers to the martyrs, he is commanded to anoint his feet with oil, by the light of the nocturnal lamp that illuminates their shrine. And Mennas, doing this with confidence, cast off the inertia of his feet and regained his former swiftness; and having sung a song of thanksgiving to the saints, he set out on the road to Alexandria on his own feet.

VIII. Concerning Christodorus the steward who was endangered while sailing on the lake, and fell into illness from the hardship of the voyage.

As for what we leave concerning Christodorus, who ^D was managing the sanctuary of the saints; for the man is worthy of record, not for his...

he is exceedingly upright and eloquent), and because of the zeal and care he holds toward the saints, and the favor of the martyrs toward him, but also so that those who encounter the miracles of Cyrus and John might know in what time these things were recorded, by God’s command, and with the cooperation of those who did and still do these miracles. For Eulogius, the memorable prelate of the Church of the Alexandrians, appointed Christodorus to manage the affairs of the saints, he who had before this managed the house of John the Forerunner; and the blessed Theodore, who took up the reins of the see after Eulogius, instructed him to remain over the flock; and John—who specifically earned the title of friend-of-the-poor (18) having inherited their leadership with God’s help, and currently shepherding their sheep—was of the same opinion, and decreed that he should manage the sanctuary of the saints. In his time, the wonders performed by the martyrs are written down and transmitted to those after us, for the sake of glorifying those who performed them and for the sake of the glory of the Christian power. ^B

You know Lake Mareotis, you who love Christ—all of you Alexandrians certainly, and not a few of the Egyptians, and most of the Libyans, and all who have studied Alexandria with curiosity. Christodorus was sailing across it, intending to go to Mareotis and visit the property of the saints. But when a storm confounded the air—for the season of winter was apparent—and stirred up the water of the lake, and raised hard waves, the boat was carried this way and that by the surge, unable to steer a straight course but being tossed from wave to wave, Christodorus was in danger. He expected to die a piteous death, and reckoned that as he breathed his last in the waves, he would become food for the fish—and to escape the teeth of the crocodiles ^C at the same time. But before he suffered any such thing, he turned to the saints with supplications. Knowing clearly that they have the power to deliver from death those whom they wish, he entreated them to save him, as he was in danger on their behalf. And they, having heard his entreaty, stood by him quickly; for no place blocks their assistance and their benevolent arrival—not land, not lake, nor again the sea, not a place nearby, nor one far distant in space, but wherever someone might call upon them for aid, they stand by immediately, and they help and save and protect him. And ^D even if the onset is from intelligible enemies, they fight beside him and make his conflict victorious; those they put to shame and chase away, and they show him who called upon them to be a victor; even if it be the assault of men who act wickedly.

NOTE

^A they easily dissipate it; or if there be an incursion of most savage beasts, they grant salvation. In the same way, they mitigate the most bitter and intolerable torments of diseases, and come to the rescue in healing like kindly physicians. Or if danger threatens in waters, whether stagnant or marine, they impart serenity and rescue those who venerate them. Just as appearing then to Christodorus when he called upon them, the one commanded the winds to recede, and the other rebuked the waters to be still, and together they spread a clearness over the air, and guiding the ship in a calm amid the current, they saved their own wise minister, demonstrating clearly how much they benefit those who invoke them for aid; and they intended this to teach those faithful who did not yet know, so that in necessities and dangers, by invoking them as helpers, they might find their desired protection and escape the harmful incursion of imminent perils.

And indeed, Christodorus, having been snatched from this cruel death, earned by his concurrent prayers the omnipotent protection of the saints. But from the buffeting ^B of the turbulent voyage and the intolerable confusion of the air, and the violent striking of the waves, he was brought into great distress, and from this, an imbalance being produced, he fell into an intolerable illness: for since the humors within him were agitated throughout the whole body and flowed in a certain way to the surface of the whole body, he was in grave danger, although not as miserably as before. For we all must die, and there is no one who shall not travel this road. For "what man is there who shall live," it says, "and shall not see death?" For there is one entrance into life for all, and the exit is the same; yet we pray to suffer this in peace, since death is the sentence of the entire human nature; but we pray to avoid a departure from here attended by fear and perturbation, and especially a departure occurring in waters. This also the ^C admirable David sought in his prayers, crying out: "Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor let the pit shut its mouth upon me." And Habakkuk also appears to pray similar things: "Was thy wrath against the rivers, O Lord? or was thy fury against the rivers, or was thy rage against the sea?" For the one is thought to announce divine clemency to us therein, but the other the inexstinguishable wrath of a judge; although many of good life have died badly, and many evil men have had a most tranquil death. This is indeed manifest to God, who wisely dispenses what belongs to us, but to us it is far too incomprehensible and unknown to be grasped. For no one has known the mind of the Lord, nor has any of his creatures become his counselor; for in the sea he has placed the ways of the ^D governance of the whole, and his paths in many waters; whence he says, "And thy footsteps shall not be known."

Christodorus was therefore in danger, as I have said before,

^A tossed by the surge of the eruptions and suffocated by the discharge of the matter; at a time when even the best of the Asclepiads who had rushed together were unable to see or say anything more, than that he would surely and everywhere die, and that he would not see the sun rising on the morrow. But when he heard this miserable sentence, he remembered the aid that had been recently granted to him by the saints, and, remembering it, he prayed again to receive a visitation. He called, for his visitation, upon Theodore, the commander of soldiers, along with the martyrs Cyrus and John; for Christodorus was a lover of Theodore, and because of his great affection he frequently called upon him to come to his defense. And he, having received these invocations as if from a friend, and being moved to ^B great compassion, appeared to him in a dream, having come from a great distance to bring him the help he desired; he held in his right hand a sign upon which a cross was laid, making his life-bringing arrival manifest to him. "Do you know, Christodorus," he said, "why I have come?" And when he declared his ignorance, "I ran here," he said, "to ask Cyrus the abbot on your behalf." And these things, he said, being spoken by the martyr Theodore, Cyrus immediately appeared, bringing with him his brother John; and, approaching the bed with haste, they visited him as he lay upon it, touching his wounds with their hands and, as it were with nitre, soothing the fury of the boiling eruptions: and having performed this gently, the three again departed.

But these things were done in a dream; in reality, however, the disease ceased as the sun rose. For as it shone above the earth and brightened the day in the world, there appeared to all, like fish-scales, those things which at sunset the previous evening had left behind as embers; for to these the hardened ^C tumors seemed somehow to be like, as they withered and fell to the ground from his body. And when they all had fallen from his body, and had left him free from their threat, the martyrs appeared again (and it was the fifth day after the first), and they commanded him who had escaped death beyond expectation to wash himself, and to anoint his whole body with well-boiled *pisarion* (this is a kind of legume so called by everyone), so that it might immediately wipe away every stain and the remains of the discharge of the eruptions; and this was done. For while he had entered the bath with the marks of the sores on him, when he exited, no trace of them came out with him, but he looked as if he had been born anew, being free from the stains of the eruptions and exempt from the swellings that had been visible for so long from such a great disease. For such is the power of the saints, that by merely appearing, they cause every memory of the disease to vanish, and by merely willing it, they wipe away every sign of infirmity; and thus Christodorus escaped ^D the double sickness, and, being saved, he serves and honors the martyrs. We, here bringing his story to a close, and sharing in the hymns of praise to the saints with him, turn to similar matters regarding the

^A martyrs, which have been worked in his spouse, that we may preserve the order of the narrative.

IX. Concerning Theodora, wife of the same administrator, who was suffering severely from her eyes.

Since we have already spoken of the sicknesses and recoveries of Christodorus, it is right that we should also make mention of Theodora—for this was the name of Christodorus’s spouse—and of the miracles which the martyrs performed upon her. Let us, therefore, first recount the miracle that happened first in her case, since it is worthy of mention and reveals to us the exhortation and visitation of the saints toward those who are absent, and how they urge those who are sick even at a distance to come to them for their healing, and to store up this for themselves as a treasure, rather than the gleam of gold and silver and precious stones. And we shall set down hereafter that which happened afterward. This woman had fallen into a grave pain of the eyes, and while living in the city, she was enduring the illness; and since a multitude of reputable physicians was visiting her, and all were being defeated by this affliction, there was a danger that she would be shown to be weaker than the treatment of this malady—so terrible was the illness, and an enemy to all the disciples of Asclepius! But the saints, appearing, dissolved this contention of theirs and, as the poet said, made the victory by shared virtue; or rather, weighing the justice of each, they cured the illness by their own power. And they did not cause distress to either the sickness nor to those who wished to heal it, as if they were victors or the others defeated.

We shall also tell the manner in which the martyrs rightly indicated this, ^B so that their condescension toward all may be described. At the time when this woman was ill in her eyes, and a struggle was occurring among the physicians against this affliction, Christodorus was at that time called to oversee the basilica of John and Cyrus, Eulogius having urged this, as we have already said. Upon learning this quickly, Theodora his spouse contended with her husband and resisted the service, saying that it was far removed from the city, and that if we go there we leave our house deserted. She refused completely to leave, using such excuses as women are wont to produce. And that which was stronger and thought to be irrefutable, she brought forward the illness of her eyes. And perhaps she would persuade her spouse to refuse the service—for women are crafty, with nature aiding them, in persuading men to whatever they desire, even though they be very dull, and as if they were the weaker vessel it were granted to the woman to be able to do what she wished. If the saints, knowing this and being pleased with the appointment of Christodorus, had not stood by the woman in her sleep and prepared her to accompany her husband to their venerable basilica. For when they came to her, for what reason, they said, do you prevent your spouse from serving us as he has been appointed? And she asked, Who are you, the martyrs of Christ? And as Cyrus said, I am Cyrus, and this is John, who joined with me in the struggle of piety; the woman replied: It is only for the sake of the infirmity of my eyes; for if, she said, I go there, [the knowledge of the physicians...]

When the martyrs heard these words, they immediately pointed out to her their sacred sheepfold, and showed her the multitude of the infirm lying within it, and declared what the malady of each one was. Then, in addition to all these things, they say, "Are we not able to heal your eyes?" And saying this, they persuaded her, confirming their promise not by empty words, but by deeds. Having gone out, and having merely looked upon their venerable shrine, she immediately cast off her malady, no longer feeling pain in her eyes; having received neither this nor that as a remedy, but having plucked the unfading healing solely by the sight of the martyrs' temple. For the most sweet form of the sheepfold availed to heal a most bitter affliction, and to manifest the immeasurable power of the saints who dwell within.

I shall relate another miracle which was performed in her case by the martyrs, since we have recounted the former, and I will not shroud it in silence from my hearers; for our affairs are not worthy of silence, as are the most worthless phantoms of the demons; for to them belong silence, and oblivion, and the tomb, and outer darkness, a place that hides their abomination; but rather a loudly sounding trumpet, and a herald proclaiming with great spirit, and a roof reaching ^B to the sublime clouds, on which those who proclaim shall stand and cry out; for the things that are done by the martyrs in the open and not in a hidden place, filled with miracle and not fraught with shame, are naturally worthy to be known by all and to be proclaimed clearly throughout the whole earth. Therefore, let us speak, and not hide, and let us exult and dance, proclaiming the acts of the saints to the exultation and joy of all the faithful.

After a long time had passed, this same Theodora was washing again for the sake of her eyes, or rather, for the restoration of her eyes; and it happened that it was in the bath of the saints, for she was staying there at that time. And as she was washing, she fell down severely; for she slipped backward in a fissure, having slid upon some slippery, oily substance which had flowed down from, perhaps, women's unguents. And the fall was also a terrible one; for it happened after she had bathed, while she was going out from the heats to the cold airs and streams, when the bodies of those who have bathed are tender and more relaxed, by the diffusion of the blood having been relaxed and dispersed by the heat. For this warmth, as long as we are in a colder air, flees deep within to the heart and hides, being contracted by the touch of the cold; but when we approach warm air, as the external cold withdraws, the heat immediately goes out to the surface, having been ^C freed, in a way, from the cold that was pressing upon and contracting it, and sensing the kinship of the external heat.

In such a state of body, therefore, Theodora was at that time, and she fell upon her back and neck, and she was struck most deeply on her elbow, a great wound having been opened there by the impact, and much blood having flowed and poured forth from it. But such a great, dangerous blow and an incurable wound, ^D she immediately...

^A appeared and cured; nor did they permit it to be recognized as three days old on the hand and the injured elbow. But you are truly intent to hear also the remedy of the cure, how the divine martyrs cured such a great affliction in the turn of a moment. I shall relate this also briefly and make it manifest to those who hear.

For when night came on, and had succeeded the solar brightness of that day, the same saints stood by the woman while she was resting a little; for perhaps it was for this reason that she had received sleep in such great pains, that she might receive the most swift visitation of the saints. For the lovers of mankind standing by, commanded her to sponge her hand with Mareotic wine, and to apply the flesh of a labrax to the wound (this is a marine fish, called labrax); and they ^B further commanded her to use a suitable bath, perceiving that the harm was from the demons, so that in the place where their machinations had occurred, in that same place they might also set up the trophy of salvation. But when that which the saints had commanded had been done, immediately Theodora was healed; but the demons, as having plotted in vain, were put to shame, and the martyrs were glorified, and Christ our God who through them works wonders.

X. Concerning Maro, the daughter of the steward, who suffered from the teeth and the ears.

Let us add Maro to these, and append the daughter to the parents; for she was born of Christodorus and Theodora. Let us not therefore pass her by, even if she lately passed through the life that we live, departing in the bloom of youth, and leaving behind those on earth in the flower of age; having indeed the season for marriage appropriate, but having known the bed of a man not at all. Let us therefore unite her also with her parents, recounting the miracles of the saints; and let us not imitate the inhumane death ^C which separated her from her progenitors, we too leaving her unremembered. For Maro also obtained the protection of the martyrs, while she was still living in this life; and staying mindful of what sort she was, let us explain how it came to pass.

This girl was indeed very young, and was sucking the breast that nourishes one of such age, not yet having grown the rows of teeth; she was gathering the milk (for this is the fruit of the breasts) not by hands, but by lips and mouth. But when the time arrived for these, in which teeth shoot forth for the newly born, bestowing upon it a marble-like grace, and correcting the indistinct voice carried through it, and smoothing the more solid food—but since these natures are accustomed to be born with a certain pain, providing many sorrows to children who are bringing up the teeth, and causing intense fevers which painfully consume the body—in these states the infant Maro was placed. For as she was sprouting teeth, she was enduring the torments which usually precede them; for these act as skirmishers running ahead, ^D preparing the ways for the teeth, and scourging the gums, and every limb is moved by them.

^A Thus they were once wounding Marum so terribly: fevers were igniting, and the mouth was turning bitter, and the ears were being pressed, and the head was becoming engorged with humors, and in this way they were affecting the little girl until the teeth appeared. But after they had broken through the gums and she had obtained relief from them, the pains had found a respite; yet the ears remained filled with the accumulated fluid. Finally, since the gathering of this fluid did not settle, it burst forth like water from the mother-rocks of fountains; and from this, springs and foul odors and a swarm of worms arose. And so intensely did it pour forth this threefold affliction, that it suffered no barrier or hindrance to restrain that rushing, flowing discharge. Seeing this, the mother of the child, unable to bear it for long, decided to go to Alexandria and deliver the little girl to doctors, so that she might be healed by them, ^B and receive a cure; for at that time they were dwelling in the sanctuary of the holy ones.

On that very night in which she had prepared to enter, as she slept, she saw the doctor's room empty, and she found a monk sitting in it. This person who appeared sitting was Cyrus; for he had been a monk, and he is always obliged to appear in the habit of monks. A small tower stood in front of the martyr, so that it might preserve the appearance of doctors, he says, so that this might appear to be a clinic [(a)]. To her the saint, who was seated as if on a throne, said, "Wherefore, O woman, have you come here?" She replied to him, "Seeking a clinic," she said, "and I have thought this little house to be such a thing; but I declare that nothing of the things usually found in clinics for the sake of treatment is lying here, nor does your cabinet inside contain any such things." He answered her precisely, "Search, and whatever you find, cast into the ears of the sufferer, and your little daughter will be healed." She, having walked around the entire house, beheld a small window, ^C and a cup of honey lying in it. For I suppose that the cabinet happened to be a pharmacy for greater diseases. Rising swiftly from her pallet, she carried out what had been told to her, and having poured a little of the honey into the ears of the infant, she drew forth a pouch full of worms, four fingers in length and having a corresponding width; and having been delivered from this, the child was immediately freed from that which had been to her a storehouse of pains, and she was snatched away from the insatiable and terrible torments being born from it.

And thus the martyrs healed Marum with honey alone; but another woman, pious and Christ-loving, also named Mary—for they called the little girl Marum, deriving the name from Mary—though she was neither of the same age nor had a similar suffering, but rather had it from a different cause; after an experience with many doctors that proved useless, she came to their venerable shrine, and they healed her with cerate and celsis ^D, having suggested these things to her in her dreams.

^A Having then once again praised the martyrs along with the women who had been healed, let us hasten to other miracles of theirs, and let us set these matters before those who listen with piety.

XI. Concerning Mary, the daughter of the deacon, who fell from a high window and was not harmed at all.

Let us speak of another child, of the same age and name, speaking of a different miracle, even if this one is incomparably greater than the preceding one. ^B The former might perhaps have been treated by an excellent physician—if not so quickly, yet not by employing such a remedy; but this neither would any of the physicians have been able to bring about, nor indeed could all men, if they were gathered together for the sake of its effect, unless they were to raise the dying from the graves and make mortal men immortal. And if the little girl is different, and the miracle is distinct, yet those who performed this and that are the same and not others: this most divine Cyrus and John, the companion of Cyrus, they who perform both small and great wonders for diseases, and in every way provide benefits to those suffering, and rescue those who stand in need of a small or a greater help.

Mary was the name of the little girl, and she was the daughter of John, the deacon of the sanctuary of the saints; and I shall recount the miracle as best I can. ^C This little girl was playing by a certain window of her room, in which her mother was frequently accustomed to sit and would leave behind her spindle full of linen thread. By some distraction or other, as often happens and tends to come to pass, and because she was occupied with some necessary affairs, she left the little child at the window; and she was attending to those things which concerned her. But the infant, being deprived of her mother's care and ignorant, as is natural, of the distinction between good and evil, fell from the very high window to the floor. ^D When a noise was made below by the impact of the body, the mother leaned out the window to see what had caused the noise, having completely forgotten that she had left her little daughter sitting at the window. Looking down, she saw her lying on the floor, and immediately returning to the memory of the fall, she shook that whole region with her wailing and shrieking, and also the heavenly sanctuary of the martyrs; for the room was adjacent to it, and she had access through the temple into her home. Running thither and bathing her cheeks with many tears, and with her all those who observed her weeping and heard her crying out from afar—as if to pick up the dead child and commit her to the tomb—they found her sitting on the ground, sound and unharmed and untouched, and playing with some pigs that were found in the place at that time, striking them with her weak and infantile slaps. Snatching her up at once, they cast her down before the shrine of the saints, honoring them as saviors of the infant and, of all who trust in them in Christ, as praising them for their aid and as guardians.

^A I believe it is not superfluous to add to the narrative what he saw in a dream during that night regarding this matter. This John is the deacon—not the father of the infant, but the one who had come from Byzantium to the martyrs because of an affliction of the feet. This affliction was called a chilling of the joints, which not even the emperor’s physician, nor any of the others who were willing or able to heal, could cure. Having been healed and delivered from the disease, he promised to serve the saints for his whole life out of gratitude. The man who was later ordained deacon, having passed from a lay state but having lived a serious and monastic life, by the decree and command of the martyrs, by the laying on of hands of John the patriarch who now shepherds the Church of the Alexandrians—he said that he then slept, when on the morrow the aforementioned miracle was about to happen, and he saw the martyrs Cyrus and John, ^B and with them a great gathering of saints wearing white robes, who said these things to the one beholding them: "Come with us, and be a participant in the joy that is to come." John asked the saints where they were going and to what banquet. They said, "John the deacon has invited us to dinner today, and we shall all feast at his house." And having said this, the brilliant company of the saints, or rather their assembly, commanded him to follow after them. "As soon as all the saints," he says, "had gone into the house, I also went up, fulfilling the command of those who had ordered it; and having dined with them, I withdrew again with them to those who had been invited, amazed at their dignity and attire; and marveling at the solemn luxury of the dinner, I recounted all these things to the deacon John, ^C though I was ignorant of what the symbol of the narrative meant, yet I called him happy and blessed if he should attain such honor as to host and receive into his home such and so many saints." And this vision was entirely unknown until the miracle that was performed interpreted it.

^D I, for my part, praise the saints along with everyone for this miracle, and for the fact that they well followed in all things Christ, the Teacher and God of all, and did not simulate even the miracle. For just as the Savior, sitting at the spring of Samaria and being urged by the disciples to eat, answered them thus: "I have food to eat that you do not know of," calling "food" the salvation and pleasant redemption of those who believe in him. For, he says, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, the Father, and to complete His work." And the work and will of the Father is nothing else than the salvation of those who are on earth. So also now, John and Cyrus, the martyrs of Christ, fittingly called the salvation of the infant "food" and "dinner," foretelling also the miracle that happened upon her, which was beyond hope, as it nourished their good and philanthropic hunger, and delighted their pure and philosophical purpose. We, having brought the narrative concerning the infant to a close here, and sending forth laudatory voices to the martyrs who saved her, another

^A account of them we shall record.

XII. Concerning Julian the Count, who through sorcery had all his limbs paralyzed.

Julian, who is now more marvelous than he was before, abounding in wealth, not lacking in the possessions of virtue, tracing his lineage from a distinguished source, and known to all as a glorious man, having possessed a twofold infirmity and having received a twofold healing for it, comes forth for the narrative. He is still alive in this life, relating his own story to all; yet he wishes this to be told in our brief writing, that he might, as if always living, proclaim his own miracle to those who come after. Admiring his devotion and approving his intent toward these saints, we have resolved to write down what happened to him.

Julian flourished in his youth, and he possessed wealth of the same age, which is the mother of luxury and the teacher of all licentiousness. And the latter was producing and bringing forth pleasures, while the former was nursing and nurturing them; and there was a war of the soul against both wealth and the youth of the body. But these, conquering most powerfully, took his soul captive and led it away as a maidservant, and compelled it to do what seemed good to them, it not daring to gainsay the things harshly commanded to it by them—just as the ancient Israel of old serving in Egypt. And it was like seeing a weak and impotent charioteer being carried by exultant horses, unable to hold back their impetus, but carried unwillingly and violently dragged off by them, finally dropping the reins and plunging over a precipice along with them. Thus the soul of the young man, suffering tyranny from his wealth, and oppressed by the dominion of his pleasures and bodily vigor, was carried away toward shameful pleasures and bowed down in a slavish manner to depraved passions.

And when Julian had arrived at this state, before establishing a legal marriage, he was joined in an unlawful union; and before the embraces of his own wife, he was held in the embraces of another. And before he had acquired a fountain of his own, he was eager to drink water from an ownerless spring; and before the foal of graces, he consorted with a foal that had no graces; for he came into the love of a certain little woman, and was tangled up with her for the sake of pleasure.

^D But having been joined later in an honorable marriage and to an undefiled bed, and perceiving the harm of that unlawful marriage, he ceased from his communion with that little woman. She, not bearing the separation and receiving a wicked jealousy from this, attacked the young man with witchcraft, contriving death for him on account of the separation. Truly, she was frustrated in the killing of the youth, but she made him nothing different from a dead man, binding his hands and feet with the potion and rendering every member of his body completely useless—or rather, God preserved the young man, He who, on account of His goodness, does not remember the sins of youth, and overlooks the transgressions of men, and does not inflict immediate wrath, but magnanimously always

^A situation altogether demands our attention. For He who is long-suffering always awaits our conversion and repentance. The youth was therefore a pitiable sight to behold; for his parents, a calamity; for his young wife and his family, grief instead of the unexpected joy; so that to all who saw him, he was the most wretched spectacle. For he was carried by the feet of others, and used the hands of others, and performed and did through others all those things which God has gifted human beings to do for themselves. Among physicians, no one could free him from this affliction—neither diets, nor antidotes, nor successive ointments, nor various other remedies. But the affliction was superior to all these things, refusing to offer a hand to a human hand.

Seeing this, his parents flee to God and the martyrs, bidding farewell to medical treatments and forgoing medicinal aids, desiring instead the divine assistance. But the most holy martyrs, moved with pity for the young man, rendered the stings of his pains dull, and granted him the ability to move his hands and partially to extend his feet; for a certain cause related to doctrine prevented them from granting him perfect health. For this young Julian is a disciple of ^B Julian the elder, the Apollinarian of Halicarnassus, and is like-minded and of the same opinion as him. Holding these dogmas in his soul, Julian the younger did not approach the saints for their sake, but because of the languor of his body. Nevertheless, the blessed martyrs often appeared to him by night, warning him to depart from such a dogma and to embrace the communion of the Catholic Church. Frequently, too, they carried the holy cup, full of the Lord’s Body and Blood, and encouraged him to approach it—themselves, as it seemed, partaking, and calling upon Julian to partake with them. Sometimes they even disputed with him dogmatically, explaining the truth which is preached in the Church, and swearing that the proclamation concerning the ^C salvific union of Christ our God is as they stated.

But when they had done all these things, and more besides, and had not persuaded Julian, who was unwilling to be persuaded, they again made him mindful of his former pain; and they raised up the stings of his pains against him with perhaps some addition, binding his hands and feet as before and giving greater increase to his pains—perhaps demonstrating the work of the melody in their own actions, and bridling with a muzzle and bit the jaws of those who do not draw near to God through faith. For that bold young man, who had disregarded so many admonitions, so many testimonies, and so many visions, and above all these things, the miracle which had been performed upon himself, could not disregard those minor scourges; but he cried out, he shouted, he supplicated, he called [on them], he begged, he sent forth entreaties, ^D calling upon the martyrs. And there was no one who could redeem him, or deliver him, or rescue him from the torments, or help him, since what was happening was the wrath of the saints. But when his obstinacy [was broken] by such torments

^A softenened, and made tractable him who before had been intractable, then they appeared smiling and playing, and asked for what reason he was thus shouting and crying out. And he, as if they were ignorant of what his suffering was, explained it, and exhorted them to help one in danger. But the divine martyrs reminded him again of the faith he had seen, and signified that for this reason his pains were distressing him, and that they would never deliver him from his sufferings unless he were first to deliver himself from the heresy by which he was held, and embrace the communion of the apostolic Church; which thing Julian desired ^B to see, and to consult about, and prayed. And when the martyrs saw him yielding to their words, they declared these things to him for the greater certainty. For stretching out their hands to heaven, they swore by the greatest and most fearful oaths that Christ does not have, nor regard, either the Gaianites or the Theodosians in the number of the faithful or the pious. Julian, hearing this from the saints with an oath, and being instructed in the truth by both stripes and oaths, was delivered from both, having recovered the health of his soul and the soundness of his body through faith.

I think I would damage the narrative if I were to be silent about the nimbleness and rejoicing which the saints showed regarding Julian's reception of communion; it is this. For because they saw him becoming distant from his former heresy, and embracing the true confession of the Saviour, but regarding the reception of the holy mysteries with diffidence and confusion, in circumstances where he ought to have been ^C clear, they performed a miracle worthy of delight. Appearing to him in his sleep, as they were accustomed, "Behold," they said, "the Saviour's nativity is near, when the only-begotten Son of God the Father became incarnate and was made man." This sacred and most celebrated festival the sons and foster-children of the Catholic Church of the Alexandrians celebrate in the basilica of the holy Virgin Mary and Mother of God, which is called Theona. "Repair thither, therefore, and becoming one of those who devoutly celebrate the solemnity of the Lord's nativity, and being numbered with the Church of the faithful, join in the psalmody, and listen to the apostolic readings, and hear the trumpet of the holy Gospels; for those who are of your heresy remain until the hearing of these; and after the end of the Gospel readings, go out according to your ancient custom, that you may appear to remain free ^D from suspicion; and going out from the temple, wait in the dromos. This place is famous in the city of the Alexandrians, lying in the form of a broad street, centered with two porticoes, and adorned with columns and marbles, crowded with much people, and laden with various kinds of market merchandise. In this," they said, "when you have gone, observe the dismissal of the synaxis; and when you have seen all returned home, then in silence, with no one watching, having entered into the temple, receive the venerable sacraments, and thus, having returned home, rest."

^A Once this is done, and it has been said to those of your heresy, it will immediately be covered in silence, the suspicion of shame will cease, and you will have the unceasing praise of salvation. These were the things the saints advised. Julian, having accepted the counsel as if from the saints, and believing it to be in harmony with his own purpose, promised to carry it through to the end. Yet it was not as he thought, nor as he desired and sighed for, even though he supposed the admonition was held in this way. Rather, it was as it seemed good to the saints and as it had been decreed, and as the Savior’s word proclaimed: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." For what the martyrs wished to be proclaimed upon the housetops, that he wished to hide in darkness. Therefore, when the holy festival of the Nativity of the Lord was at hand, Julian, remembering the command of the saints, came to the temple which is called of Theonas, and having become an auditor of the evangelical and apostolic lessons, he went out to the courtyard after their reading. And having remained there during the time of the synaxis, after its dismissal and the departure of the faithful, he again approached the temple and, as he thought, secretly partook of the mysteries.

^B But while he was bowing down and stooping, as was fitting, to receive the Lord’s body, clerics of the heresy called that of the Gaianites, about a hundred in number, entered the temple to pray, doing this out of custom after the dismissal which was held by them, keeping watch over the veneration of the place, and offering the customary worship to the Theotokos. Seeing Julian communicating, they were amazed at the man’s transformation and signaled to one another, pointing him out to those who had not seen him. He, having received the life-giving food into his vitals, immediately looked at them and was filled with the blush of shame; he understood that the triumph had been brought about for him by the saints, and he related to them as they questioned him everything that the martyrs had done to hold him, and how they had triumphed over him, causing him to blush at the reception of communion. And by this very means, his union with the Catholic Church was brought about, filled with miracle, astonishment, and the gentleness and grace of the saints. Furthermore, the soundness of the body kept pace with the change of the soul. We, however, having completed the narrative regarding him and having praised the saints, let us move on to another of their miraculous works and make a narrative of this as well.

XIII. Concerning Helias the Leper.

The miracle wrought by the saints upon Helias the leper—who, hearing of it, would not admire them who performed it, and testify that they had power to do many things more miraculous than this? For Helias happened to be a leper, and had this affliction for a long time; he was not known to be a leper in one member, but was bearing on his whole body the [tokens] of the infirmity. 16.

^A These were not such marks as Paul boasted of; for those were virtues and heavenly deeds imaging Christ in Paul, acting as rays of the Sun of Righteousness, and making those who possessed them children of light and sons of the day. But these marks were things which, according to the Mosaic Law, were abominable and unclean, and for which a man who had become estranged by color was driven outside the camp and the city, kept away from the rest of his fellow-tribesmen as abominable and unclean.

Elias was bearing these marks—which are symbols of sin—the very things which the Word, being God and having become man among men, drove out both according to the spirit and according to the letter. And yet, for the leper who was then healed according to the letter, He ordained that he should offer the gift according to the law of Moses—yet he obtained no benefit from anyone. For Hippocrates and Galen, and Democritus, that bastard brother of nature, appeared ineffective even to this man, and with them those who are puffed up by their words and offer us their names as if they were great medicines. He comes to the martyrs Cyrus and John, wishing to obtain healing for his suffering, and believing that he would surely obtain it. But when a not inconsiderable interval of time had passed, and he had gained nothing, he grew discouraged, the cure being held in reserve by the ^B saints through certain dispensations. And having suffered this through a diabolical suggestion—no doubt, for the enemy wished both to keep him from the cure and to cut off the compassion of the saints—he could no longer remain in the temple. For the vice of acedia is heavy and entirely hostile to souls that love God, and it can do them great harm unless it is quickly extinguished while yet fresh, like the phantom of a midday demon. The leper, delaying to do this, and no longer able to bear the burning of it, set out and went away, abandoning the temple and the divine gifts of the martyrs, and, as far as he was concerned, [abandoning] the cure of his own infirmity.

But the saints, seeing that he had suffered envy at that time—an envy that hindered his recovery—took pity on him and showed mercy, caring nothing for the foolish injury he had done them. As he was departing, near the martyrium of St. Metras, they met him at midday in the guise of monks and, pretending a compassionate ignorance, asked him where he was coming from and where he was going. He, making his statement to them as if they were truly ignorant, named the saints and mentioned the temple. But the martyrs bade him say again the reason for which he had come there. He said: "You see the reason; for it is manifest and needs no one to report it." The divine ones asked again, saying, "And for what cause did you depart before deliverance from your suffering?" He pointed to the time of his waiting and declared that he had profited nothing by remaining, showing them those unsightly white patches as witnesses—not blaming the saints in this, as though they were unable or unwilling, but declaring himself unworthy of the gift, with reverence and tears. Truly, the most compassionate

^A martyrs, having pitied him still more, say: "Listen to us now, and turn back quickly, and you shall see the wonders of God, and the visitation of the saints upon you. Having arrived at their shrine, you will find four camels present at the spring; and having diligently taken the dung of the fourth, dissolve it with the water of the spring, and with this ointment anoint your whole body, omitting nothing at all that is unanointed, so that what has not been anointed may not remain spotted again, and continuously held by this disease." And having said these things to his face, they suddenly disappeared.

And he, immediately reckoning that the vision was divine, and that it was they who had appeared and given these commands, hastens ^B to their venerable shrine; and having found at the spring the camels mentioned to him, he took the dung of the last, as they said, and having dissolved it in the waters of their spring, he anointed himself all over. But he had here again the devil envying him. For he says he did not anoint his face, loathing the cleansing ointment; whence, consequently, according to the command of the saints’ oracle, his whole body immediately became clean of the spots, but his face remained spotted throughout his life; of his disobedience a proof that could not be hidden, but of the power of the martyrs and their not-to-be-contemned command an unceasing herald and a witness truly worthy of belief; and though Elias often blamed himself for his disobedience, ^C he was not helped at all, just as neither was Esau, who even with tears sought his birthright.

XIV. Concerning Theopompus the demoniac.

Let Theopompus now come into our midst after Elias,, having found a timely sequence, preserving the composition of the leading elements of both names; and I shall make a brief narration of his miracle, which both delights the pious who hear it, and proclaims the most terrifying trophies of the saints against demons. Theopompus was dreadfully possessed by a demon, and there was no one among men who, seeing him, did not weep. For men are accustomed, for the most part, to be moved with compassion towards those held by such a disease, ^D because perhaps it is not a mere passion of the body that exists. For this, from the beginning, having tasted of the tree of disobedience within Paradise, was naturally subjected to passions, and serves corruption and the lapses of corruption, even before dying, by peculiarities until the common resurrection of all, where corruption and the things which introduce corruption into death are completely dissolved. But the disease is contrary to the nature of the immortal soul, and [is] an alteration of the incorruptible nature by the grace of God who made it, and a passion similar to corruption born by the suggestion of demons; even though God, in the exuberance of His philanthropy, allowed it to happen for the benefit of the sufferers.

Theopompus, having served this disease for eighteen years, and no longer able to bear the madness of the demon...

^A approached the martyrs who destroy and pursue this, namely Cyrus and John. Having traversed the vast space of the journey with much toil (for he had done this on foot, on account of his lack of funds), and having arrived at the martyrium with difficulty after the setting of the sun, and having already exhausted his strength with greater fatigue, he lay down in the portico outside the church; not being able to walk even that short remaining distance, he reserved the entrance into the temple, as if it were a great and laborious task, for the morrow. But while he slept there the whole night, the most merciful martyrs stood by him in his dreams, appearing in their own forms and not in strange ones; and calling him by name, they said: "Brother Theopompus, behold, the evil spirit that was troubling and afflicting you, we have expelled in the name of Jesus Christ who for our sake endured the cross. But rise, and after rendering thanks to God, return to your little home." He, not enduring to be seen by men when the sun rose, along with the demon having also set aside the fatigue he had from his journey, rises quickly from where he was lying, and entering the temple and having sung hymns of thanksgiving to God and the martyrs who had healed him in God, rejoicing and leaping at the same time, and proclaiming the great work of the miracle, he departed.

XV. Concerning John the Ulcerous.

^B Well indeed did John also, imitating Theopompus, observe the present time, he himself also keeping the composition of the elements unconfused, and not permitting the pen, which wished to pass on to others, to pass him by without a narrative. Therefore let us also write in a timely fashion of the things concerning him, marveling at his sobriety and his sharpness of mind. John had an inhuman affliction, which is greater and more bitter than all, so to speak, of the bodily sufferings, and for this reason perhaps it is signified by physicians with the name of the elephant. For just as that animal differs from other quadrupeds in strength and size of body (and they say that it is also mindful of evil towards those who have vexed it, and after many periods of years, if it can, it takes bitter vengeance on the one who caused it pain), so also physicians, perceiving this malice to be much greater than other sufferings, named it with the name of the elephant. ^C And Moses also separated him who was oppressed by the disease of elephantiasis, outside the camp and the city, along with the leper; by the leper indeed banishing the variegated nature of sin, and by him who contracted the elephantine disease, perhaps the ferocity of character. But the holy teachers of the Church also say that they took the greatest care of those having the elephantine disease, and forbade the intercourse of men with women, until the perfect cleansing of the female from her monthly period, ^D which naturally occurs after seven days; for from this the bodies of those with elephantiasis become afflicted, with the disease being generated and growing along, having as its cause the parents, and the incontinence and excess of these regarding the proper and certain time of intercourse; which

^A even to the bestial nature, as one of the friends of the just Job testified: "He has appointed a time," he cries, "for cattle; they know the order of their lying down." And in this way he fittingly rebukes men, as those who are ignorant of the time of union, which even the irrational animals honor and observe. Some say that even Job was stricken by the devil with this malady of elephantiasis as something terrible and great. "The devil went forth," it says, "from the Lord, and smote Job with a grievous ulcer" from the feet even to the head, hoping by the magnitude of the wound to take captive the just man; though he accomplished nothing of what he hoped, since the just man had his foundation resting upon a rock and not upon sand. But he, conquering the one who smote him by his patience, bore off the crown of victory.

John, being oppressed by this sickness and gradually consumed by it, having found no sweetness of health from physicians, came to Cyrus, the suppressor of evil, and to John, the fellow-martyr of Cyrus, believing in the servants of Christ, that if they only willed it, he would be healed instantly. ^B And they, having seen the refugee and having admired his faith in them, after treating him kindly for a very short time in their shrine, and having given him health in exchange for his faith in them, sent him away.

I shall write of the remedy, too, by which the martyrs easily healed such an illness, lest the overly curious among doctors might think that the saints had applied something Hippocratic, and in this way might disparage their ineffable power, proclaiming Hippocrates or even Galen as the author of the healing and not the martyrs who performed it. Glass was the aid, which had been transferred back to its ancient form, that is, into sand, through intense grinding, and then mixed into the water alone. For the saints commanded through dreams that this aid be applied to the whole body of the one who had the sacred disease. He who diligently performed what was commanded, more diligently cast off the disease. For just as that water, being of a fluid nature, could not remain when it was applied ^C to the body, but as soon as it was applied it flowed down to the ground, even though it had the ground-up glass mixed in; so too, the malady of elephantiasis could not remain, when this flowing water was applied to it; but it flowed away with them, fearing those who had commanded it, and perhaps on their account the glass was also mixed into the waters. We, however, having written of this miracle to the praise of those who performed it, shall proceed to the writing of another miracle, praising the martyrs together with all who have been healed.

XVI. Of Zacharias who suffered from a malady of the testicles

Zacharias, that very slow man, almost escaped our notice, not that he had acquired his slowness ^D through a malady of the feet, but lacking speed through another sickness, being hindered by the swelling of the genital organs. For these were painful, and became enlarged, by which the distinction of eunuchs from other men is made; not only...

^A moving with difficulty due to this, he showed himself to us like a bee in winter, but perhaps being ashamed himself of such an infirmity, and wishing to hide his affliction—although we were commanded to be ashamed of soul-sufferings, not bodily ones. "Let the impious be ashamed," he says, "and be led down into Hades," and again: "Be ashamed, Sidon, says the sea," indicating idolatry by the name of Sidon; and again, "Let all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back." And the Lord also speaks of those being sent into eternal confusion, not those who are burdened by bodily sufferings (for He Himself bore our infirmities and carried our diseases), but those who have become infirm in soul and have become workers of evil deeds.

For some sicknesses are involuntary, as many as are known to be of the body and concerning the body; but others are voluntary and offspring of our own will, as many as ruin the beauty of the self-willed and intellectual soul. And for this reason, regarding those first mentioned, no one of the saints appears to have ever accused us—not the Law, not a prophet, not a righteous man, not an apostle, ^B not a teacher (for even they themselves were all subject to these, having borne a body similar to ours, just as the Lord Himself became man and was accounted partaker of the same sufferings as us, and by body and rational soul was consubstantial with us). But regarding the voluntary and unnecessary passions of the soul, all have complained: the Law punishing them, and defining a penalty appropriate to the fault; the prophets commanding us to abstain from them and exhorting us to provide for better things; the righteous admonishing us to abandon them; the apostles leading us by the hand toward our transposition away from them; the teachers showing us their flight. ^C But the Lord, having first shown us the way of righteousness, and having first found the path of total withdrawal from the passions of the soul, mercifully spoke to all, "Learn from Me." For it is for these—since their existence is clearly in us—that we shall pay the penalties and shall suffer; and by these we shall be judged, and we shall stand at the tribunal of Christ when the Judge comes from heaven to render to each according to his works, not according to the sufferings of the body. "For we must all," He says, "be manifested before the tribunal of Christ, that each may receive according to what he has done through the body, whether good or evil."

Therefore, in vain does Zacharias feel ashamed for a bodily affliction, and as many as follow his example in being ashamed of bodily ^D passions, ignoring the causes of this shame and not rightly reversing its order. Although he appeared with difficulty and late, nevertheless he finally set out and reached the sanctuary of the saints, whom he was beseeching and again supplicating that they might free him from the burden of his testicles. But they, coming to him by night while he slept, converse with him, saying, "Zacharias, why have you come to us?"

^A And he, blushing and feeling ashamed, explained the cause to them. But the martyrs, reproving him not to be ashamed over bodily sufferings, ordered him to show them the parts that beget children, which were seen to have the affliction; and he, though full of modesty, did what was commanded, for he could not resist those who were ordering him because of his shame. They, gently rubbing the aforementioned parts of the body with their hands and removing the weight of the swelling through the rubbing, ordered him to go back home: "Look," they said, "you have no evil; but arise, and go home in peace." ^B And he, having turned after that dream which had suppressed the pain, recognized that the swellings of his testicles had flown away together with it, and having been delivered from the pain and the most wretched heaviness, and having crowned with praises the martyrs who had freed him from such a plague, and having glorified Christ who through them had extended to him this freedom from suffering, he departed.

XVII. Concerning Joannes Chrysones, who had putrefied thighs.

We shall also make mention of Joannes, not because he was of noble birth among those who boast of gold—for from this he was called Chrysones, his money and his status in office compelling this name to him; for he would not have been called Chrysones and deprived of gold, had he not received from the saints through faith health, a thing surely more brilliant than gold, ^C which they lavishly bestow upon all who approach them, turning no one away from their gift, unless someone be utterly abominable and entirely unworthy of their benefit, either because he is found to be in incredulity, so that he remains unworthy, or because he has an unconvertible will through evil deeds. But I, as the discourse proceeds, shall make mention of one or two such cases, who obtained no fruit of utility from the saints, for the caution of those who will approach subsequently, so that, knowing the zeal of these for the faith and their enmity against wicked deeds, they might hasten to please them in life and in faith.

Therefore, this Joannes, who boasted in the possession of gold and in his title, fell into a severe illness, ^D which was neither expressible in speech nor accessible to the disciples of physicians for a cure; for the man’s thighs were being consumed as if by some divine wrath. And when the skin that surrounded his thighs had putrefied and, from the excess of the rot, had been burst on all sides, the flesh that had once been covered by it, having been completely stripped of its own natural covering, and having lost the mass of the swelling that it had received from nature, fell away, separated from the bones, gradually turning into rot along with the skin that covered it, and collapsed toward the ground. And when he had spent a long time in the illness, deceived by the cold and useless words of physicians and having received nothing from them but only words, which do not touch the wound but are dissolved into the air—and he had not even touched upon the patient's condition—but rather, on the contrary, had endured the moroseness of the illness and the miserable stain of his pains for a longer time, he scarcely at length perceived that he had gained only the impossibility of his illness from Hippocrates, and having bidden them a long farewell, he reached the healing shrine of Cyrus and Joannes. They...

^A, being truly martyred physicians, wishing to show the difference between their own divine power and the infirmity of physicians, appeared to this man in a dream and cured him with a pitiful assistance, ordering him to grind salt mixed with cumin and to sprinkle it upon his thighs. When the sufferer had done this immediately after his sleep, he freed himself from severe pains and no small distress; and he who just before was thought to be gradually wasting away and thus receiving the death common to all, was immediately strengthened by the application of cumin and salt at the command of the martyrs, and by divine decree escaped the death he was expecting. Together with him, let us praise God and the living saints, and move on to another of their miraculous works.

XVIII. Concerning Paul, who had a head full of worms.

Paul, a certain poor man, indeed utterly destitute and entirely without gold, comes to my narrative after Joannes Chrysones and the rich man, hoping to associate himself with him, thinking perhaps he might make some profit if he could join him in some way; just as we see poor people acting in the marketplace; thus they approach and walk behind those who are dripping with gold, in case they might by some means obtain a few drops falling from them, for the sake of the compassion of those who love Christ. Acting on this, Paul ^B now approaches, and perhaps he achieves such a desire; for Joannes did not dwell far from the love of poverty. Paul, however, possessing an incurable suffering and illness, approaches, wishing to pluck health from the martyrs and longing to receive from them the soundness that comes from them. And there, perhaps, he obtained a remedy for his poverty, but here he undoubtedly received health for his infirmity; for such was the illness he had, and thus he gained his cure. His head ached so much that it cannot be described, and his cries, his sleeplessness in nightmares, and along with these the weight of the the tumor bore witness to the pain. ^C But a detector of the tumor and the things within it was not to be found; whence some of the physicians said blood was the cause of this vice, others claimed a massive collection of pus, and others asserted a gathering of some other matter, saying nothing that approached the truth, but merely guessing what seemed so to them, and destroying one another's opinions with their own assertions.

But the saints, knowing the suffering accurately and not ignorant of the cause of the pains, gladly cure him; showing that what seemed impossible to them was easy and mere child's play for themselves. We shall also tell of the sweetness and pleasantness of the cure, declaring the power and a certain delight of the saints, mixed with carnal sweetness, creating a miracle, or rather for those who have become listeners to the miracle. Having made Paul fall asleep against all hope (for he had almost fallen into a stupor of sleep, while being invisibly devoured in his head and incessantly weighed down by pains), they stand by him as he sleeps at night, granting him health ^D and announcing the manner of his recovery...

^A. "At daybreak," they say, "arise from your bed and go out to the gate that leads to the sea, which shuts off the exterior vestibule of the temple; and strike the man who happens upon you there forcefully with a slap upon his cheek; and having done this, you shall find the cure for the affliction you possess most swiftly." He, however, thinking that what had appeared to him was a phantasm, did nothing of those things which had been told to him by the saints; and though twice ordered to do this through a vision, he did not do it.

But when, for a third time, the martyrs spoke to him, and he learned that if he did not do this he would not obtain the hoped-for healing, he arose from his bed earlier at dawn and reached the gate that had been pointed out to him. Having encountered a certain soldier at the gate—who was, for his part, holding a staff in his hand, but who likewise held anger within his heart—he struck him forcefully, inflicting a blow upon his cheek. The soldier, delaying not at all, but making his own defensive reaction immediate to the slap, immediately raised his staff and struck back him who had slapped him on the head, striving to inflict with the staff a blow far stronger than that which he had received by hand. ^B Paulus, indeed, having received such a blow upon his head, fell to the ground having been wounded, and gushing with blood and worms; for when all the worms which he had held inside—which were very many and were devouring him without restraint—had been cast out, he was delivered from the disease, finding an unexpected deliverance through the blow granted to him and the wound. And the wound itself was healed more quickly; for we would not say that this was a wound, but rather a medicine for the wound, an aid for the illness, a plaster for the passion, and a healing for the malady. ^C And having reaped perfect health, he spoke a hymn to the martyrs, and praising God, as was fitting, who had performed the healing through them, he departed, having become for us a beginning and a cause for a song unto Christ and the martyrs.

XIX. Concerning Stephanis who had a cancer.

Let the miraculous healing of Stephanis also be one of the miracles, and let no one be incredulous of the miracle if he weighs the power of the saints and recognizes the grace divinely given to them, by which they heal every illness and grant health out of compassion to all who faithfully approach them. Stephanis, therefore, the woman who has been proposed to us for an account, had a cruel and incurable passion; the passion was called cancer, not having a name discordant with its nature; for being made like a crab, it consequently received from it also a community of name. And this was indeed the illness of Stephanis, whose pains only those women know who have experienced them; ^D but doctors, and the progenitors of these, Galen and Hippocrates, the elegant boastings of the art of medicine, are not ashamed to proclaim their own defeat, not only refusing the battle against the passion of cancer, but even crowning it with victories; in this way demonstrating its natural perversity, which neither a well-rubbed and effective medicine, nor a galbanum plaster

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nor the antidote called Philonium, nor any other natural or simple remedy, nor one made from the succor of a mixed species, has hitherto been able to appease. For the affliction was so savage, having obtained an innate ferocity, and repelling everything that might attempt to soothe or expel it. ^B When Stephanis learned of its invincible tyranny, and the ignorance of the medical art against it (which those who practiced it proclaimed both by their works and their words), and that the malady cedes only to God and the martyrs, and that it obeys their commands, she straightway fled to God and to Cyrus and John, the servants of Christ, the God of all; and the holy martyrs honored the worthy faith she had in them. And the honor was the gift of swift healing, and a rescue and redemption from the affliction by which she was secretly held. Therefore, they heal the woman not with invisible medicines—as was their custom to heal the suffering—but by touching the affliction with visible hands. For on a certain day, as she stood before the martyrium of the holy tomb and implored to receive a cure, weeping and sighing and offering up supplications with fervent faith, she suddenly cast off the cancer, and every lesion with it, and the infirmity spawned therefrom, which fell and writhed; and many indeed saw it then (for it was daytime), from among those who were present praying and entreating to obtain help; but many also, after this, saw and heard it hanging and from on high proclaiming the power of the saints. Having heard these things from them, we have written them down, and having learned them, we proclaim them in truth, glorifying the saints for this; and we exhort those who are sick and are weighed down by incurable diseases to come to their healing. Here, then, making an end to the account of the present miracle, we proceed to the narrative of another wonder.

XX. Concerning Maria, who had dropsy.

^C Very great is the utility of the report of miracles; for perhaps it provides benefits to all who hear, healing souls along with bodies; to some it grants more abundant faith, to others the removal of bodily afflictions; and in common, [it grants] to the souls and bodies of both a pure and most welcome joy, and a delight filled with spiritual exultation, which speech cannot portray to the hearers. Therefore, having plucked this fruit from the preceding miracle, let us also pluck it from the present one, being made partakers of the joy of those who are healed, and having obtained the pious boasting of the saints. But there, indeed, Stephanis became for us the cause of joy; here, however, it shall be Maria, who, having an incurable affliction, obtained healing through hope. And those skilled in medical science call this affliction itself dropsy, but they have no power to benefit those who have fallen into such a condition, neither in a great way, nor in a small way, nor any relief. ^D

^A

Maria also suffered from this malady, and having reached the final danger, and swelling up, she became a monstrous and horrible spectacle. Devoid of hope from the physicians and with the certainty of death, she was brought with much labor by those who carried her to the shrine of the saints. Having been placed with difficulty upon the floor, she lay there moaning in pain, unable even to speak because of her lamenting, but with the pathology so pressing upon her and causing such constriction—a swelling beyond description—the martyrs, who abound in the flow of mercy, appeared to her in her sleep, granting her life, which she did not hope to possess, and declaring to her the remedy for her disease, and they ordered her to act quickly. ^B The remedy was a paxamatic loaf of bread, not brought from afar but kept in the neighboring village of Heraclius. When she had told of this after her dream, those who were attending her brought it, and having moistened it with the water from the spring, they applied it to her from head to foot, just as the command of the saints had ordained. As the aforementioned ointment of paxamatic bread and water dried, the multitude of moisture smoldering within was dried up, with the ointment absorbing the whole of it like a sponge or a siphon, and bringing it to the surface without pain. ^C And the aforementioned remedy absorbed not only that great flood of moisture but also the death that was about to be birthed from that very disease. And Maria, having fallen into such a savage danger, easily escaped the peril, having obtained the power of the martyrs, and upon experiencing the improvement of her malady and discovering the source of her recovery. We, however, praising the martyrs again, and hymning them as workers of such great deeds, shall write down another work, the greatest and worthy of such praise, of their grace.

XXI. Concerning Martyria, who suffered in her viscera from sorcery.

Let us hear of the suffering of Martyria, and let us not pass over the healing of her suffering, so that we may not only grieve over the affliction, but also rejoice as we learn of her recovery. ^D Her infirmity was terrible, exceeding words and tongue; for it was not natural, as most sufferings are, coming to pass from an excess of humors or generated by accidents from others, to which the body, after the transgression in paradise, has been fated by necessity to be enslaved; but it was from sorcery and the wickedness of certain people, who possessed an ungodly purpose and were maliciously ambitious in so unsparingly abusing their own kin. Whether they used poisons or harmful impulses and scourges of demons to afflict the woman, we as humans are ignorant; but God knows this clearly, along with all other things, He who has knowledge of everyone before their very existence.

^A Furthermore, her inner parts were crying out in suffering, and she lamented that they were being eaten and torn apart; to those who inquired about the cause, she could say nothing else.

But the leaders among the physicians flocked there, and they neither recognized the affliction, nor could they announce its cause, nor could they bring themselves to offer any remedy. Being able to achieve nothing, they would turn back as if they had never appeared. When this was discovered, those who belonged to the woman more quickly led her to the martyrs Cyrus and John, not being ignorant of their divine power, through which they extend health to those who approach them and perform wonderful works, which neither speech can narrate nor the human mind clearly conceive, bestowing benefits upon all and saving them, and delivering them from ^B successive dangers. Truly, for this reason the saints were given to men, being a good gift and a perfect present from God the philanthropist to men, imitating the philanthropy of the One who gave them, and hastening to be recognized as worthy of the Giver, rather than making His gift ineffective.

They, therefore, having pitied Martyria, who was being torn apart in such a way, as we have said, and who was wailing with piercing cries, brought her to sleep and prepared her to see a dream. And they themselves were the ones who gave her the vision and who appeared to her; for she saw men shining in the garments of monks, looking upon her more gently and placidly, and coming to her with reverence and saying: "For what reason do you cry out in this way, and not allow those who remain here in labors to sleep?" But she replied that her inner parts were aching. And the martyrs, again replying to her with words, ^C thus say: "And do you alone have an unbearable pain out of all these?" And having said this, both of them held the woman’s head; and when they had opened her mouth with their hands, the senior of the two (this was the wondrous Cyrus) breathed into it three times. And having done this, they themselves, she says, departed, but she was released from both the dream and the sleep; and she felt a moderate rest from the pain. However, she was compelled to go to the latrines, where, upon arriving, she sat and passed through her belly a palm-sized worm, which was secretly eating her inner parts. Casting it out like excrement, through the spirit-driven influence of the saints, she was completely freed from the pains and the lacerations; and having heaped praises upon the martyrs, she departed sound and unharmed. Together with whom, we also bring to them the same hymnody, making a contribution of another hymn, while providing an account of another miracle.

XXII. Concerning Sarapammon, who had a sciron in his foot.

Why should we neglect the illustrious Sarapammon, if we do not wish to pass him by and leave him unrelated along with the rest, the multitude of whom no man knows, nor can even guess, but God alone knows, and after God, the martyrs who did the healing? Therefore, let us tell of his infirmity, and with it the compassionate healing ^D which those illustrious ones clearly demonstrate to all, [as] God [shows] philanthropy...

imitating divine clemency and kindly bestowing mercy upon their neighbors. Sarapammo was suffering in one of his feet, and his ailment was transforming the man into a prodigy. For it was not a wound, or a pustule, or some other complication that could easily be healed, but what is called by physicians a *scirrhus*—a truly grievous malady—which had enveloped his entire foot as far as the groin and rendered it like a leather flask, multiplying it in volume until it far exceeded the one that appeared healthy. For this monstrous infirmity thus, in the meantime, displays its victim, causing his form and habit to change by both the removal of balance and the addition of excess, until it passes the bond of the groin with immense growth and destroys the entire man.

^B But while the malady was yet fresh and in its nascent stage, his father, Julian (for so he was called), brought in those who excelled among the physicians, and implored them to restore the boy to him unharmed, offering them rewards worthy of the gift. But they, thumbing through Galen and poring over Hippocrates, brought many things to the sufferer, yet fought in vain; and as they labored to no purpose and were able to bring no relief, they eventually stopped, proclaiming by their cessation their own defeat and the unconquerable power of the affliction. From there, the young man was carried to Cyrus and John; for his parents had learned that they cured every disease and every infirmity, and that they were not subject to the laws of physicians or to speculative conclusions. For those who bestow healings from above are above all, and are not bound by empty teachings, as is clearly recognized by all their signs; for they prescribed nothing medical, but actually commanded the opposite. For what ^C fellowship has light with darkness? It is fitting to say here, likewise: if the blessed martyrs are from God, yet earthly physicians who are of men and of the earth perform the healings.

By these saints, therefore, the hopeless Sarapammo was taken. They ordered that the foot which was suffering be anointed with the oil and cerate with which they feed the candle that illuminates their holy tomb, speaking this to his parents in a vision. The foot, having been anointed, was becoming thin, and the swelling that fed on the cerate was wasting away; and, being saturated with the oil that gladdens the face of him who takes it, it was being dried out, and was recovering its former beauty, which He who created it restored to both in an equal balance. ^D And not only was this worthy of admiration, but also that the size and growth which it had assumed over a long time, it shed in a few days; for such is the grace of the saints, that they cure protracted and great infirmities in the shortest time and by the most trifling command. Sarapammo, therefore, having been made whole as he himself and his parents believed—and as the purpose of the martyrs had decreed—departed with them in health, uttering thanks to his benefactors. And we, having again, as it were, experienced this healing, and having sung the praises of the doers no less than those who had suffered, let us proceed to another act of grace.

XXIII. Concerning Gennadius who had a head full of flies

Who would not marvel at the suffering of Gennadius and the miraculous healing of that suffering? For both are truly strange, alien to human sufferings, and unlike the medicines of Galen. Let us hear, therefore, and let us marvel not so much at the disease as at the physicians of the disease. Gennadius’ head pained him, not as it is the custom for those who suffer to be in pain, but in a way that no man among men had ever been sick; for with a certain sound and buzzing movement he endured the agonies, a thing which was ^A strange to report to all physicians and to all who heard it. And while others indeed only marveled at the suffering, physicians, though utilizing many ointments, various washes, phlebotomies, purges, and remaining remedies, conferred no aid upon Gennadius; so dire and strange was the disease. Whether curiosity gave birth to this, or some other natural symptom, we do not know; for we have been able to learn only of the suffering and its healing.

With this, the sufferer approached the martyrs and obtained his swift liberation, full of the martyr’s grace and recording the charming condescension of John and Cyrus; this was brought to pass in the following manner. I shall not keep silent about it, nor hide it, nor deprive those who hear of such a good; for such a thing is clearly the work of laziness or envy. But may envy be far removed from our mediocrity and from every Christian and godly-minded man; and as for laziness, let that poor man who makes friends poor according to Solomon’s proverbial ^B instruction be ever driven from our humility, especially now when, with a soul and mind that loves the martyrs, we write of the philanthropic miracles of Cyrus and John.

Gennadius was indeed sleeping, but the divine martyrs were keeping watch and were investigating the healing of the sleeper and were contemplating his cure. Finally, they come to him and make use of the words of our Lord, which He spoke to him who lay by the pool of Siloam: "Do you wish," they said, "to be made whole?" But he replied to them, "Yes; for what would I not do, being so severely punished with such a disease?" Then the saints said to him again: "If, therefore, you wish to be made whole, leave the basilica in the morning when you have risen from your bed, and you will meet with three camels, together with the man who is leading them. Having taken hold of the last ^C of these, do not let it go until it has defecated; for the dung which will be excreted from this, when you have moistened it with water, will be the remedy for your infirmity, and when it has been brought to your head, it will render you free from such a great evil." And having said these things, the martyrs departed.

But indeed, when the sufferer had risen from his bed, as he had been commanded, he went out to fulfill that which had been ordered; and having found three camels, as he had ^D been told, he took hold of the last one of the load

and having taken hold of it, he hindered the journey of the others. But he who had the care of these animals first attempted to persuade the sick man with words to let them go; but when he saw that he did not acquiesce, raising his camel-goad, he struck his suffering head with blows, and opened to the flies which were shut up therein the escape they desired. ^A Having found a door of flight and departure, they no longer endured to be restrained; but this having happened, they flew away, and having broken through the enclosure, they departed, and having dug through the prison, they escaped, and left that new den of his, deserted of pain and of their restless stinging of the man, and they filled the present place, a new spectacle to those who saw them flying out. And thus Gennadius was freed from the flies by the hand of the martyrs, having found liberation not by the rod of a camel-driver.

And since the wound was still flowing with flies and he was distressed by their terrible hovering, the aforementioned camel, as if by some inexorable command, excreted dung; and those who were standing by immediately snatched this up, and having moistened it sooner with water, they plastered over that fly-bearing wound, blocking up the entrance for them, so that they might not enter again, returning, and remain, according to the seven most wicked spirits, ^B and the last state of the man become worse than the first. But the remedy made from the dung having been placed upon the wound, it immediately rendered it invisible and unknown to almost all who wished to see the den of the flies, preserving only the traces of their exit, a monument of the philanthropy of Cyrus and John, and witnesses of their martyric power. We, however, even now, as we do in all the miracles, let us praise the saints, having as a participant and leader of our hymnody him who was healed, Gennadius; and thus let us fashion our discourse toward the promise of another miracle.

XXIV. Concerning Juliana the blind and Juliana the lethargic.

To a double and pre-eminent miracle let us add a double miracle, not performed on one person, but on two, who happened to be of one nature and one name; and the nature in them was that of the female, and the name was that of the martyr, Juliana. For a pair of women, ^C bearing one designation, but held by two diseases, approaches the saints; both are called Juliana, yet their disease is not common, nor their dignity in the world. For one was known to be in wealth, while the other had poverty as her housemate; and the one was grievously ill in her chest, serving a lethargic condition, while the other was shut off as to her eyes, possessing an inconsolable blindness; and the one summoned physicians for healing, while the other was deprived even of their counsel and of the visitation desired by those who are ill, on account of her poverty. They shared in common the incurability of their sufferings, even if the physicians of Marcellinus (for so the husband of the lethargic and wealthy woman was called), and the poorer one and her who was blind...

were visited by no one of the Asclepiads. For in truth, according to Solomon, who was great in wisdom and possessed a heart as boundless as the sea, "Friends of the wealthy are many, but even the one that the poor person has departs"; and Solomon has written these things describing how matters stand.

^B The two women, the one not possessing the money through which she might call upon physicians, and the other, who after spending much money had benefited nothing, now come to John and Cyrus, the all-powerful physicians who do not lack money, and who do not cure the sick for gold. I shall recount their healing, since we have already mentioned their infirmity (for this remains to be told), following their arrival at the temple. For before the sight of it and their arrival at the saints, we humans fall sick and are often held by cruel afflictions; but seeing this place, and falling down before the martyrs who dwell there, we immediately cast off every languor and every infirmity. When, therefore, they had come to the temple, as we were saying, they awaited vitality from those inhabiting the temple, even there making use of their former ranks; the one, not at all putting aside the vain, God-hateful swelling born of wealth, lay on a bed before the monument, while the other was cast out before the gate, like that destitute and poor Lazarus who became a companion of Abraham’s bosom.

^C Yet the martyrs appeared equally to both, rebuking the arrogance of the one and comforting the desperate humility of the soul of the other, while granting healings to both. For to the one who was lethargic and possessed an arrogant mind, they said, "Why have you come to our sanctuary?" And when she answered that she desired to obtain health and vigor, they said, "If you wish to receive from us those things which you have asked, throw out your cot and lie upon the ground; and this shall become for you a remedy for your soul’s and body’s affliction." But appearing to Juliania, the impoverished one who lived by the work of her own hands, they said these things: "Having brought the flesh of a crocodile, roast it on coals of fire, and having crushed it well in a mortar and made it into a powder, sprinkle it upon your eyes which are suffering." And indeed, the saints, appearing in a dream, commanded these things to both. Those women, once awakened, quickly fulfilled what had been prescribed to them, and obtained the healings promised in the instructions. And for the one, sleeping on the ground sufficed for her recovery, but for the other, it was the remedy prepared and burned from the crocodile; for as soon as she who suffered from the chest-affliction lay down upon the earth, abandoning her cot, she was freed from her passion; and as soon as the blind woman placed the powder upon her eyes, she regained her sight. And we, having praised the physicians along with them both, let us concern ourselves with the report of the remaining miracles.

XXV. Concerning Helpidia the woman with the issue of blood.

Scarcely have we found Helpidia, for she was hidden in this multitude of those who were healed; finally, by...

- ^Atyrs she stole her cure, yet fearing on this account, and trembling, perhaps like that woman with the issue of blood who was hiding from the Savior. For she too clearly feared, lest the martyrs from whom she had stolen the cure might perceive it and make her known to all, just as the Lord made known that woman who thought she had escaped both Him and everyone else. But neither did this woman now escape those who healed her, just as that other did not then escape the Lord. For the saints, having seen her hiding in the midst of the crowds, bring her into the center, even against her will, and triumph over her in the sight of all; not because she had done something wrong, but because she had gained her salvation through faith and deservedly heard from them: "Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace."

For Helpidia, this most faithful woman, had the infirmity of an issue of blood, by which she was cruelly consumed and wasted away without restraint; she had no fountain of her suffering that was drying up, nor one of perennial streams, but one of gushing blood; and a torrent, always flowing, not with silvery-looking waters, but dripping with crimson-colored blood. From this, she appeared as one dead among the living, for the blood that provides a ruddy color to the countenance was failing; yet she was not reckoned among the dead, because the vital spirit still animated and held her together. Wishing to flee from this malady, she pursued physicians who promised to put it to flight, always searching them out with the greatest diligence—those who used to wear their cloaks with an air of distinction, boasting that they knew everything pertaining to the art, and who taught those desiring to learn with a supercilious manner of speech, as if they were experts in the reality of the ^B deeds. She found such men abounding throughout the city as she wished, but she rarely found those who were capable of providing a cure, as she desired; for having taken the trial of each one of them, she would pass on to another as though she had not been tried, and having gone through them all one by one, she did not drive away the disease that possessed her.

When she had spent her whole living and substance on doctors, and had not been able to escape her suffering, nor even to procure any relief for her pains—having acquired nothing from them but the lack caused by spending everything—she comes quietly to Cyrus and John, meditating in her heart to steal her cure by faith. Waiting for a convenient time for the theft, and observing the hour when she might be able to plunder the healing, she is overcome by deep drowsi- ^C ness and is despoiled in her sleep before she could despoil the martyrs; and wishing to steal the cure, she herself was instead stolen, and being stolen, she again began to plan about the theft. But having seen them, as she was sleeping against her will, she feared to commit the theft; for she did not dare to break into the treasury, seeing the saints guarding one another, and unable to be stolen by anyone unless they themselves willed it.

They, however, having understood the intention of the woman and having accepted her faith and the manifest and known [nature of her pious] ^D

religion, come to her and bestow the gift of health and the thrice-desired cure of her suffering; not as if they were unaware that they had been robbed—as some dared to say regarding the Savior, putting their mouths into heaven and speaking wickedly against the Most High, going through the earth with their tongue, and saying in the vilest way, "How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?"—for they will be numbered with those who said to Him, "Why, being a man, do you make yourself God?" and they will share the lot of the fool. But with merciful knowledge they grant healings, as we learn from all their miracles.

Standing by, therefore, as we were saying, they order her to put myrtle into wine and to drink it. And she, having done this after the dream, was immediately healed of the scourge. For the blood that was flowing from her incessantly, having perceived the presence of the medicine, stopped; and being blocked from flowing through her mouth ^B by these things, it was prevented from pouring out, being checked in its flow; and from its liquid and unstable nature, it was changed into a robust and stable one; or rather, it was utterly removed, having attained an absolute cessation of existence and flowing. Helpidia, therefore, having obtained such a healing, when she had offered thanks to those who had granted it, was dismissed by them to go on in peace. We, however, hoping for peace, and singing double thanks for peace, namely, and for the miracles, to God and to the martyrs, let us direct our tongue to another narration of miracles.

XXVI. Concerning Theodora who had swallowed a frog.

Tracking the woman previously mentioned, and sailing across the sea of those who have been healed, and running along the paths that flow like a river, we found another woman, whose appearance we had not yet seen, but we heard the frog croaking ^C within her; and we bring her to you along with the frog, loudly proclaiming the miracle that occurred in her through the martyrs. The woman was said by her parents to be named Theodora, and while drinking water, she swallowed a small frog, which, dwelling in her belly as if in some pond, at first, while it was still very small, did not torment her so bitterly, but caused certain twistings when it moved, proportional to its smallness; and the woman thought she was suffering these things from some other cause, being ignorant of the swallowing of the frog. But when it became great by growing, and as it was being nourished in her belly, it grew along with the woman—who was pregnant with this strange and misshapen fetus—it simultaneously multiplied her pains; and, no longer able to bear them, she would roll upon the ground, having no hour of respite and knowing no time of rest, so that ^D she was suspected of suffering from a spirit, or of having a bodily ailment.

Moreover, even the physicians who were considered more capable than the others were of this same opinion, being utterly at a loss regarding the disease and unable to grasp any diagnosis of it. Therefore, since she seemed to have a demon, she was led to the martyrs. And when she had come to their church...

^A, the disease was immediately exposed, and the ignorance of the physicians became manifest to all. For the martyrs, appearing to her in her sleep, commanded her to drink water before taking food, promising through the drinking of the water the flight of the disease. And she, as it is said, following that pain-relieving dream, drank the water as had been prophesied before any nourishment or food. And by doing this, she was moved to vomit and brought up that bitter toad which she had swallowed unknowingly. And having found destruction through water, through water she also escaped death. For the lovers of mankind fashioned this hook for the hunting of the deadly toad and for the ineffable salvation of the woman—which the man-hating devil had also employed for the destruction of Theodora. And she, having unexpectedly escaped destruction and having offered words of salvation to the martyrs who had captured her, departed from their temple. But we, having here too sung ^B auspicious chants to them, let us make the occasion for another melody, attaching another prodigy to the present one.

XXVII. Regarding Theodore, who was commanded by the saints to eat an asp.

The order of miracles well led Theodore—namesake of the aforementioned woman—to the narrative after him, and set him before those who delight in the works and deeds of the saints as an admirable feast, not only because he received a name in common with her, but also because his partial infirmity and the ineffable healing of his passion have a certain ^C resemblance to those things that happened to her, even if there is a very great distinction between the two, as the ensuing narrative will show.

For Theodore was suffering in his entrails, not because a toad had slipped into him and was stirring and disturbing him with its swimming and begetting terrible pains, but because of a curiosity from food, through the machinations of wicked men, which generated unbearable pain for him. For we wretched ones love to defend ourselves against our own kind not only with torture, murderous instruments, and swords, if someone has done something painful, or even when held by brother-hating envy, even if that person has done us no wrong, but we also love to destroy them with sorcery, having lost our natural affection for our neighbor—if, according to ^D Moses the lawgiver, the instructor and teacher of brotherly love, every animal loves its own kind, and every man loves his neighbor. And [we do this] completely forgetting the defense we have for all things done, if, according to Paul the legal expert, the worker and herald of every virtue, we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, paying just penalties and receiving according to the worth of our actions, both good and evil. And these things, even as they have been spoken and believed, will certainly come to pass, even if we do not wish it, being struck by a guilty conscience.

As for Theodore, being terribly tormented and having his entrails burned by the consumption of the caustic poison...

^A he stepped over the councils of the physicians. Yet, just as he kept going, so he kept returning, helped in nothing by them; he gained only one thing in his going and coming: the realization of their helplessness. Recognizing that all of them had no strength against the suffering, and despairing of being delivered and saved by them, he ran to the martyrs John and Cyrus, who are true helpers and able to save, and he lay down in their shrine, awaiting their aid. They, not delaying their visitation (for they saw that the disease was unbearable), stood by the sleeping Theodore, and appearing, they commanded him to eat an asp, and by this food to flee the cruel danger. He, turning, signed his forehead with his hand with the sign of the cross, and thinking the vision to be an evil delusion, he did none of the things that were said.

^B To him, as he besought them and wept, the saints again appeared in his sleep and commanded him to do the same things. But he disregarded this instruction of theirs as well, suffering none of the things that were said to be carried out; rather, he suspected the command of the saints to be the suggestion of some wild demon, eager to destroy and kill him. And when the martyrs appeared a third time and still could not persuade him to carry out their order—even though, because of the triple vision, he believed that it was indeed their decree—they came a fourth time, out of immense mercy and divine compassion, [and said], "Since, despite what has been said to you many times, you did not wish to do it, get up early and go out to our fountain, and whatever you find in it ^C that is edible, receive it without hesitation; and this will suffice for you for the full enjoyment of healing."

In the morning, he went out to their fountain as they had ordered, and behind the door he found a cucumber, which he took and ate with all eagerness and desire. And when he had reached the end of the cucumber, and was finding its consumption very sweet, he suddenly saw the remains of the asp. Throwing it down onto the floor very quickly, he was terrified, fearing that he would surely die. But this was not true, nor anything like the truth; rather, he was saved by the food, and he lived and escaped death—a death he would certainly not have escaped had he not eaten the deadly food. For immediately, both from fear and from disgust, he brought on a vomiting, ^D and he cast out whatever he had eaten of the asp, bringing out with it at the same time the deadly poison he had eaten before. The saints do not perform cures by contraries, according to earthly physicians, but heal likes with likes. For they are not subject to the laws of physicians in healing those who approach them, but being held by divine decree, they grant unexpected and divine healings. Thus, then, Theodore, having been delivered from the disease and having obtained perfect health, went away giving thanks. We, however, having finished the story about him here with praise, shall make a record and narrative of another praiseworthy deed.

XXVIII. Of Nemesius the expræfect and Photinus the blind man.

^A Into our midst now has come Nemesius, one of those who were healed. He proclaims the healing of Photinus, but declares the incurable nature of his own condition; he preaches the power of the saints, but reveals his own folly, perhaps lamenting this latter as an obstacle to the aid he received from the martyrs. Let us recount also the things that concern him, just as we learned them; for the narrative is not without profit, even if his own approach to the martyrs proved unprofitable for him. This man was recognized as one of those who were distinguished in high office, adorned not only with rank, but also puffed up by wealth and by the splendor that flows around riches; yet he surpassed those who are merely wealthy in money, by the wisdom of Hellenic speeches and the craftiness studied in their idioms.

Not being able to endure the arrogance and the swelling of the mind that puff up the heart, he became—to speak in the language of Scripture—stiff-necked against the God of all; and, having robbed all of His creatures of His providence as much as he could, he attributed it to the movement of the stars, and the wretch hitched our affairs to the configurations resulting from this, and to others as well. He made us slaves—us, who share in soul and reason, who were created in the image of the Creator, and were honored by this with freedom of will and the sovereignty of choice—to the stars, which are simultaneously inanimate and lacking reason, and are devoid of all sense and volition, and which were ordered, on the contrary, to serve those who are upon the earth, and to shine upon us and appear according to divine commands, and to signify only the divisions of time and the changes of seasons, as God who created them for our sake ordained. For the writer and teacher of the creation of all things, explaining their making, says: ^B "And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to shine upon the earth, to separate between the night and the day, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years; and let them be for light in the firmament of heaven, to shine upon the earth; and it was so." And this was not yet the end of his wickedness; there was something much graver: through the configurations and movements of the stars, he thought that he could force the Creator of all things themselves to serve in the bringing about of our birth. For the star-mad men tried to provide such power to them that they were thought to rule not only over men and everything upon the earth—to whom they are even more senseless—but even over God, who planned the whole and brought forth what was not into being by a mere command.

^C But those who have become the inventors and leaders of this madness will not go long without finding the punishment for their own impiety—a punishment all the more bitter and greater in proportion to the multitude of those who follow them. For their sins are manifest, and these, according to the divine Apostle, might fittingly be said to follow them, because of the evident...

^A destruction of those who follow in their footsteps. For they have become not only instructors in impiety to these wretches, but also teachers who urge them to sin with abandon; they say that God does not preside over affairs, nor is there any judgment of the things that are done, nor do things happen by our own will according to our own intentions, but they attribute them to the will and movement of the stars, and say that the arrangement of these forces compulsion. And they will learn of their Creator, and the maker of this whole universal structure, through the fire that is not quenched and the worm that does not die; for they did not wish to contemplate Him from the greatness and beauty of created things, as is reasonable; nor did they desire to see and understand Him who is invisible to the eyes of men, who from the creation of the world is seen and understood through the things that have been made. But their foolish heart was darkened; and claiming to be wise, they became fools, and worshipped the creature rather than the Creator.

Nemesianus, however, who is the source of this story for us (for I shall turn my pen ^B back to him), although counted among the Christians, followed those who irrationally introduce fate; and from this source he was tried by the punishment prepared for them. He was justly deprived of the eyes of his body, with which he wrongly gazed upon the heavens, and with excessive curiosity observed the movement of the choir of stars, forgetting his baptism and all those things to which he had there pledged himself to Christ. Suffering the loss of his sight, he immediately bore witness to the truth of Scripture, being punished through the specific members by which he had sinned. But being ignorant of the cause of his blindness, and that it was a scourge and a bond of his unrighteous speculation, punishing him and restraining him, he showed himself eager to choose physicians, attracting the best of them with the promise of high rewards. But nothing came to him from his zeal regarding them; for he remained blind no less, even after admitting many of these.

And yet, ^C none of these things should have been done by one who shamelessly dogmatized about fate, and proclaimed it to be the compelling force and foreteller of all things that happen. For if he truly knew from this science of fate that he would absolutely be healed, and that he would see again, and would once more behold the movement of the stars, he ought not to have sought out physicians, who were supposed to grant him health, but should have waited for the decree of fate, which would come even without physicians. For the pronouncements of fate thunder forth for them without condition, and happen in every way to those who are willing and unwilling alike. ^D But if it did not confer health upon him, but rather took it away completely, why was he gathering the Asclepiadae (and through them fighting against his nativity)? He should have known that he would be defeated by it, even if he should bring in Asclepius himself as an ally. But it is clear that he had received the hope of recovery from the star-astrologers, even if he was mistaken regarding the calling of the physicians, desiring to recover his sight perhaps more quickly than it had been ordained.

^A Since he had spent much time and money on them, yet had received no benefit from them of any kind, nor had the decree of fate been fulfilled, he decided to go to the martyrs Cyrus and John, thinking that perhaps through them this decree might be brought to its completion. But he was shown to be in error here too, holding the twisted threads of the Fates. For when he had arrived at the precinct, he was perhaps praying to the holy ones to grant him eyes that could see, and to fulfill the decree of fate, so that he might attribute the healing of his eyes to this, showing ingratitude toward the martyrs who were to work it—which he surely would have done if he had obtained the object of his request. But the martyrs did no such thing as what Nemesius wished; rather, wishing to strike the senseless man and to demonstrate the difference between unbelief and faith, they performed the following act: ^B

A certain Photinus, a man of very lowly status who sold fruit before the basilica of the holy Three Children, having lost the sight of his physical eyes, was at that time attending to the holy Cyrus and John, desiring to recover this through their grace. To him, the martyrs appeared in his sleep: “Go,” they said, “to Nemesius, and when he merely lays his hands upon your eyes, you will immediately receive your health and be able to see light more brightly than before.” Having heard this from the holy ones, he was afraid to speak openly to the man, considering the weight of his dignity and weighing the arrogance of his wealth. But when he saw the holy ones twice and three times bidding him to do this, he dared to tell some of those who were in the temple. ^C These then went to Cyrus the advocate, a man both wise and a lover of Christ, who was at that time lingering in the shrine of the martyrs—the very man who reported these things to us—and they told him what had appeared to Photinus. He, having gone quickly to the man, informed him of the command of the holy ones; and having used many words, he persuaded him to fulfill it, calling himself a sinner and expressing his hesitation in attempting such an action.

Nemesius, therefore, having come and stood before the monument of the holy ones, and having prayed much with tears, and having touched both the sarcophagus of their remains and the probe of the holy ones, thus laid his hands upon the eyes of Photinus who was present. ^D As soon as he felt the touch of those hands, he immediately regained his sight, and while he moved everyone to praise, Nemesius himself was moved to many tears, which, however, afforded no help to the one weeping, since he had not changed his mind. Hence, Nemesius quite naturally heard the prophet Isaiah speaking to him in a reproachful manner: “Let them stand and save you, the astrologers of the heaven; let those who see the stars announce to you what is about to come upon you.” But Photinus heard the Savior, too, crying out to him: “Go in peace, your faith has saved you.” Photinus, therefore, having offered his thanks to God and the martyrs, departed rejoicing. Nemesius, however, perhaps not having received any spiritual harm from the miracle, adorned a portion of the wall near the monument with marbles,

and painting Christ in these, ^A along with John the Baptist and Forerunner, and Cyrus the martyr, and also himself, thereby proclaiming the grace that had come upon this. But we, having narrated the events concerning them, and having made known both the power and the grace of the saints, and having for this reason praised them again, let us proceed to other most wonderful accounts of them.

XXIX. Concerning Athanasia, who did not believe in the holy martyrs Cyrus and John.

We remember having stated in the preceding ^B that we would write two or three accounts, through which both the intensity and the austerity of the saints might be recognized, for the benefit of the slothful and the security of the more zealous; so that both might learn that they know not only how to do good to the best, but also how to punish the worst, in this also imitating Christ their own Lord, who indeed spreads His kingdom to all, yet does not grant it to all absolutely, but rather [bestows it] on those who obey His preaching, and keep the faith by works, and fulfill His commandments with all their power; but to those who are not such, [He allots] the sleepless worm, and the eternal Gehenna, and the outer darkness. And to those indeed who are on the right hand, it is said, "Come, inherit," while to those on the left, He cries out, "Depart from me into the eternal fire." And through Isaiah the prophet, He spoke to all in a similar way: "If you are willing and obey me," He says, "you shall eat the good things of the earth; but if you are not willing and do not obey me, the sword shall devour you." For the mouth of the Lord Almighty, he says, has spoken these things. Let no one, therefore, censure the saints as severe, nor suspect them to be cruel and harsh, if, following the footsteps of their Master, they indeed do good to the sensible, but punish the wicked. For they act even in this for the general benefit of all, as the universal teacher, if those who endure their scourges could come to their senses ^C and show forth true repentance; as those things which are being said, with God's help, shall demonstrate—that they had mercy on those who repented, but destroyed those who did not repent. For they were not disciples and offspring of inhumanity, so as not to receive those who repent, but sons of humanity and genuine shoots.

Let Athanasia, then, the woman, come into our midst, and let her be the first to bear witness concerning the punishments shown by the martyrs upon those who sin, and also the benefit and mercy shown toward those who do penance. This woman was celebrated among the illustrious ladies of Alexandria; for she happened to be the wife of Marcellinus, of whom we made mention a short while ago, when we described the healing of Juliana; she was adorned with earthly riches and crowned with the luster of her parents. But while she was lovely with all these worldly gifts, ^D she nevertheless remained miserably darkened in her soul, not having faith toward Cyrus and John. Wherefore she would more frequently rail against them, and say that they were not martyrs,

^A nor had they wrestled or suffered for Christ, which is the ultimate wretchedness.

Whether she was held fast by some error and bowing to Hellenic phantasms, ^B and thus traducing the saints, or whether it was from a simplicity of mind and heart, in that no writing was brought to her which might indicate this and recount to us the witness of their struggle for Christ—save for the divinely inspired acclamation of Cyril alone, that most sacred trumpet—I cannot say; yet both are impious and filled with ignorance. For if she spoke evil of the martyrs in the former manner, it is manifest that this is full of impiety and error; but if in the latter manner, which we suspect, it is worthy of punishment and rebuke. For if we should hold only those to be martyrs whom we have in the written records, then Christ died in vain, having made but few the partakers of his sufferings; for these are very few indeed. But we too would be in danger, if we were not guarded by myriads of martyrs, having them as intercessors for us before Christ by the pouring out of their own blood. For even if there were no records at all—to pass over the discourse of Cyril, which is sufficient in itself to confirm the whole matter, proclaiming the struggles of the saints and revealing their calling—the multitude of the powers that are unceasingly performed through them ought to provide them with the reputation of martyrs. For if they do not perform the works of martyrs, and have not received the gifts of powers through which they strengthen the infirm, even if it does not so seem to us (for we are not of such glory), still, let them not be called martyrs by them. But if they perform wonders greater than the martyrs, on what reasoning are they not to be called martyrs?

And this is especially so since the Savior said to the Jews who did not believe in Him: ^C “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do the works, though ye believe not me, believe the works.” ^D And He has given us an unerring and firm intelligence, and a discernment that never fails, to judge those who are working by their deeds. “For by their works,” He says, “ye shall know them; and the tree is known by its fruit.” But this has become sheer folly: if the blind man, not having heard of these things, yet recognized the Lord and perceived the operation of God, saying, “For if this man were not from God, he could not do anything,” shall we, hearing these things at every hour—He who healed us when we were blind, and who bestows such great benefits upon us—not recognize them? For what is it that the martyrs who are seen do, and accomplish, and which Cyrus and John are unable to work? Nothing. But if anyone wishes, let him come forward and show it, and we shall offer a defense; for we have nothing more to say, as these men see certain things that are not seen...

^A by others. In the same way, we honor all the martyrs, both those who perform miracles and those who do not perform miracles; and we labor to speak for the saints, not against the saints. We then, in this way, have held and will hold our position regarding the holy martyrs Cyrus and John and the rest of the army of holy martyrs, and we exhort all who shine forth in the faith to think and believe likewise regarding them.

Athanasia, however, of whom our account speaks, not honoring the martyrs in this way, turned toward terrible blasphemies, frequently making a spectacle of them and always disparaging them in conversations; and she not only did not speak of them as martyrs, but even prevented those who wished to do so. Since, therefore, Athanasia was of this opinion, and held such a view ^B concerning the holy Cyrus and John, it was necessary for her to receive an experience of their more severe correction, so that she might not remain forever sinning, but, having clearly learned the truth, might escape the destruction of such madness; thus, the mercy of the martyrs who were being blasphemed by her provides correction. One day, when she was arguing such things with certain people in her house and was shamefully mocking and deriding the saints, a single flea, jumping and leaping as if to fight for the saints, bit her ankle violently. When the woman bent down trying to catch it, she remained immediately in that same posture of bending, no longer able to look upward; for she could not stand erect, which is the only formation peculiar to men to display. For, having sinned irrationally ^C against the martyrs, they corrected her by means of the posture of irrational animals, bowing her downward by their command. The torment, moreover, did not happen without pain, for it clearly had a consequence proportional to such a punishment; being strongly struck by it, she manifested her hidden pains with the voices of much weeping; the cause of which she was ignorant of (for this too she gained from the multitude of her blasphemies), and desiring to escape the danger, she summoned groups of physicians. They flocked eagerly, exulting in the hope of greater rewards; but they were frustrated in this, being ignorant of the cause of the affliction and not knowing what to do.

But when ^D the martyrs had suitably—or rather, mercifully—rebuked her, and had caused her through the inflicted pains to recognize their power, they appeared to her in a dream, standing by her and saying with milder words: "Come to us" (for she was in her own house), "and we will grant you health." She, answering them, said: "Who are you, that you have more power than so many physicians?" They said: "We, O woman, are Cyrus and John, the martyrs who were always being mocked by you. But if you come with faith into our house, you will experience our gift, just as you have experienced the scourge." With these words the martyrs departed. She, however, having awakened from sleep, called upon Saint Cyrus and John, the fellow-martyr of Cyrus, whom a little while before she was mocking, and she hastened to come to those whom, a short while before, she was attacking with insults, as they were coming to them.

^A But do you suppose that when she had come to them, she was disappointed of her hope? By no means; for how was it possible that the martyrs should lie, being as they were imitators of the Savior? For, wishing to show to the woman their incomparable and incomprehensible power, and the magnitude of the martyrs' charisms, they wrought a cure quicker than the scourge; for they had laid it up in store until she should come to them. But the moment she trod upon that sacred threshold of the sanctuary, she was immediately released from the scourge that held her; and having cast off that downward-bent posture, she walked through the martyrium with an upright frame, and walking according to nature, she offered voices of thanksgiving to the saints, both for the chastening and for the healing. ^B Whence, having experienced the power of both of these—I mean both the healing and the scourge—she honored and revered them even more than those who had not experienced them; and she not only preached them as martyrs, but also affirmed that they held the primacy among martyrs. From then on, she placated them with many tears, and gladdened them with many and rich offerings, by reason of her former insult and her subsequent love toward them. And thus, indeed, Athanasia profited from the discipline, and by her change of mind washed away her former madness, thinking hereafter what was fitting concerning the saints. We, however, ever honoring and revering them, and honoring them as holy martyrs, and counting them among those who have suffered for Christ, let us now fittingly praise them, and write another narrative, through which both their severity and their compassion will likewise be known, which is known to benefit all who do not listen to what is said in a perfunctory manner.

XXX. Concerning Gesius the Iatrosophist.

^C There is present now also Gesius, not one who disputes artfully about the remedies of the saints, or boasts of curing patients according to the rules of medicine, but one who was languishing and suffering severely, and longing to partake of their divine gift, in which placing his trust magnificently, and testifying that the martyrs heal by divine power, he asserted that the subtleties of physicians were nothing in comparison to the power of those holy ones. Let us therefore speak of his infirmity, and the cause of the infirmity, and the most gracious remedy for it, even if he himself even now is ashamed, and by no means wishes it to be made manifest to all in writing. Gesius was a most wise sophist, not in the sense of one who delivers rhetorical discourses and for this reason wears the tribon, but as one who presided over the art of medicine, and was recognized at that time as a teacher of it with great ^D diligence to those who were learning. This wise man, who was held in high esteem for his words, and was famed as a physician among the most excellent physicians, was not, the wretched man, free from Hellenic superstition—as those who clearly knew his affairs used to say—and he made public his involuntary baptism, which he had received, fearing a royal threat; and as he came up from the divine laver, he impiously uttered that Homeric line: *Ajax has perished, for he drank of the salt water.* Having been initiated into the most divine sacraments, he therefore kept this impiety hidden within himself, and mocked Christians, as if…

they were most irrationally worshipping Christ and serving His divine laws; and he belched forth many other loathsome things, bringing forth evil words from the evil treasure of his heart. For truly, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks and utters. He mocked ^B also Cyrus and John, the martyrs, as if they healed human diseases by the art of medicine, and not by some divine and supreme power. For, inquiring about the medicines prescribed by them to the sick, which we also partially described above, he declared these to be the teachings of physicians; and one remedy he would call Hippocratic, saying that it was written in such-and-such a book; another he would shout was a Galenic medicine, and claimed it was to be found in this or that treatise; another remedy he would clearly report to be Democritean, and would cite the place where—so he said—mention of it was made; and having heard of one medicine of another physician, he would boast that it was an emplastrum. And he would maintain that all things said by the saints were merely the preparations of certain physicians, always discoursing about diseases in a natural way, discussing the qualities of the given medicines, and asserting that they were prescribed according to the rules of medicine and that the destruction of the ailments occurred by that means.

But the martyrs provide no other proof—though he is clearly refuted by the events themselves—against these ramblings of his, than the mad Gessius himself, who was their maker and progenitor. For ^C the wretch, being infirm in his back, had his shoulders and neck, along with the shoulder blades, shriveled up as if by some divine wrath, and deprived of all motion; for these—dry and bloodless as wood, though they were on a living body—spoke then and bore witness [to his state], and he experienced the pain befitting such a punishment. And being ignorant of the cause of the affliction, he who had cared for the healing of others strove to heal himself. He made use of various ointments and purges no less than the ointments themselves, he alternated through multifaceted diets, and he partook of hot foods, imagining that what was in those places was cold and phlegm, and thinking that in this way he might discern the cause of the disease.

But when he had done everything that belonged to the art, and had performed what Galen and Hippocrates and the crowd of other physicians had taught him, and the affliction ^D appeared not at all lessened, nor could he bestow any desired movement upon his motionless limbs, he summoned illustrious physicians, and upon their arrival, having explained his infirmity, he demanded from them a remedy for it. And when each had pronounced what he thought, he finally recounted that he had already performed all the things told him by them. Hearing this, they were held in silence, and they immediately proclaimed the only physician of all ailments to be God, who is able to do more than men in all things, and who performs works which are not performed by any men. They directed [him] to go to the holy ones, Cyrus and John, and to await their visitation.

^A Since they participate in divine grace and perform miracles by divine power, [he might] expect from this the healing he sought. To them, Gesius immediately began to say that the holy ones were practicing medicinal cures, and that they were demonstrating nothing divine or miraculous that had not been proclaimed by ancient physicians. But they, wisely resisting this, and citing many of their own cures and innumerable remedies, and the diseases healed by these, demanded that the sick man state his reasons. Unable to find anything to say, and finding himself immediately refuted by them whenever he spoke, he chose to be silent before those who resisted him so well. Silent and unwilling, he submitted; and having submitted, he came to the martyrs, driven not so much by persuasion as by dire pains.

Falling at their feet, however, as he was supplicating for health and beseeching the martyrs according to his strength, they appeared to him while he slept at night and indicated the medicine for his ailment, a punishment appropriate to the sufferer's stupidity; for, claiming to be wise, he was proven a fool rather than wise. "Come," they said, "take a donkey's pack-saddle, and carry it, placing it upon your shoulders, your neck, and your back, which are proven to suffer pains; and in the middle of the day, go around our whole temple, crying out in a loud voice, 'I am a fool and mindless.' And having done this, as we have said, you will immediately find healing for your body." Having said these things to him, the saints departed. But he, ^B having turned, called the vision a fantasy and not an injunction of the Christ-bearing holy ones; and rejecting it as a phantasmic decree, he did none of the things that had been said.

Again, beseeching the martyrs, he heard that he must do these things, but with an addition. For they came again to him while he slept and ordered him to hang a large bell along with the pack-saddle from his neck, and with these to run around their temple, shouting, "I am a fool." But because he rejected this intention as well, calling the command an inconsistent fantasy, unable to understand the pack-saddle or the bell, nor of what judgment or natural and essential quality these things were, he again begged and offered supplications to the Lord, that He would rather heal his infirmity and not overlook him, led astray by fantasies. The most divine and truly compassionate martyrs appeared again and ordered him to do the former things again, adding that he should also wear a bridle like brute animals, and be led by one of his servants walking in front, ^C in this manner adorning himself with the pack-saddle and the bell, and repeating "I am a fool" very clearly; not that they were correcting themselves with the additions of the bridle and the bell, but by these things they were making the foolishness of the most wise Gesius more manifest, and scourging his lack of understanding with a sharper and greater shame. And so, the extraordinary martyrs, having said these things to him, departed.

He, however, having awakened, feared to call the vision a phantom again, since it had been confirmed to him by a third sight; yet he was compelled to do this for the sake of release from his affliction, and so that he might not provoke the martyrs to implacable anger against him. Therefore, having lifted the pack-saddle onto his shoulders and back, and having placed the bridle upon his head and in his mouth, he followed behind the boy who was leading him through the temple and walking about its courts, the laps of which were ten, as those who measured them say, crying out repeatedly, "I am a fool." Having thus fulfilled the command of the saints, along with the pack-saddle, the bridle, and the bell, he also laid aside the affliction of his back and recovered his health, which was made lovely by the precepts of the saints and accompanied by their injunctions. ^B

As night approached, and with the brightness of the east following, the divine martyrs again stood by Gesius as he slept, and they smilingly brought to his memory the sin he had committed against them, asserting: "Since you wish for all the remedies offered to the sick by us to be inventions of the physicians of old who have perished, tell us where your Hippocrates has set down the remedies for your own suffering? Or has Galen, who is admired by you, spoken of them? Where, too, has Democritus declared these things? Or has any other of the famous physicians mentioned them? If you find these things stated by them, then you will speak the truth regarding the others as well. But if you can prove that they have said no such thing, recognize that you have been lying about the others also." The saints, having thus exposed Gesius and clearly convicted him of being a calumniator, brought the dream to an end. ^C

He, indeed, even while sleeping, was struck dumb, having nothing with which to contradict the martyrs; and when he awoke, he was astonished, admiring their most wise refutation. Therefore, praising the power of the saints in hymns, and confessing that it is from God that they heal those who are suffering, he departed from their basilica. But they say that the saints Cosmas and Damian, fellow physicians and fellow martyrs of these, performed a deed of this kind, just as Cyrus and John also performed the sign of the paralytic and the mute woman, and also that of the Hebrew woman who had a cancer hidden within; matters which many recall and proclaim as if they had happened yesterday. But we pass over these miracles, since they are written among their other accounts; yet we have deservedly recorded the present prodigy, since it is not written among them. And let no one wonder if the saints perform the same miracles among one another (for Cyrus and John, as well as Cosmas and Damian, draw their healings from a single source, Christ our God; and each of them has and honors one Master, who through them grants us healings and performs manifold prodigies; whom we praise with hymns as the God of all, and as we make the interposition of other miracles, we praise the martyrs as his faithful servants). ^D

XXXI. Concerning Theodore, who after communicating emitted a sound from his nose, and immediately became blind.

The young man Theodore, who is the subject of the present narrative to us...

is the cause of great benefit to those who do not listen to what is said in a passing way. For having come into the sanctuary of the saints after the participation in the life-giving mysteries of Christ, he was stirred—by what we do not know, whether someone provoked him to anger, or no one had embittered him—and being inflamed with the greatest frenzy and boiling over with the movement of the blood surging around his heart, the wretch insulted the Divinity, blaspheming not only with words, and directing his insults as if against some fellow-servant, but also, by drawing in his breath through his nostrils, he produced a sound similar to a terrible thunderclap, which immediately compelled all those present ^A to shudder, both those looking on and those who heard it against their will. Many Christians commit this act, thinking, as I suppose, that they are not blaspheming, being entirely ignorant of what is being done; for if they knew it accurately, they would not perform it even for ten thousand tortures.

And perhaps to explain this evil [is] not useless, for perhaps some, learning of its quality and that it is an invention worthy of Hellenic impiety, might guard themselves from such destruction of their faculties. Porphyry says that the Hellenes, while offering abominable sacrifices to their idols, make a sound with their nose most intensely, and with the violent force and power of their spirit they produce such a sound, making it a solemn hymn, so that thereupon those who are sacrificing have a great competition, as if one might surpass another with the sound of his nostrils, so that the best [among them] might be heard first and be most pleasant to the demons. This is the quality of such sounds, which was invented for the appeasement of demons, and which compels those who follow it to praise the unclean demons ^B secretly. Therefore, we exhort those who use this to turn away as from a soul-destroying madness, once you have learned its harmful and destructive nature. "For what fellowship has light with darkness?" and what follows.

By using this sound, the abominable and idol-loving Theodore, after the food of the immaculate communion, was immediately deprived of his sight, and lost his eyes, having found the punishment running alongside his blasphemy. Because this had happened, as we said, a trembling seized all those who were present, and a fear not of an ordinary kind fell upon them, lest they too might fall into similar things by sinning in such a way frequently—and not realizing, due to habit, that what was done was a sin. Each of the people present poured out many tears, seeking to appease Christ and the martyrs on their own behalf, and ^C praying for the sake of the one who had suffered, that God, being moved to pity for the wretched man, might receive his repentance and through the saints grant him to see again.

Therefore, the martyrs appeared in dreams to the man who had lost his sight: "Who, O wretched one," they said, "made you the author of such a loathsome act? An act from which everyone ought to abstain during all their days, as it is Hellenic and pleasing to the demons; and even if the majority do this out of ignorance, especially the performance of this [act]

^A sacraments are being touched. And now, if on the third day, as the steward passes by and holds in his hands the censer and fills the temple with the fragrance of incense, you see the coals of the censer and the smoke of the incense rising upwards, you will be completely freed from the scourge, and you will have your eyes restored as they were before. But if you see none of the things we have spoken of on the third day with your eyes, know that you have earned permanent blindness and will see none of the things that are visible. These things were spoken to him in his dream.

He, having turned after the vision, lamented himself much more, considering how tight the appointed time was; from which cause he sent forth prayers with great intensity and shed unceasing streams of tears, beseeching God and the martyrs until the fulfillment of the aforementioned time. He also had all those who were in the temple interceding with him, and making litanies for him with tears, and fulfilling the precept of brotherly love, which says: “Pray for one another so that you may be saved.” And when the prayer of all had been accepted, Theodore received his sight and cast off the fear of blindness.

For when Christodorus was offering incense on the third day in the martyrs' shrine (for this man happened to be the steward), and was passing by the place where the blind Theodore was sitting—just as he reached the place where the baptistery was—he suddenly saw the coals and the sweet-smelling smoke rising up. And having uttered a voice clearly glorifying Christ and the martyrs, he ^B once again stirred everyone to fear and joy: joy, because he had unexpectedly recovered his sight; but fear, because they thought the martyrs were present and would be avengers of every offense. And when everyone gathered to see Theodore, and a heavy and great clamor arose, Christodorus was stunned. ^C For he was completely ignorant of what had happened; but when he learned the greatness of the miracle that had occurred, and with all the others, and with Theodore who had been blind and had regained his sight, he glorified Christ with a loud voice, and the saints who magnify Christ through miracles. But we, now, as if we were present then and beholding the miracle ourselves, offering hymns to those who performed it, proceed with a firmer and purer mind to another prodigy. ^D

XXXII. Concerning Agapius the Gentile.

Many are acquainted with Agapius the silversmith, who not only sold silver but also openly lived in a gentile manner, and worshiped idols, and served the creature rather than the Creator. On account of this most abominable impiety, he was exposed in the royal city, was arrested, and was subjected to punishment; but he unexpectedly escaped the sword of judgment—not by a change of mind (for no one would have rebuked him for that), but by a great giving of gold:

^A which is utterly impious; nor was it by the mercy of the laws (for where is mercy toward those who do not repent? Since they find no mercy when they persist in their own offenses), but through the greed of those who administer the laws; for everything is thus obedient to gold, as Solomon the wise described. However, even if, by the gift of money, the wretch bought his life and escaped the death that then threatened him, he could not escape the Divine, nor the all-seeing eye of judgment.

Having therefore fled Byzantium after his release from the prisons, he came to Alexandria, thinking he would be hidden there and evade detection. For that abominable man, who had been cast off by God ^B because of the opinion he held concerning his own gods, was ignorant of the fact that the divine power is established everywhere, and fills all things, possessing an uncircumscribed substance, containing all things, and being superior to all things; as It says itself through Isaiah, against those who imagined that It could be confined in a small place: “What house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Do I not fill heaven and earth?” Compared to Whom all things, by reason of His great condescension—I mean the heaven and the numberless orders of angels in heaven, the earth and the animals and men upon the earth, the air and the birds that fly through the air, and, to speak summarily, all things visible and invisible—are as the turn of a scale, and consist as a drop from a bucket, and are reckoned as the spittle ^C of the mouth. For David, knowing this precisely, also sang: “Your knowledge has become wondrous to me; it has been strengthened, I cannot attain to it.” Showing the magnitude of this, he adds and says, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? And where shall I flee from your face? If I ascend into heaven, you are there; and if I lay down in Hades, you are present; if I take up my wings in the morning, and dwell in the furthest parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”

Whence the fugitive Agapius, upon arriving in Alexandria, did not escape the right hand of judgment; but being seized by it, he was punished—not by being handed over to the laws (as before, for he would have escaped the penalty again through money; ^D for all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ, according to the divine Apostle), but he was invisibly stricken with a cruel and unavoidable blow; for that blow was a malady extending throughout his whole body, which the Asclepiadae call paralysis. And hoping to flee this affliction as well (for he did not think the suffering to be the work of judgment, but a bodily mishap), he frequently summoned physicians. They, arriving, performed the tasks of their art upon him, knowing well that he would not live, nor would he escape this ailment, but they deceived the wretch in the hope of [receiving] wages. And as time went on, and the affliction progressed,

^A so that it also touched his tongue, which was already being loosened by such a scourge, he was unable to utter articulate speech. He was not yet departing this life, but was being punished so severely; he received advice from some to hasten to the martyrs Cyrus and John, as those who could deliver him from his suffering if he should approach them with faith and tears. But the wretch, fearing lest they judge him to be a pagan—for the accursed man was pretending to be a Christian and was covering himself with a sheep's skin, although the impious man was truly recognized as a wolf—accepted the advice and consented to the departure, thinking that by this means he might remain hidden from men, and imagining he could deceive the martyrs, as if they did not have the divine knowledge of our affairs; but he reasoned about them as he did his own gods, who know not only things far off or the secrets of men, but not even things present. “For the idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's ^B hands; they have a mouth, and will not speak; they have eyes, and will not see; they have ears, and will not hear; they have hands, and will not feel; they have feet, and will not walk; they will not cry out in their throat.” To which it is fitting to add also what follows: “Let those who make them be like them, and all who trust in them.”

The wretch was therefore caught, deceiving himself and not the martyrs, and causing himself to be hidden while not succeeding with those who held this opinion of him. For when he had come to the most sacred basilica of Cyrus and John, he saw them in his sleep walking through the temple, in the habit of Christodorus, who had the administration of the church, and offering incense to God; they approached him and spoke to him in a somewhat sharper manner, saying: “Why have you come to us, O stranger to all piety and full of all ^C abomination? Have you also come to mock us? By the Creator of heaven and earth and Him who dwells within them, and by the power of His divinity which is here and everywhere, you shall not escape us as you supposed, but we shall publicly scourge you upon your back, that you may know more clearly whom you have dared to mock.” And having uttered these threats against him, the saints departed.

But he, having turned in fear, and still trembling, explained everything to those attending him by gestures and stammering. And when the steward was passing by at the hour of incense, and was holding the censer, he, having the fear of the threats in his heart, ordered the servant to turn him [toward the steward]; and having turned, as he had gestured, he seized the feet of Christodorus, who had come to him, and begged him not to scourge him, for he supposed him to be the one who in his sleep had threatened to scourge him. ^D But Christodorus, being ignorant—for he learned everything from the boy later—marveled at what was being said, yet swore that he would not strike him, as he had begged.

Not long after, it was known who the infirm man was; for he rejected the [sacramental] participation of the life-giving [mysteries] as if in the guise of heresy; and by the [hands] of those in the temple...

much clamor was stirred up against him. Upon learning this, and wishing to wipe away the suspicion, he received the holy mysteries of Christ. And no sooner had he received them than a savage demon leapt into him, just as Satan entered the traitor Judas after he had taken the morsel which the Savior dipped and handed to him. And lying upon the ground, he was convulsed. He rolled his eyes, twisted his limbs fiercely, and spewed foam from his mouth, pitiably imitating the waves of the sea. And while he would be sober for a little while—if indeed he was sober at all—he was utterly unable to speak or even move his tongue. Being twisted by the demon and continually acted upon—or rather, when he was sleeping, if indeed he did sleep—he was shown to have approached the mysteries not in faith, but in hypocrisy.

Three days, then, the wretched man passed in this way, and often both by day and by night—or rather, all day and all night—he was torn apart and suffered all the things that those oppressed by hateful demons are accustomed to suffer, providing to those who saw him the conviction of death. Whence those who were with him, knowing that he would soon be destroyed by the demon, took him up and were conveying him to Alexandria, to his own house, there to die. Yet when he had exited the sanctuary of the saints and had gone but a very short distance, he gave up his spirit in great pain, finding a death worthy of his impiety, as the demon suffocated him on the road. And he had indeed left the temple as one driven out, being wicked and profane, and he did not even see the city itself, as being unworthy of it. And thus Agapius, having acted impiously against God and the martyrs, ended his life; for such is truly the ruin of the impious, according to the divine oracle; and his hope shall perish, and his dwelling shall not exist at all.

We, however, having described the martyr-like virtue in both him and those before him—that is, in those who have done penance and those who have not—and having proclaimed it for the benefit of the pious, so that, by seeing only the healings, they might not think the martyrs more sluggish toward vindication, and by this means be harmed in their understanding by inclining toward contempt and sloth; and having offered ^B hymns to them for the benefit derived from this, and having written down two or three other more pleasant miracles, we shall bring to an end the wonders written concerning the Alexandrians. Not that only those things which will be written were done there, but so that these things, defined by pleasant boundaries, might appear altogether pleasant to those who read them—indeed pleasant in the former cases, but slightly austere in the present, not without cause, and again making the latter ones more pleasant; for with the sweet things they cure the souls of the listeners, and with the more austere they purge their perception, just as the esteemed followers of Asclepius also act; for by binding the biting and beneficial medicines with honey—that is, by mixing them together—they cleanse those who are in need of purgation. We, therefore, imitating these also, and pairing the present receptive things with the preceding sweet things, ^C...

let us cover them over, bringing about a pleasant end, not to the writing of all their miracles, but only to the miracles performed among the Alexandrians. ^B

XXXIII. Regarding Cosmiana, who went to the saints to pray, and fell from her beast, and crushed her body.

The present miracle is also sweet to us, which was wrought by the saints in the case of a certain woman by the name of Cosmiana. And perhaps it follows well after the relation of the more austere ones, so that it might wipe away, like a sponge, the sadness which we thought would come from that source; and not only this, but so that, just as the narrative began from those women who were suffering, so too might the writing have its beginning again from women regarding joyful things. For thus also does the Lord, appearing after the resurrection, first grant the "Hail!" to the women, since to them also, first after the transgression made in paradise, He uttered words of sorrow. Judging this Himself to be most just, that those who were the first to receive sorrow, they themselves should also be the first to receive joy, and that there might not be a schism in the body, according to the divine Apostle, who called the husband the head of the wife, and decreed the wife to be the body of the husband, and wishes the whole body not to be a woman without a man, nor a man without a woman; while the one part of the body received the joy, and the other part, in turn, previously received the sorrow.

Therefore, let the woman be present; and just as Athanasia was the first of those miracles which seem to cause sorrow, so let Cosmiana be the first of those which contain magnanimity. She was, therefore, unharmed in body, and had no passion or ailment. But living at home, she had a desire to come to the martyrs, and to adore their relics, and to obtain the blessing flowing from them. And desiring to fulfill her longing, having mounted a restless little ass, she was traveling toward the shrine. The father of envy, seeing her hasten to the saints with greater love, thought that he himself would suffer a great loss if she could arrive at the divine temple with such zeal and fervor, and not, by encountering his great snares upon the journey, make a return, neither having seen the deifying confession, nor having given the veneration, nor having bestowed the precious gift. For all things which please God as being good, and which provide benefits and proofs of salvation to the friends of God, grieve and bite him.

Whence, when he saw that the woman had arrived at the middle of the road, he suddenly threw the beast of burden that was carrying her, and pushed her so that she fell backward to the ground, and caused her to fall so that her back struck the earth before the other parts of her body. And because she was brought to the earth with a stronger force, she was struck and immediately crushed all over, and for a long time displayed the woman as dead; and perhaps he would have sent her to the grave, had she not found the martyrs refreshing her, and raising up her who was nearly dead, and granting her life again. After a long time, therefore, having recovered (for she had died

^A she was as one dead, owing to the great violence of the fall, and all her bones had been shattered), those who were with her wished to return to the city, saying that, while her wounds were still warm, she should be carried to physicians, and not after coldness and mortification had set in. For wounds that are warmer seem to be more ready for healing, and do not provide so much toil for the doctors, nor indeed inflict so much pain on the sufferers, as those which, after the impact, grow cold and are slow to receive treatment. But she, perceiving that the hindrance to her journey to the holy ones was the work of the devil, would not endure to return before the fulfillment of her desire. Therefore, having again with great difficulty lifted her onto the beast of burden, and holding her with great care both in front and behind, because she was entirely unable to hold herself ^B on the beast, they brought her to the martyrs with great danger. And having prayed and venerated their tomb, they brought her back into the city, she not wishing to remain in the temple until she was well, but saying this most elegantly to the holy ones:

"Many, O imitators of Christ and servant martyrs, who come to you in sickness, return with the joy of restoration; but I, who went out from the city in health, and came to you, having made you the guardians of this health, return with what danger and sickness! And now, if I had set out from home in sickness, I would surely have remained until I had received perfect healing; but since I came to you not for the sake of sickness and remaining, but for prayer and adoration—which the hater of good wished to hinder, but could not, finding your union ^C an adversary—having fulfilled this as I wished, I am returning home, not making other doctors for my sickness, but urging you to come there, and awaiting your help, so that just as you received me from my home in health, so might you heal me as I remain there." Having said these things to the martyrs Cyrus and John, she left their shrine and reached the city with great danger, believing without doubt that the holy ones would surely come and would without doubt heal her at her house; and this is what happened.

For they strive to confirm the faith of those who believe in them, ^D acting in deed upon those things which they believe, and making them more faithful by the gifts conferred than those who had believed. For that very night, arriving in the garb of monks, they asked what ailed the sleeping Cosmiana. She reported her suffering, and complained to the holy ones, saying that they granted health to other sick people, but had crushed her alone while she was healthy. But he who was recognized as holding the rank of preceptor and the teaching dignity smiled, and commanded him who appeared to be the disciple: "Come," he said, "and quickly free her from her injuries." And he, fulfilling the command, having come running, struck her jaw with a slap, and granted liberty to the sufferer. And she, by the stroke of the slap, is turned to...

^A gaze to see who struck her, but she saw no one; she did not see the physician, she says, who had commanded it, nor the disciple who had given the slap, nor was there any mark of a slap upon her jaw, nor the wounds that had come from the fall, nor the unbearable infirmity of the back, all of which the relieving arrival of the saints and the salutary slap given to her had quickly brought to naught and made those pains disappear. Thus, having received such restoration of health, and immediately coming to a consciousness of her recovery, she arose and sang the praises of the saints, chanting of the grace and the swiftness of the healing. And we, having concluded the narration regarding her, and having again praised the saints, let us begin, by writing of one or two other wonders, and by bringing an end to those miracles which were spoken of in Alexandria, and which were performed among the Egyptians and Libyans, doing so with the cooperation of God and the assistance ^B of the martyrs.

XXXIV. Concerning Dorothea, whose child Callinicus, while going to the saints, had swallowed a serpent's egg.

At the same time another woman came to us, who was also on the road that leads to the martyrs, and who having suffered an affliction on behalf of her small child, and having obtained the manifest and swift protection of the saints, desired to join with the one who had received her [petition], so that not only with her tongue, but also with writing, she might proclaim the trophy of those who had saved them. Admiring her gratitude and devotion, we shall fulfill her desire, lending her our tongue and pen, so that we too, by the command of God, may receive with her the reward of gratitude. The woman was called Dorothea; she had two small children, Callinicus and Epimachus. ^C Callinicus, the older, was about twelve years of age, while Epimachus was in his ninth year. With them the mother was coming to the basilica of the saints, to pray and to venerate their holy relics. And when they had traversed the greater part of the journey, they sat down under a certain tree, releasing the fatigue of the journey; for they had traveled on foot, as the lack of money prevented them from mounting beasts of burden.

And the ancient enemy, looking upon them under the tree, immediately remembered the snares which he had set of old under the tree, through which he had already killed the entire human race in Adam ^D and Eve with the darts of envy, and forced them to serve death. Whence he showed the harmful and virulent egg of a serpent, by which he had wrought that destruction upon them, lying by the trunk of the tree; it was neither good for food nor beautiful to look upon, though to the children, as it had to Eve, it seemed so because of the imperfection of their age, since they had not yet attained a mind exercised to the discernment of good and its opposites. Lacking this, as I said, they rushed without examination toward the egg that had been seen, thinking it to be the offspring of some bird that dances through the air. And Callinicus, having snatched and taken it (for he had anticipated the younger, Epimachus), bore it in his hand as though it were something great; and since his brother, having missed the

was weeping, being frustrated in his capture, the mother bade him grant this find to him, so that he might remove the younger son’s tears. He, applying his hand more quickly to his mouth, immediately swallowed the serpent’s egg, which already had within it the formed and perfect likeness of the one that laid it. By disobeying his mother’s command, the offspring reaped the death of disobedience, ^A had not the martyrs Cyrus and John caused him to escape the deadly net. Then, having completed the remainder of their journey, they arrived at the sanctuary.

When they had reached this place and offered their prayers to God and had kissed the tomb of the holy ones, not long after [their] prayer Callinicus began to feel pain in his bowels, for the egg had now opened inside his belly, and he had disgorged that most wretched treasure. Now the beginnings of his pains were comparable to cramps; ^B but in their gradual increases they defied identifying with mere cramps, and were instead like the torture of demons. For as soon as that most bitter spawn had burst forth from the shell-like membrane containing it, and not finding the mother present, it crawled about in its evil search for her, and ravaged the boy’s bowels here and there; perhaps it was even biting them, being unable to find in them the one who had nourished it. Whence, at first he wept, but as it progressed he increased his tears with louder cries. And as he could no longer bear the torments of the snake, he fell to the ground, rolled about, was torn asunder, and twisted his limbs in manifold ways, so that later he could not even emit a voice, being straightway thought by those who saw him to be dying.

But Dorothea, who—as I said—had borne both him and his brother, was bitten in her own bowels more than Callinicus, seeing her son perishing so miserably. And approaching the martyrs quickly, she brought her petitions with cries and tears. “Alas, alas,” she said, “holy ones! ^C How have you accepted my sacrifice? Alas, alas, with what gifts have you deemed me worthy! Alas, alas, what kind of reception have you granted me! Other women who do not have children come to you and conceive; but I came hither to offer two, and unless you make haste, I shall depart from here with but one. Others come breathing the gasps of death, and depart laughing at death itself; but my wretched little boy, who came to you playing and dancing, will surely die unless you deliver him, and he will not return alive by the path he came. You have taken the support of my old age; you have taken the staff of my infirmity; you have snatched away the final hope of my rest; you possess him whom I expected, after God, to nourish me. If I, martyrs, have offended, why do you torment my child? ^D If I have sinned, punish me. Why do you visit the sins of the mother upon children who are ignorant? Why do you become the avengers of the legal and Mosaic condemnation? For it says, ‘the sin of the fathers upon the children.’ But Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for our sake; and through the prophet He dissolved this condemnation, saying clearly that

this parable shall no longer be spoken: ^A "The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge." And henceforth, no one shall give an account to God for another, but each for himself; and the soul that sins, it alone shall die, and no other person shall undergo judgment or punishment on its behalf. There are others who serve the curse of the law—namely, those who have not received the deliverer Christ, the Son of God. But we, having gained adoption as sons through him, have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption, by which we cry out: Abba, Father; and we have henceforth been made free by the freedom with which Christ has set us free. Therefore, either crucify me and let the child go, or punish me together with him, so that I may not see the perdition of my child while I live. But if you will not do any of these things, grant me the child again, imitating our God and Lord, who loves mankind.

^B When she had said these and even more things to the martyrs, and had offered up tears throughout the whole night, she fell asleep a little around the dawn—not overcome by the arrows of faint-heartedness or fatigue, but that she might behold the visitation of the saints. They stood by her, as they were accustomed to do for all, and commanded her to bring the child out of the temple at about the third hour of the day and to place him in the midst in the outer courtyard. They commanded that no one should approach him, not even his mother herself, but that she should sit at a small distance to watch the miracle that was to be performed upon him by God. And the martyrs said these things, and having spoken, they flew away.

^C At the designated hour, Dorothea carried out the decree; taking the child, she led him out of the temple and laid him in the place mentioned, where he kept rolling about constantly, expected to die by the many, but believed to live by his mother.

When about half an hour had passed after he had been laid down there, with a great multitude standing by and remaining to see the outcome, behold! The female dragon that had laid that egg, making this search, comes crawling and hissing, calling him back in the manner of a woman who, having lost her young child, is accustomed to make a search for the one she misses with wailing and lamentation. Having obviously entered through the outer gate, she scattered the multitude standing by and soon turned them to flight as soon as she was seen; and she ran to the infirm child, circling him frequently. Now she would whisper into his ear, now she would approach his mouth, quietly calling her son who was lying down elsewhere and dwelling in the boy's belly. He, sensing his mother's presence and recognizing her hisses, ^D comes up quickly and exits to her through his mouth, as if born a second time and no longer wishing to be rightfully held in the belly—or rather, acknowledging the command of the saints (for it is more pious to say this, to which the mother also submitted, in that she had come quickly to his search), he could no longer remain in the belly, even if he wanted to. And when the mother saw him having leaped out of the mouth...

recognizing it to be her very own offspring which she had been seeking, she took him up—the one who had emerged so quickly with the sight—and leaped for joy, withdrawing to her lair. In this same way, the woman Dorothea, after the exit of the dracontine offspring and having immediately received her son Callinicus back safe and sound, sang praises with him to the martyrs who had healed him, and, exulting and rejoicing, she returned home with joy. Moreover, the multitude that was present at that time, having become a witness of the miracle, sang out with the evangelical voice, saying: “Truly, we have seen wondrous things today.” With which (multitude) we also, having offered worthy praises to Christ our God and to his holy martyrs, shall hasten to the completion of the purpose set before us. ^A

XXXV. Concerning Theophilus, who was bound hand and foot by magic.

Truly, Theophilus is wondrous, and the narrative concerning him is wondrous; and perhaps for this reason he kept himself for us until the last—or rather, it was not he who brought himself forth later, but the wondrous martyrs. We have spoken of him as the last of those written of among the Alexandrians, so that he might both adorn the preceding miracles and gladden the hearers more clearly and richly, and that he might always be in their memory, not at all obscured by the writing of another. We therefore, also marveling at his wisdom, shall recount the things that were done concerning him, adding that wondrous crown to the things written before. He who is the father of the hatred of humanity and the teacher of enmity against brotherhood, who from the beginning deceived man, and as much as it was in his power stripped him of divine grace, being possessed by his own frantic madness against men, is not content merely with the great mischances and calamities with which he ceaselessly surrounds them—as the illustrious Job says ^C —but he also stirs them up more frequently against one another, casting into them the seeds of his own hatred of mankind, to such a degree does he inflame them toward mutual enmity, that he himself is often chosen as an ally of his own fury by those who first do the greatest harm to themselves (for the death of the soul is born from the agreement that is made with him), and thus [he harms] the brothers whom we have been commanded to love as ourselves.

Some people, wishing to do injustice to Theophilus, took care to recruit him as their own patron, along with his own wicked purpose; and, striving to bring this to completion, they dragged him in as a helper for their treachery. But he, yielding to their foul invocations, afflicted the man not moderately, binding his hands and feet of his body, and tormenting him with dire pains as he wished—and perhaps not as much as he wished and wanted (for he would have destroyed him if he could), but as much as he was permitted by God to torment him. But Theophilus, ignoring the cause of the ailment, sent for doctors and implored them to help as much as they were able, and begged them to save him as quickly as possible, as he lay idle and immobilized. ^D

^A And since they, not knowing the cause of the lesion, did not perform what the art [of medicine] required—for it does not prescribe what should be done for those whose malady one does not know, but rather what is discovered by one’s own wisdom and diligent intelligence—they applied many antidotes and numerous purgatives (for they supposed the malady proceeded from an excess of humors) and various other treatments through ointments and diet; and when they profited nothing, they desisted, having at last with difficulty confessed their ignorance of the malady. When the sick man perceived not only their ignorance but also, along with this, their inability [to treat him], he ordered himself to be carried to the saints, who divinely know the sufferings of mortals and from thence extend healings to them. Having therefore arrived at the basilica of Cyrus and John, and having besought the martyrs to release him from his evil, after not much time he was heard and obtained soundness. For they are compassionate toward those who are weighed down by various sufferings, and swiftly confer healings upon them, ^B unless they are entirely unworthy of them, or are in need of more extended discipline for certain reasons and occult judgments which only the Moderator of all knows, and those to whom He Himself may have made these known as being worthy.

Since we have mentioned the ailment, we shall also tell of the manner of his healing; for it is worthy of a great miracle, and for this reason we have also spoken of the infirmity. Standing over him in a dream, the saints commanded him to do these things: “Go forth,” they said, “at dawn to the sea, summoning your zealous attendants to lift you and carry you, and when you encounter one of the fishermen casting a net into the sea, promise him such a reward as this, that he may spread the net upon the waters on your behalf; and whatever he may catch, this will be for your healing; for this, when stripped, will deliver you from all your evils.” And the martyrs, having spoken these words, flew away. ^C But he, having summoned at daybreak his zealous attendants (who are those among the infirm capable of rising), declared to them the commandment of the saints and begged them to lift him quickly. They, having heard the martyr’s decree, more maturely lifted him and brought him out of the temple; and when they had come near the sea, they found a certain fisherman with nets, hunting the progeny of the waters. Having come to him, they placed the sick man upon the sand; and he, having addressed the fisherman, said: “What do you desire to receive for one single cast, and [to] provide me with whatever the net may catch? And whether it brings up anything or nothing, and whether it be small or great, or more or less, whatever is caught by the net shall be mine, as you agree.” He answered, “One siliqua,” which the sick man readily promised to pay. ^D Having spread it out, therefore, the man cast the net into the sea, thinking perhaps to catch a tiny little fish or something of those that are in the waters; and the sick man, who had hired the cast, clearly thought the same. But when after a little while he drew up the net, he brought up a very small basket, not what either of them had hoped for, which did not carry the Moses hidden downward, but the malefic…

fruit of some lawless and demonic savagery; which the fisherman, ignorant of what it was, and with him the infirm man again, were fighting over concerning the case—the one saying that he had not sold them a small basket, but a fish that was coming up, and the other, the sick man, asserting that he had bought not only a fish, but whatever it was that had come up. For it was not only the basket that caused war between them, displaying that it contained some necessities, but also its meddlesome security. For it was not only bound with locks but was also sealed with leaden seals. ^B When they had struggled for a long time trying to convince one another and were unable to do so, nor could they bear to yield to each other, they came to the one who administered the sanctuary, intending to take him as judge of the dispute. And he, having heard the account of both, would not allow himself to pass judgment before, as he said, "I open the lid and look at what is inside." Having then opened the chest with much labor in the sight of all, he found a sight that was terrible and very grievous, and nothing of what those finding it thought, nor those who were standing by and looking on, but what the saints, swimming in a sea of philanthropy, had brought up from deep bosoms. It was a statue in human form, having its substance from bronze, depicting by its shape Theophilus, and it bore four nails fixed in its feet and hands, one nail existing for each limb. Those who were present, seeing this, were stupefied in many ways, but they did not know what the sight was; from which even the war of those fighting ceased, the discovery having been made manifest to them. ^C And they were nearly casting it back into the sea and hiding the impious sight in the waves, Theophilus finding no benefit, had not the martyrs again moved the administrator, seeking what those nails might be which were fixed into the four limbs of the statue; from which he ordered one of those standing by to pull out the nails if he could. And when he had received the statue and had taken hold of the nail that was fixed in the right hand, with much strength he violently pulled and extracted it; and, upon its being pulled out, the right hand of Theophilus was immediately released, and he cast off the weight of the pain, and साथ with the pain, the immobility. Then to all who saw it, the unspeakable meddlesomeness was made known which had been devised against him, which those sorcerers, having acted with foul and most wicked demons, had committed to the depth of the sea as if to never be dissolved. But they were refuted as weak and mad, Cyrus and John, the co-martyr of Cyrus, clearly convicting them, and showing plainly that nothing in creation is inaccessible to them—not heaven, not earth, not air, not fire, not water, not even the sea—but they pass through all things, saving the pious and faithful. And these things indeed have become manifest to all, ^D even if we do not proclaim them.

^A Now those who were there with the steward, when they saw and learned of the villainy, and saw Theophilus moving his right hand, became filled with joy, praised the martyrs, and hastened to pull out the remaining nails. And as they set them free, the sick man was likewise released from his bonds and torments, until they were all extracted; and thus the invalid was freed from every diabolical influence and scourge. For immediately upon the removal of the nail from the left hand of the statue, the sufferer stretched out his own left hand; and again, when they had pulled out the nails fixed to the feet of the image, the sick man moved his feet without pain or ache. Whence, rising up in haste, he ran to the reliquary of the saints, and praised the holy ones with a loud voice, lifting his hands on high, and having those who had seen it join him in his song of praise. We, however, having again praised the martyrs as much as we are able, and bringing this present narrative as a crowning piece to the miracles recorded by us for the Alexandrians, henceforth begin those written for the Egyptians and Libyans, praying that Christ our Lord may become the grantor of our speech, and likewise Cyrus and John, the martyrs who perform miracles from Him.

THE BEGINNING OF THE MIRACLES WRITTEN FOR THE EGYPTIANS AND LIBYANS

^B XXXVI. Concerning Theodore the Subdeacon who had the gout.

I hear that Alexandria is the metropolis of Egypt and Libya, and I do not consider it just to separate the Egyptians or Libyans from it, ^C as it is their head and root, and furthermore their base and foundation; for without these, it does not desire to exist, nor does Libya or Egypt without it, since a body does not live when separated from the head, nor do branches remain fruitful when cut from the root; and furthermore, where a base is missing, a statue will not stand without falling, just as a building cannot remain that lacks a foundation. Whence I believe it to be consequent and just that, as the body is joined to the head, the branch to the root, the statue to the base, and the building to the foundation—things that are plainly and indivisibly attached—so also should Libya and Egypt, in the series of the miracles of Cyrus and John, rejoice and take delight, shining with its brightness, and ^D as fellow-participants, glorifying in the liberal possession of the wondrous deeds of the saints. Therefore, let the Egyptians be united with the Alexandrians, and let the Libyans not be cut off from these, but like children following their parents, let them harvest the same glory in the martyrs, and possess one indivisible renown. Therefore, let Theodore, who came from the city of Egypt called Thennesus, be the first to shine forth in the miracles of the Egyptians and Libyans—he who at that time was counted among the laity and was [separated] from those who [are in the Catholic Church]...

but now by the grace of God and the enlightenment and precept of the martyrs, he is reckoned among her children, having attained the priestly rank which exists after the deacons, and serves as a subdeacon in the venerable dwelling of the saints.

This Theodorus, as they say, fell into a disease of the feet from an early age, which physicians, I think, rightly called gout, on account of the great ferocity of the affliction. For just as the more ferocious beasts, being naturally untamed, are insubordinate to those who wish to tame them and, while they are being restrained, do not accept the bridle but fight back, so also this most savage malady, being untractable to the disciples of the physicians, does not endure the bridle of cure; but when these remedies are brought to it as a help, it cuts through them as if they were spun of spiderwebs and retreats, having resumed its own ferocity.

Theodorus, having fallen into this from a tender age, as we have said, had an intolerable progression of the affliction, which, according to the offspring of animals and the shoots of plants and trees, which demonstrate their own virtue and nobility ^B immediately from their beginnings, showed to those who knew how to see, even from the womb and from birth, what kind of disposition it would later have. And it appeared, showing its own magnitude; so that foul passages, bursting out, sprouted both in the feet and in the hands with a surplus of pain like heavy rains, incessantly distilling rheumatism; for his fingers were being transfigured into the deformity of stones even before attaining a perfect growth, and the soles of his feet mimicked the mounds of the earth. And perhaps his feet and, together with these, his hands would have changed into these things, having denied their own form and completely altered their appearance, had he not found Cyrus fighting against the disease, and John the martyr, the companion of this ^C most holy Cyrus.

For at first he surrendered himself to physicians; but when he saw that the infirmity was overcoming him and was manifestly prevailing over their art, before it should fully master him also, he fled to the saints, knowing that they alone, after God, if they would, could calm the passion, offering a divine bridle and not one made by human artifice. Having therefore come to his temple, he was begging with everyone to obtain a cure. But the most merciful martyrs, standing by him ^D often as he slept, ordered him to communicate with the Catholic Church, promising with oaths that if he should be persuaded by them—to those offering him counsel concerning the right faith—they would both grant him health, and would provide for him gifts encompassing his present life, and would deem him worthy of the priestly clergy; for he belonged to the heresy of Julian of Halicarnassus. But he, having heard the promises of all these things with oaths, remained nonetheless unyielding and immutable. Hence the martyrs, since they could not persuade him with words, tried using the scourges of the infirmity; and when not even in this way did they persuade the man, they decided to show the magnitude of his own infirmity, so that, fearing the things to come, he might render himself obedient.

And appearing both in a vision ^A in a chamber of the temple, they commanded him to follow them, and placing him at the edge of the roof, they showed him the sea, which had become calm, and they asked him if he could count its waves. He, indeed, answered with great ease that he could count them. And the martyrs told him to count. But as he began the counting, and was stating the numbers unhurriedly just as the waves were rising, they little by little became more frequent, and again dense and surging, clashing against the banks, they were effectively overcoming Theodore—who had said he could count them—and they compelled him to confess that he was overcome. Vanquished by the frequency of the waves, he fell upon his face and, declaring his inability, asked for forgiveness from the saints. And they, raising him up, say: "Do you see these continuous and countless waves?" He says: "Yes, most glorious martyrs." Then again the saints say: "Just as no one can count or restrain these waves, except God who created them, so too with the fluxes of your infirmity. If, therefore, you were to obey us in that which we constantly advise you, and become orthodox regarding the faith, we too would obey you, and we would beseech Christ, our God and Lord, on your behalf, and we believe that He would grant you healing for everything. For how shall we entreat Him for you, while you remain disobedient to us?" But he, having heard these and many other things, in no way changed his mind.

But when he had spurned even this admonition of theirs, they appeared no longer as humans exhorting, but as inhuman beings threatening. ^B For after a few days from the aforementioned vision, he seemed to see the martyrs again, no longer exhorting with gentle words, but commanding with threats and terrors. For they were sitting as if upon thrones, and armies and chief ranks stood by where they were seated; some of whom, as if sent by a martyr-decree, seized Theodore, the visionary, and twisting his hands behind him and forcing his neck to bow to the ground, just as executioners are accustomed to treat wicked workers, they led him in fear and trembling into the midst of both ranks and set him there. And as the saints were brandishing threats and commanding those who were holding him bowed and bent down to do this and that, if he were unwilling to believe them, the standing ranks were falling down, ^C beseeching them to spare their wrath and to receive Theodore—if he would comply—and to grant him pardon for his past unbelief.

Furthermore, the martyrs, having as it were accepted the petitions of these, and having held back their wrath a little bit, commanded those who were holding him to lift him up and release him, if he would promise to communicate with the holy Church. Those, therefore, who were holding him, led him away and asked if he knew the cause of such great threats. He says: "Indeed, I know the cause." They again asked what it might be. And he said: "Because I am unwilling to approach the Catholic Church and the sacraments of Christ that are ^D celebrated therein," he announced. "What then? Do you..."

… ^A suggest, they say, if we relax the anger we are meditating against you?" And having agreed, they release him. After the dream, he turned, and still fearful and trembling, kept thinking over what had appeared to him in the vision; nevertheless, he did not yet believe, but still possessed a doubtful mind, and kept carrying his thought hither and thither.

While he was reflecting on these things, before he had weighed what was useful and determined securely what was to be done, he fell asleep again, and again sees the martyrs, in the habit and appearance of Julian the deacon, who at that time had been set forward to serve in their church, standing by and saying: "Come, let us go to the memorial of the saints and pray." They were debating these things with him, testing him to see if he had changed and would become obedient to them after such a vision. Finally, arriving at their precious tomb, and having with them the following Theodore, when they had come before the lamp-stand ^B where the life-giving mysteries of Christ are placed, they urged him to enter and communicate, saying, "Enter with us and partake of the holy mysteries of Christ." But he, "No," he says, "I do not enter; for I belong to another opinion, and not to the preaching of the Church; today, however, I am expecting my mother, who is bringing me the gifts of communion. But allow me in the meantime," he said to the same deacon, "so that since the cancelli of the monument are open, I may enter and receive the oil of the lamp." For many of those who are not communicants do this, taking the oil that burns in the lamp of the saints instead of the holy body and blood of Christ, our common God and Savior ^C (22); nor, as I think, do they know what they are doing, nor do they understand the magnitude of the harm.

For I also say that the oil of the saints' lamp is indeed sanctified, but what is this in comparison to Him who sanctifies the saints themselves? And we admit that it has power against diseases (23), but what is this in comparison to Christ, who is the power and wisdom of God, who also distributes the charisms of power to the martyrs themselves? I say also that it is worthy of honor as being that which burns above the tomb, but what is this in comparison to Him who sits upon the Cherubim? And what is the oil of the saints' lamp that we bring ^D, rather than the saints themselves, who sanctify the oil of the lamp? For everything that is numbered among creatures—not only earthly, but also heavenly, whether Thrones, or Principalities, or Powers, or Dominions, or angelic Virtues, and other things besides these, whether the Cherubim themselves and the Seraphim, the many-eyed and six-winged animals, which, being more precious than many creatures, are for this reason known to carry God—or if there is any other creature in the intelligible realm, manifest to God who made it but hidden from us humans, it considers it desirable and prays to bear the servile yoke, and

to be called a member of the body of our Lord Christ who is God; but it does not desire to be compared to Him, or to covet equality, or even to want to apply to itself something almost similar; for no one, even if there were someone who offered it, would have consented to receive it. For this is the mindset of the ancient enemy, through whom he himself, considering equality with God a thing to be snatched, and imagining for himself a likeness of the throne above the clouds of the heavenly vault, he who was formerly Lucifer has fallen; and he lured our first parents who were in paradise into corruption and tore them down.^B We say these things, not to correct the errors of those mentioned (for what is it to me to judge those who are outside, as the Apostle says?), but to render our own brothers cautious, lest by often seeing them doing this, they too might commit impiety with them. But let us come to the remainder of our narrative.

The martyrs, therefore, who had appeared to the invalid as Julian the deacon, hearing that he wished to receive the oil of their candle, stood in the entrance that is before the cancelli [chancel barriers] of the monument and blocked his entry, resisting him to his face and quickly running to meet him as he entered; and now moving to the left, and then to the right, and obstructing the entrance with their own bodies. But when they had made many crossings and did not persuade him to go to the illuminatorium [baptistery/shrine] and partake of Christ’s mysteries, they yielded to him the entrance that led to his own tomb. And when Theodorus had passed through this and had gone inside the threshold, before he could reach the cancelli and take the oil, they seized his outer garment from behind and caused him to turn towards them; and again they encouraged him to listen, and to obey them rather than those who presided over his own heresy. And when they saw that he was not obedient even then, they allowed him to go forward to the sepulcher. But he, turning around, sees the cancelli of the monument locked tight; and as he could not find a way to take the candle's oil, he withdrew, saddened and sorrowful. The lovers of mankind, the martyrs, in no way overcome by listlessness, but persevering before the illuminatorium, again, as he was leaving the monument, begged and exhorted him, using many teachings and admonitions. And when they saw him so unyielding and unwilling to be persuaded, they dismissed him after saying this with a terrible oath: "By the Son of God and the Father, the Ruler of all and God, who reigns over our martyrial army and bestows the grace of healings, if you do not obey us, and do not approach only His Catholic Church and the mysteries celebrated in it with a clean and pure conscience, you will depart from here being sickly just as you came here, having gained no benefit from us." And these things were said and took place in a vision.

But in the morning, when he had gone to the monument to pray, he sees before the monument a certain Paschasius by name, troubled by an evil spirit; who, seeing Theodorus, spoke these things to him in a great voice, looking with fierce eyes and with his teeth...

^A gnashing, and as if speaking the words of the saints: "Go quickly, illuminate your soul; for by the power that inhabits here, just as you came hither gripped by the madness of podagra, so you shall depart without having obtained a cure; and the saints, the martyrs here, command me to say these things to you." He, having inquired of these things from the one who was vexed by the daemon, and being seized with fear, having also taken remembrance of the dream—on account of the similarity between the words and the threat—entered immediately into the baptistery, partook of the mysteries of Christ, and illuminated his soul through the reception of the mysteries. But from the operation of the daemon he fell into a terrible despondency after the communion, and having cast himself upon his own bed-mat in sorrow, he sooner fell asleep from his sadness.

And again he sees the martyrs, having transformed themselves into Julian the deacon, and examining him as to the cause of his dejection. He says, "Because the saints forced me to communicate." But they say, "And ought this, then, to have made you sorrowful or sad at all? Rather, you ought to have rejoiced and exulted, understanding the benefit to your own soul, and expecting the cure of your infirmity; for it is certain that this is the counsel of God, without whom the saints do nothing at all." And having consoled him with these words, the martyrs departed. He, having turned, was anxious for the arrival of his mother, especially because she was to bring the relics of her own heresy; which arrived not long after the hour, bringing nothing of that sort for which she had made that journey, having clearly suffered a lapse of memory ^B by the dispensation of the martyrs. He, having learned this, was glad at first, and then he recounted to his mother everything that had been done to him by the martyrs, and how they had compelled him to hasten to the Church. And thus he hastened to the Church.

Let us now speak ^C of the healing of the body, making our discourse brief: After a few days he was sleeping again, and he sees the martyrs standing by, and commanding him to accompany them; and he, as the saying goes, followed more readily, for he knew that it was not without gain to be walking with the martyrs. Having come, then, to a certain temple, perfect in its appearance—terrible and most radiant, and in height reaching unto the very heavens—and having entered within it, we beheld a most great and admirable icon, which had the Master Christ depicted in colors in the middle, and on the left the Mother of Him, our Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary; and on the right, John the Baptist of the Savior himself and forerunner, who even from the womb had announced Him with leaping—for even when he was speaking ^D within, he was not heard—and also some of the glorious apostles and prophets.

^A With them were also the martyrs Cyrus and John, who, standing before the icon, fell down before the Master, bending their knees, bowing their heads to the ground, and interceding for the healing of the young man. The words of their intercession were these: "Merciful Master, do you command that we give him healing?" But when they had worshipped on the ground many times and sent forth words of supplication, and the Master Christ did not consent, they ceased from their intercession, and saddened and dejected, they came to me, who was standing not far from the icon. And drawing near, they said, "Do you see that the Master does not want the healing to be given to you? But do not be anxious; for surely He will show His kindness to you, just as He does to all." And after they had withdrawn for about half an hour, they went away again and prayed; and again, they returned unsuccessful, as they reported, and saddened and dejected as before, since the Master Christ did not command it; and they said the same things to me again.

Proceeding for the third time, they said, “Take courage; for now we shall surely receive the grace. But do you also, just as you see us supplicating, come with us and beseech the Master.” And having come to the icon for the third time, they used the same methods and words. And when they had prayed for a long time, and while lying prostrate ^C they cried out only, “Command, Master!” then Christ, moved with compassion, as He is merciful, consented and spoke toward them: “Give it to him.” And the martyrs, rising from the ground, first gave thanks to Christ our God, in that He had heard their prayer; then, rejoicing and exulting, they said to me, “Behold, God has granted the grace! Enter into Alexandria, and sleep fasting in the great Tetra Pylon; take a little of the oil of the lamp that burns above before the Savior’s icon into a small flask; return here immediately without tasting anything else, and after anointing your feet with this, you shall have the gift of health.”

^D He went to Alexandria after the dream, and while sleeping in the Tetra Pylon, he saw a great dragon crawling out from his feet and returning upon him after it had gone out. But the martyrs suddenly appeared, forbade its entry, and crushed the head of the dragon with a rod; they commanded him to act with confidence and no longer fear the infirmity of his feet or hands. Having risen after his sleep, he took the oil from the lamp and hastened to the temple of the saints. Having come there, as he had been instructed, he anointed his hands and his feet, and immediately put off his infirmity and recovered his strength. He was deemed worthy of most excellent and delightful health, and also of gifts, which if ... NOTE. (25). In the Synod there follows the pronouncement of Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople, who from these sayings derived an argument and a justification for retaining the images of painters and other arts in the temples. There follows the testimony of Thomas the monk that that image was still preserved in the Tetra Pylon of Alexandria, and that all kinds of infirmities were healed through it.

^A he should obey them, they had promised; for all of which, giving thanks, he serves the martyrs zealously; whom we also having celebrated with hymns, let us proceed to another of their miracles.

XXXVII. Concerning John the subdeacon who had albugines in both eyes.

Since we have written of the health of Theodore, and his violent and involuntary entry into the church, and his most blessed access to the ministers of God, come, let us also weave in the account of John, who likewise became a communicant from an involuntary state, and reaped health as a reward for that communion, and again became a brother advanced in the priestly degree. This John, therefore, who is the motive and occasion of the present writing, was from the Egyptian city of Cynopolis; and he had albugines in both pupils, and because of the onset of these albugines, the light withdrew, as the pupils of his eyes could not dwell together with the albugines. For what fellowship has light with darkness? As also the divine Paul has said; for neither does light endure to remain in communion with darkness, nor can darkness receive light as a cohabitant, but, having an opposite nature in all things, they also possess an opposite operation; so that those who have them must either not see the darkness or not have the light darkened.

John, therefore, having the causes of ^B darkness, was deprived of light, and being darkened, he was separated from it, and being darkened, he saw nothing at all; for having fallen into an affliction of the eyes, and being deprived of light, as has been said before, he was brought to the martyrs Cyrus and John, being led by the eyes of others; and after one year had passed, he was deemed worthy of the aid and grace of the saints. In this way, the visitation of the saints occurred: John was sleeping on his bed, and while sleeping, he saw himself standing before the monument of the saints, and praying for the recovery of his eyes; and doing this, he seemed to see the saints sitting before their own reliquary in the forms and habits of presbyters; who, rising from their seats and taking John by the hand, led him to the divine altar; and having set him before it, they offered him bread, which became the holy life-giving body of Christ. And after his partaking of this, having taken from the mystical table again a cup, they gave him to drink of milk filled with the divine, with which perhaps even Paul the apostle wrote that he fed those who were infants in Christ. After which they dismissed John, enclosing him with these words: "Behold, you have learned the way of true life, O youth." Henceforth, therefore, he partook of the mysteries of Christ there; for John was of the same belief as Theodosius and Severus, and had obtained the order of subdeacon in their dogma.

^A Having seen these things in his sleep, the man who was for the time being blind cast aside his sleep, but held fast to the instruction he had received in his sleep, believing it to be divine and that it would yield the restoration of his physical sight if it were brought to completion. Wherefore, rising up, he immediately partook of the mysteries where he had been commanded, laying aside all his previous tradition and embracing the soul-profiting proclamation of the Church. And having done this as he had been commanded, on the third day he beheld light with his eyes, the illumination of his soul following immediately thereafter; he became as he had been born, and it was as if he had never at any time had weak eyes of the body.

But while he was in this state and seeing most clearly, the destroyer of good things grew envious and hastened to deprive him of the twofold gift of the saints. And indeed he deprived him as he wished; but the saviors appearing again delivered him and overturned the counsel of the hater of good. For when John’s father died—this man was called Theodore and was a deacon of the aforementioned heresy—some of those related to him by blood arrived and persuaded him to return home, promising to make him a deacon in place of his father. And thus they took the young man and departed, he having completely forgotten the command of the saints. ^B But when those who had taken John had reached Kyno, and were only one sign-post distant from the city, the martyrs appeared and openly struck John on the face with a slap, and took away the light they had given, and clothed him in the darkness they had once removed.

John, coming to realize the evil in this, understood the cause; and having understood, he repented, and through his repentance he obtained forgiveness, and having obtained grace, he was corrected; and being corrected, he received his sight again; and having received his sight, he served the martyrs, and by his service he was rendered worthy of a generous reception, and having been made worthy of this, he advanced into the clergy of the Church. But when he had received that kindly slap and had become blind as before, he turned back again and refused to enter the longed-for city, not being ignorant of the compassion of the saints, and knowing that they would welcome him as he returned and would heal him, having chastened him for his salvation. ^C For indeed, during that night while he slept, he saw—or rather, since he could not see, he heard: "Return quickly, and appease the martyrs who are stirred to anger,"—whose curator of the temple, the miraculous Christodorus by name, he indicated.

And the dream was true and thus, perhaps, performed by the saints according to divine dispensation: because, it said, he had departed without the permission of Christodorus. Whence, when John came, he [Christodorus] had wished neither to see him nor to count him among the sick who were in the temple, but he lay in the venerable sanctuary of the temple, where all the guests resided, no other place being found on account of the crowd of the sick who were there. ^D In this place, then, John lay for three days; and not having received a place among the sick, as has been indicated—this being directed by the most gracious power of the martyrs—after those three days, while he was asleep, he saw a deacon standing in the place of the ambon, and

carrying the book of the holy Gospels, and proclaiming with a loud voice. This was that which was read from the Gospel according to Matthew, which he who had appeared was reading, the Savior’s reply to John the Baptist, who had asked through his own disciples: “Are you the one who is coming, or should we look for another?” And Jesus answering, said to them: “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lepers are cleansed, the lame walk, and the deaf hear.”

Having heard these words in his sleep, John awakens immediately, having cast off his blindness along with his sleep; for having looked up with the eyes of his body, he sees the light of the newly risen sun (for it was dawn). And then, after the departure of the night, the man was illumined by the rays of the sun, at which time John, having heard the saving voice saying, “The blind receive their sight,” suddenly regained his sight, having been enlightened in his soul by faith and having acquired the bright eyes of this faith. Yet he did not receive full health as it was before, but continued to carry in his eyes a useful correction for such unbelief, so that others, seeing this in him, might make themselves more cautious. And we, having honored the saints with hymns for the sake of this all-beneficial instruction, let us touch upon another of their instructive miraculous operations.

XXXVIII. Concerning Stephen, who likewise had albugines in his eyes.

Let Stephen come after this John, and let the Niciote succeed the Cynopolite in this writing, augmenting the praise of the saints and becoming an addition to their good fame. For he himself was also ailing, having albugines in his eyes, and he belonged to the same heresy as the one who preceded him. Since they had suffered the deprivation of the sweet light, he justifiably made great provision, and therefore he traveled this way and that, desiring to find what he had previously lost. Let us hear how the excellent and philanthropic martyrs heal him; nay rather, let us admire their zeal, with which they burn for the orthodox faith, and let us praise the power of healings given to them. For first, they left Stephen, who had been coming for four months, without a visitation, through this softening his stubborn mind and making him somewhat gentler for the reception of improvement. Then, after the aforementioned time, they visit him and deem him worthy of health, being content with a single visitation for such a great infirmity.

In such a manner they appear to him as he sleeps. They were standing in the sanctuary of the temple, clothed in the habit of a monk, and they beckoned to Stephen, who was outside, to come to them. To him, as he leaped into the priestly court, they offered a blessing (it was a pure bread, having a cross imprinted upon it). But he, having received the given blessing, allowed it, against his will, to fall to the floor. Cyrus, who had given it, picked it up again and handed it back into the hands of the young man, from whose palm it fell. And although it fell again, he picked it up a third time, groaning in a manner

^A and speaking such a voice to the infirm man: "Truly, brother, I have greatly desired, as you have approached the temple, to hear you saying 'Amen, amen, Lord.'" He, understanding that he spoke concerning the reception of the mysteries of Christ—for we say this response to the priests when they distribute the life-giving and saving body and blood of Christ the God, testifying with our own voice and confessing that it is true, and is truly called, that which is provided by them to us for spiritual food and for the remission of sins—promised to partake of this immortal food every Sunday. But the saint, making what was said clearer to the hearer, said: "In truth, you have not come here even once to communicate; and if you do not do this, we cannot assist you in any of the necessary things." ^B

Stephen, having risen from sleep, ran to the communion of the Church, and found the restoration of sight following upon its mysteries. Hence, he who served him became one of the ecclesiastical sheep of the Savior, considering it a plain madness, although he was a barbarian, to think of fighting against God and the holy saints and the catholic and orthodox faith. But he who envies all good things, and burns with the torches of jealousy against those who are being saved, stole away half of the gift, though he could not steal it all away, having found the martyrs as guardians of the gift. For after the restoration of the soul and the body, and the recovery of sight in both eyes, while they were still staying in the basilica of the saints, the servant asked Stephen: "Behold," he said, "O master, here we have become communicants of the catholic Church, having obeyed the commands of the saints; but when we have arrived at our city, by the help of God, do you think we shall remain in their commands? Or shall we ^C return to our former ways?" But he answered him, saying: "While we are here, let us perform the things that seem right to the martyrs; but when we have departed from here, we shall retain our own dogmas as before, and the faith which our fathers handed down to us."

And these things were said only by way of intention for the time being; but the work was not yet coupled to the words in such a way. Yet divine vengeance pursued the speaker as if it had heard the words just as it hears deeds. For the night, coming after the sunset and marking the end of that day, granted rest to those upon the earth—to men, that is—bringing sleep in a certain way, and calling out the light with a clamor, since it was certainly not made in vain by the Creator of all: during which the ^D martyrs appear to Stephen as to an ungrateful man, and compel him to pay the penalties for his ingratitude, commanding him to use the baths; using which, just as he was commanded, he was so badly treated that he kept awake by night and day with many pains, and wailed over the great insomnia, knowing how it brings those who suffer into a passion of the mind. But though she [the night] scourged him as was fitting

the long-standing blindness which had ^A been substituted for it returned to him, punishing both the slipperiness of his tongue and the impious fruit of his mind; and though the wretched man suffered these things worthily, he was ignorant of the cause of his torment.

But the martyrs, who imitate Christ, being exceedingly loving toward mankind and wishing for all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, so that he might recognize it, and recognizing it might repent, and repenting might be saved, showed him this through a dream. Appearing in the form and rank of the official who governed the city of Niciopolis, they reproached him for his transgression regarding the agreement he had made with Cyrus and John, and ordered him to keep to the pledges made to them, and threatened him if he were to turn aside to another error. And as soon as he ^B knew the cause of the injury, he rose up and swore on oath that he would no longer, either by word or deed, commit such a thing, and asked for pardon for his previous actions.

The wondrous martyrs, when they saw him firmly promising and hastening with all his might to keep the pledges of faith made to them, appeared to him again in his sleep, standing by the altar of Christ and offering the unbloody sacrifice, of which they also gave him a share as they offered. And as he received it, they showed him again the Bride of the Savior, namely the Church, shining in bright garments and possessing a divine adornment and an indescribable beauty that could not be spoken by human tongue. She, having come to the venerable altar, in turn took of the mysteries of Christ lying there and offered them to Stephen; and to the saints who said, "It is sufficient for him that what has been given is for his perfection," she answered ^C in such words as these: "I wish him to abound in divine gifts, and to carry away more than what has been given. For I have received him now while he is being illuminated, and from the present time he shall be called my son."

And having said these things to the martyrs, she hung a golden cross, shining with clear and precious stones, from the neck of the young man across his chest, providing this as a guardian of the illumination that had been given to him. For when Stephen had gone out of the holy place after the conclusion of that mystical celebration, a certain Egyptian, foul and profane, wished to strip him while he was outside the church, and though he struggled hard, he could not; but even having been defeated, he fell into a certain deep and inescapable pit, clearly because the cross, the giver of victory and guardian, was ^D strengthening its own worshiper for the struggle and granting victory over the darkness. Not long after the victory, Stephen also cast off the darkness of his eyes, and obtained health, and saw the light as before, having used the juice of endive for his cure; for the martyrs had ordered in his dreams that he should extract the juice from these. And in this, having once again praised the physicians of bodies and souls, and above them Christ,

let us pass on to another healing and to the narration of another miracle.

XXXIX. Concerning Peter the paralytic.

^A Since the opinion of the holy martyrs Cyrus and John regarding the faith has been made manifest in both the aforementioned miracles and wonders, and in the narratives we have previously recounted, and since it is clear from the healing of those just mentioned how they honor the preaching of the Catholic Church and embrace its communion, I think it is worth recalling the memory of Peter, whom the inspired martyrs compelled to come to the communion of the most holy Church, even though he had belonged to the sect of the former—though this was not granted as a precedent, but for the utility of the prevaricators of the Church, so that they, in accordance with the saying "in the mouth of ^B two or three witnesses let every word be established," might now also learn the truth, and, having abandoned their own heresies, might approach the Church of the Savior, following the example of the saints and learning Christ from them. For this reason, we bring forward those who are still living and breathing this visible air, so that if they do not believe our words, they may question those persons themselves and learn the truth from them. For it is sufficient for us, for every certainty of righteousness, that the martyrs provide their favor, steering those who hesitate regarding the knowledge of piety with a bridle and bit. But let us come to our intended subject, and let us demonstrate this again, now, through the works themselves; and let us make the beginning of this narrative here.

Peter was at the estate of Heraclius, which was fourteen stadia distant from the temple of the saints, and he had a paralysis ^C brought on by a great infirmity, a sickness which would not accept an end unless it saw the death of Peter and had approached the tomb together with him. But having come to the martyrs Cyrus and John, and through them to the Catholic Church and the orthodox faith, he laid aside his sickness before death, and before his arrival at the monument, he cast off that deadly paralysis. For nothing is stronger than the truth, as the wisdom of Zorobabel shows, which is confirmed by heavenly preaching and keeps the Church always unconquerable, never bowing to the gates of Hades—which are the heresies that hate Christ, serving the jaws of Hades, and easily transmitting all who have fallen into the belly of that place.

For as he slept, the martyrs, most zealous in faith, stood by him and spoke with him gently and kindly. "Do you wish," they said, "to enjoy health and soundness, and to escape this most evil of all infirmities?" But he, having readily accepted the question, said "Yes" with his lips, and indicated it by nodding his head; and moving his hands as best he could, he showed the manner of supplication. The martyrs, however, when ^D they saw him yearning for healing...

^A, saying: "If you wish to be freed from your sickness, arise and enter the precious Jordan (for by this name the Alexandrians designate the pool of holy baptism, because Christ our Lord was baptized in the river Jordan for our purification); and after having washed your hands therein, receive the mysteries of Christ which are there, showing by the figure of your hands the life-giving and blessed reception of the body and blood of Christ." Upon hearing this, he said it was an evil proposal, and he cursed the Synod of Chalcedon, although he clearly knew its authors. For the Egyptians, out of unreasonableness and barbaric sense, bear much hatred ^B against this holy council, just as their parents and ancestors once did against the Israelitic people. Whence Peter said that he neither wished to obtain health, nor to be considered of the same opinion as the synod which was gathered at Chalcedon. But those excellent martyrs threatened him when he said these things; and affirming that he would not be saved otherwise, they withdrew, stirring up in him the pains which they had previously calmed. He, being terribly tormented by these, again called upon the martyrs as his helpers; but they came again, and once more setting forth the same conditions, left him empty-handed. Nor did he do this only twice or three ^C times or four, but many times calling them to his aid, while they, because of their great compassion, would hear him and command him to do the same things, yet, as if they had not come, he would dismiss them, having no fear, not wishing to submit or obey them; for the nation of the Egyptians is hard to change, and what they have once decided to do, whether it be good or worse than the better course, they are changed from it only with difficulty; and all of them are of this kind.

But Peter, being punished by an excess of pain and unable to bear the bitterness of the torments any longer, and having thus barely been persuaded by the commands of the saints, finally called them, so that having compassion on him they might return, banish his pains, and grant him health; and he declared himself a willing fulfiller of everything they might desire and say. And those compassionate and philanthropic martyrs, even when he called them then, arrived and commanded him to do the same things, and swore that they would have him as a communicant of the faith, if he would agree and perform their commands. For when he was still hesitating ^D about the participation in the mysteries, they questioned him: "Is it not enough for you, O Peter, to believe as we believe, and to be reckoned with us in the matter of the faith?" But he again presumed to say to them: "What, do you also, O great servants of Christ, believe as the synod in Chalcedon?" And they confessed that they held the same view as that holy multitude of priests, and asserted that they believed just as the Council of Chalcedon believed, and declared this to be the right faith and divinely inspired preaching, which the aforementioned synod defined. Having said these things, and having confirmed them with oaths, and seeing Peter already submissive due to the torments, they withdrew, being in no way excluded from their temple. But he, having completed the blessed command in the morning, obtained as the reward of his piety the recovery of his health.

^A And, guarding the faith which the martyrs had handed down to him, he remained in possession of the reward of right belief, which cannot be taken away; it did not suffer division, but remained with him and endured, nor did he allow any separation from it. He did not suffer things similar to those who preceded him, nor was he deprived of faith or health so that he might again be chastised like an ungrateful man and, having been scourged, might pursue better things, but he remained a faithful, unchangeable man, perpetually harvesting the grape-clusters of health. And Peter thus became a communicant of the Church, and a son of light.

Mennas, moreover, the notary of Christodorus, the steward of the holy men, being an Alexandrian and of the same heresy, openly received the communion after being scourged. For while he was sleeping, he saw the holy men going toward the honorable sanctuary and the mystical and heavenly table, as if they were going to partake of the holy mysteries. They, turning back and perceiving that he was not following them, returned to him, and holding rods in their hands, they scourged him vigorously and bravely, manifesting to him the cause of his torments. For, they said, why did you see us going to the reception of the communion, and not run alongside us? If, therefore, you wish to remain in our house, follow our ordinances; and from where we partake of the Master’s food, from there do you also partake, ^B indicating the holy table with the extension of their fingers. But neither after many floggings did they persuade him, though they promised much, nor, having made very serious threats, did they leave him until he had promised to do completely what had been commanded. Having turned to his pains, he was constricted by them, and just as if he had been struck in reality, he had the welts, bearing witness to the will of the holy men. Whence he arose and immediately received the communion, and he immediately cast off the pains of the torments; and being enlightened in his soul by the grace of the true faith, he possessed the holy men as gracious to him from then on. Moreover, wishing also to make mention ^C of the many others who shared in the martyrs' commands and learned the truth of the faith, we are content only with what has been said, so that no one might suspect that we wrote the wonders of the holy men for the sake of the faith alone. Having thus concluded the narrative concerning Peter and Mennas the notary, and having praised the holy men with the customary hymns, let us come to another divinely inspired account.

XL. Concerning John the Mnemotites, who suffered from renal pain.

It is not inappropriate, as I think, to commend to this writing also John, who was called Mnemotites, because he presided over the monument of the healing of the holy men; for "mnema" is interpreted as "monument." ^D He ministered both to Christodorus and to the stewardship of the holy men, for when we were recounting the story of Peter the Egyptian, we also added Mennas the notary, although the persons of those who ministered to the martyrs, their faiths, and the kinds of miracles performed upon them compelled us to separate them from one another, even while we wished and hastened to join them together.

^A John was a Libyan, and had originally dwelt near Mareotis; but when he came to the basilica of the saints, he changed his manner of life in some way, for this place is closer to Egypt. Now, the author of his migration, as they say, was a wild demon who took up habitation in him and was intolerable on account of his great ferocity. For this reason, John was led in chains to the martyrs, so that if they were to take pity on him, they might deliver him from the demon that possessed him; and this they quickly accomplished. For, having immediately cast out the demon, they granted him a lasting deliverance from his madness.

After obtaining this delivery, ^B he enrolled himself as a servant to the holy ones who had saved him, showing a devotion worthy of his cure, on account of which he also became a migrant and, leaving his homeland, took up residence at the martyrs' shrine. And this was the cause of his removal. But after a considerable time, he fell grievously ill with a disease of the kidneys, and the illness was unbearable. For at times, falling to the ground, he would roll about, and at other times, rising from the earth, he would run through the basilica, while with heavy groans he deprived all those who were staying with him of the beloved rest which was wont to be theirs in that quiet place; yet perhaps he was worthy of pardon, being in such severe pain. For while someone might perhaps perceive the intensity of the pain of other afflictions, no one who has not suffered it can conjecture the agonizing pain ^C of the kidneys; only those who have been ill with it know. Since John, therefore, was in such danger, as we have said, and in such extreme distress, he might perhaps have obtained his healing more quickly if he had besought the saints with perseverance.

It is well to tell how he escaped this disease as well, for the manner is full of grace. A certain little doctor, seeing him exhausted by cruel pain and burning with a desire for health, said to him: "Give me three coins, and I will provide you with health through an antidote." Wishing to escape his torment, he eagerly gave the gold, and having received the medicine, he kept it, waiting to take it by mouth at dawn. And sleeping that night, he saw the martyrs standing by him, reproaching him for his faithlessness toward them, and reminding him of the healings which they had accomplished in him in various ways. ^D For they had delivered him not only from the demon but also from the incurable disease of gout and ten thousand other afflictions which were in need of their own specific therapy, if one wished to describe them one by one. After the glorious victors had reminded him of all this, and had very pointedly rebuked his lack of faith, his forgetfulness, his ingratitude, and whatever else is similar, they finished by speaking in irony: "What?" they said. "If you had offered the three coins to us, could we not have granted you health?"—uttering the very same words, point for point, that that good little doctor had used against him. "Nevertheless, depart," they said, "and as much as you brought to the doctor who gave you the antidote, bring also to our

^A health, and we will rather offer you healing." When they had said these things, they departed. But he, rising more quickly, offered those three coins, and thus obtained soundness; having received this from the saints, he no longer endured the infirmity of his kidneys. And we, concluding our account here concerning him, and glorifying the brightness of the saints, let us urge our own tongue toward the narration of the healed tongue.

XLI. Concerning the boy Mennas who had his tongue hanging outside his mouth.

This present prodigy, being the greatest among the miracles, required a greater tongue—not one possessing magnitude in the quantity of flesh, but in the breadth and eloquence of words—a thing in which we are not moderately lacking, as may be understood from what has preceded. But since the martyrs judged us to speak this as well, we shall speak it, just as they themselves have offered [the opportunity] to speak. A woman, Maria by name, from Babylon of Egypt, came not long ago to the basilica of the saints, having a boy of about eight years, more or less; and she called him Mennas, ^B naming the boy thus, of course, in honor of the martyr.

Mennas, therefore, had his tongue hanging outside his mouth, differing much in form and size from human tongues; for it extended a palm’s length outside his lips, covering his whole beard and throat, and being fashioned like a thick and hairy upper lip; and having changed its red color, it became purple with a certain swarthiness, presenting a strange and most unsightly spectacle, and moving all who saw it to nausea at once and compassion, and an intolerable vomiting. For always distilling saliva like a fountain, and pouring forth sputum continuously, it soaked his garment and chest, and imparted its own blackness to it, making it share in its color; ^C so that from this many could not even look at the little boy, but if a meeting happened to occur, they would cover the eyes of their bodies and turn their faces away, lest, against their will, upon seeing him, they should vomit because of a perverted stomach against their will. But many of those who were able to look at him even for a little while, when they beheld the magnitude of the affliction, sent forth a voice concerning this, which was said by the Savior concerning the traitor, crying out in this manner, that it would have been good for that man if he had not been born. Some, moreover, added to this the question which was asked by the apostles concerning the man born blind: "Who, do you think, sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born thus?" ^D

And if the child had not been blind, he would not have come forth from the maternal womb in such a state. But at night while he was sleeping, a certain noxious demon, suffering much envy regarding men, having seized this one's tongue, dragged him from his own dwelling; and having struck him without measure, that most foul one caused it to be greater through his blows, and made it hang outside and not be separable from the interior parts. For not only did the deformity appear upon him,

^A but also the pain of his present life flourished: for he was utterly deprived of solid food, as his teeth were no longer able to grind it in the usual manner on account of the protrusion and excessive growth of the tongue, and he could only taste liquid and sloppy food, with his mother using a certain contrivance to hold back his tongue and pour the food itself into his mouth. And this indeed was the boy's infirmity, which no man, I suspect, has endured, nor has anyone seen another suffer it, even though the wise Ecclesiastes has declared that there is nothing new or recent under the sun.

Many students of the physicians therefore saw him, and their masters looked upon these things, and being stunned at such a passion, almost all of them struck their faces and fled, knowing of no such thing having been done, and swearing that they had never heard of such a thing, nor had they found it in the writings of the ancient Asclepiads. But the martyrs Cyrus and John, who brought forth healings from God, seeing the present infirmity, did nothing of the sort, nor were they stunned at the sight itself, nor did they refuse it as difficult, nor did they proclaim that the remedy for this was not written with God, the physician of all. For they knew precisely that whatever the Lord willed He did in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the abysses; and that things impossible to men are possible with God; and that He has mercy on all, because, as Job asserts, He can do all things; and as the melodist David sang in the Psalms, His mercies are poured forth abundantly upon all His works. ^B Whence, having received the infirm one, they first treated him with kindness, and then encouraged his nurse to have confidence, as she contemplated their miracles. And having waited for a short time, not because they were considering the cure, but in order that such a marvelous thing might not reach only a very few, and those numbered with extreme ease, but that it might become more manifest and better known to the many. And this is evident from the manner of the healing; for they did not order this to be done through a vision, or this, as was their custom to perform, but when they decreed that the boy should be restored to health, thus the things pertaining to his recovery were clearly brought to pass.

^D It was mid-day, and the boy was playing with some of his peers before the saints' tomb; and, as is wont to happen during the games of boys, at one time he himself threw others to the ground, and at another time others would throw him down. When he had fallen, therefore, and his face approached the marbles, his tongue touched them; and just as it was touched, as if having suffered pursuit from someone and having fallen into flight, it retreated to that state which it had in the beginning, and immediately recovered the measures it had before the passion, and at once resumed a good complexion, having cast off that hideous color and shape and size which was weighed down by much flesh; and that which against its will was protruding outside the teeth, with such a habit suddenly obliterated, no longer even voluntarily protruding, but within the lips as in its own chamber…

and having recovered her former appearance, and performing her natural function, she appeared ^A almost unrecognizable to those who had seen the child a short while before. For when this miracle occurred, a loud cry from the children who were playing together arose, and it gathered all those who were in the temple to the vision; and they, being astonished at the prodigy that had been performed, and praising the saints, sent forth with a great voice that saying which is set down in the Gospels concerning the deeds of the Savior, saying: "We have seen marvelous things today." And they glorified Christ Himself, who had performed the miracle through these same saints, and were full of hope regarding the healing of their own maladies. But we, having become hearers of marvelous things today, and having duly praised their workers, let us become the heralds of other marvelous things.

XLII. Concerning Eugenius the geometer, who suffered from dropsy.

There came to us from the countryside Eugenius the geometer, who indeed had measured every field, but could not measure his own belly, which had grown from a certain humid substance collected within him—not imitating a rural and numerable magnitude, but an incomprehensible one—and had reached a height difficult to attain, similar to mountains, because of the excessive and very great swellings. He uses measured prayers, wishing to be numbered among the miracles of the saints; for since he reckoned this to be a great dignity, he proposed that he might become worthy of receiving it. In this very thing, however, demonstrating also how his correction stood, he brought himself in as the sixth among the accounts of the Egyptians and Libyans, admiring the perfection of the aforementioned number, and for this reason hastening to receive it by lot; from which we, admiring him both for his desire and his learning, let us offer up prayers. ^B

Eugenius, as we have said, was a geometer, Egyptian by race. This man, having used much drinking of water on account of the hardship of the hot climates, fell into a very grievous languor, which, expanding its power greatly, transformed that small residue into a very great dropsy. For even having this, Eugenius did not cease from the drinking of waters; until, his belly gradually swelling, he lay immobile, imitating great whales and huge dragons, which, burdened by the mass and size of their bodies, are unable to move forward. But not even then did he refrain from the drinking of water; for since all growth has movement as its beginning, as those learned in these matters teach, he grew while not moving at all, nature itself even refuting their opinion. But to speak again in this illness of the infirmity of the doctors, since it is obvious to all, I shall refuse; for this is certain, even if we are silent. Therefore, passing over this in silence, let us declare the power of John and Cyrus, the true physicians: for as much as the infirmity of the previous ones became worthy of silence, so much is the power of these proclaimed with a great sound. For Eugenius [also to them...] ^{C D}

after much experience, having pushed them aside as weak, chose these as powerful based on hearing alone.

Therefore, having come to the remedy of the saints, which dispelled all weariness and all kinds of sufferings, he learned by experience what he had known by hearing before his suffering. And "as we have heard, so have we seen," he proclaimed with a melody raised high. For on that very night, following the day on which he arrived, as he slept before the tomb of the saints, he saw these martyrs coming forth, and heard them saying to him: "Arise hence, Eugenius, and return to your home; for behold, through us Christ has healed you, and has cured the sickness on account of which you came to us. Having arisen, therefore, go to the latrines as quickly as possible, and cast out all the matter gathered within you." And while saying these things, they touched the abdomen of the sick man, as if massaging him, but in truth pursuing the disease of the illness and healthily effecting the discharge of the waters.

While they were doing this, as if after sleep (for it is the same to say after the illness, since until sleep the illness held him), Eugenius said that three women were crying out behind the martyrs: "For what reason, O saints, do we spend a year sitting here, suffering from wounds (for these were they who were lying there, as the sick man recognized ^B them after his dream), and have no rest from our languor, and this man who came yesterday, and was held by such a great suffering, is today deemed worthy of health and is ordered to go home?" Turning to them, the martyrs, he says, replied with all gentleness: "We, O women, are not the masters of health, but Christ, who is the provider and guardian. There come here some who are in need of longer chastisement, and others again who ought to be cured quickly; for we offer supplications for all alike, and whomever we are commanded by our Master God and Savior Jesus Christ to heal, him we immediately release once healed. Him, therefore, ^C do you also entreat along with us, that He may bestow the grace of your requests; and if, moved by mercy, He should deign only to command it, we quickly become the executors of His divine decrees, without whose nod we can neither detain nor release those coming to us." And these things the noble martyrs said to those women.

But when Eugenius had arisen from sleep and his bedding, he hastened to the latrines, the precept regarding the martyr forcing him to hasten his bowels. And having arrived there, he immediately emptied out all the matter ^D that had been in him for a long time in a single moment of time. And having been emptied of this, as we have said, he who entered more corpulent than all as to his appearance, came out from the latrines much thinner, as the discharge emptied him. Or rather, even here the geometer came forth proportional; for he had the tumor of the abdomen alone immeasurable, and the time of his health immense; this, indeed, because of much op-

-^Alim and inestimable magnitude. Thus, then, Eugenius, fleeing the slaughter of his sickness and having speedily grasped his health, having harmoniously sung grace to the martyrs and to Christ who through them gave him the grasping, danced as he withdrew from the temple. We, however, as though we ourselves had received the healing, being gladdened by the account, and having praised Christ and the saints, let us hasten on to another delightful story.

XLIII. Concerning Taurinus the loriped.

Taurinus is also present, coming from nearby, yet barely arriving at last, as he made the journey from afar due to the slower action of his feet; and, as it appears, not for this reason alone, but also because of the blacksmith’s hammer-stroke, which prevented him from hearing us more quickly as we chanted the miracles of the saints. ^B Yet, coming at last, he rendered the reason for his delay, and asked that we should not leave him unrecorded; and, as he offered a defense that was worthy of being freed from blame, we shall count him as one of those who boast in the visitations of the martyrs.

Of the estate of Heraclius, which was near the shrine of the saints and distant from this journey by no more than a Sabbath day’s walk—that is, a distance of fourteen stadia—Taurinus was a villager, and he followed the art of nail-making; but he possessed a not light, but a great infirmity of the feet, which surpassed the report of hearsay. For these feet, if it is to be spoken of, having denied the species of feet, imitated the appearance of dead straps; ^C on account of which the possessor they had made him to be called by such a surname; for, omitting to name him from his art as a nail-maker, they called him from his feet a "loriped" (strap-foot); and perhaps they named him well with such a name, since his feet not only had the peculiarity of straps, but because they were likewise henceforth ineffective according to these; and because, he says, ceasing from the nail-making art because of his feet, he was called by the infirmity of his feet. Taurinus, having this worst infirmity, after the final pronouncement of the doctors—who declared that such a one as he would never move his feet (for this was their judgment from their art)—was carried to Cyrus ^D and John, the fellow-martyr of the divine Cyrus, instructors of a divine medicine, and not that which makes Hippocrates, Galen, and Democritus—who speak from the earth—into doctors. The admirable martyrs, having received him upon his arrival, deemed him worthy of a recovery which those others had despaired of. For appearing to him in his sleep and upon his bed, as is their custom, they commanded him to take a salted quail, and, decreeing that he should crush it and anoint his feet, they flew away again like a dream. But he, having performed the decree after his sleep, was miraculously healed, and having cast off all the infirmity of his feet and that hardened and utterly hideous image of straps, he became sound and fair-footed, and perhaps well-able to catch quails with the swiftness of his feet. And Taurinus indeed, being filled with the abundance of his health, having offered thanksgiving to God and the martyrs, departed. We, however, having sung hymns, and with words

^A requesting the abundance for the narration of the remaining miracles, shall continue this with readiness.

XLIV. Concerning Anna, a servant of God, who had swallowed three samamithia.

Before we cross over to another region and city, or move on to another village, it is appropriate to speak of another miracle—perhaps even more sublime than the one previously mentioned—which we learned was again performed by the same saints upon a certain servant of God who lived in the same village. And we shall speak, with God granting the power of speech, and we shall not completely separate the inhabitants of that same village from one another, even though a certain other circumstance compelled us to distinguish from the aforementioned village Peter, whom we mentioned a little while ago.

This Heracliense estate was inhabited by ^B a servant of God named Anna, and she shared her dwelling with other virgins; she was about twelve years old, or perhaps even younger, an age which, on account of inexperience and the scantiness of intellect and faculties, cannot remain unto itself. For how could such a person, having undertaken the struggle, wrestle not against blood and flesh, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this age, and against spiritual wickedness, if she were deprived of an instructor of children? Or how would she know the manifold wiles of the devil, if she did not have a knowledgeable teacher? Or how would she guard against the deception and craftiness of the serpent, which not even Eve, when separated but a little way from Adam, could guard against? For these reasons, it is not without danger for the childish age to dwell by itself, especially when it has a war against demons and is not able at all to keep watch—not knowing how the head of the serpent creeps in quietly, or how to cover its own heel, lest it be shown to him, needing to be watched in every way. ^C

Whence the present servant of God, being of childish age, and having been deprived for an hour of those who were able to look after her, as often happens, fell into a dire and strange calamity which the devil had prepared for her; and having found her alone, by this means he drove her to death. For being left alone by the others, as a young girl, she was spending her time in the pastimes of girls, filling her desire for play with certain reeds. And at one time she would take a reed and apply it to her mouth, and at another time she would remove it from her mouth and throw it to the ground, then she would take another, and again she would do the same things with it. But while she was exchanging the reeds, casting one from her mouth and taking another, and bringing it to her teeth, she happened upon a certain reed which was pregnant with death ^D and contained an evil and destructive treasure within. For three reptiles, which are called samamithia, were inhabiting this reed, making it their lair and bed, which she, in her innocence, snatched and brought to her own mouth. But they, having perceived the movement, and being disturbed for flight, through the beginning of the reed which

had approached her mouth, were carried into the belly of the maiden, suffering an involuntary slip. Having been carried down into the stomach of the damsel, and not bearing the strangeness of the dwelling, they were eager to flee thence; but they did not know the exit. Thus, running about, and in the meantime disturbing the entrails of the wretched girl, and making contortions of her bowels, they created intolerable pains for her, which no one could describe in writing, even if they had much experience of the disease; ^A whence the maiden wailed incessantly and shrieked and poured out tears from her eyes, and was unable to rest at all. For when one of the swallowed reptiles was quiet for a little while, if indeed it was ever quiet, the remaining two mastered the girl; or even if two often—to grant this also—were sleeping, the third would not cease; but they provided her with sleepless pain, sometimes the one, sometimes the two, and often all three tearing her.

Being therefore in incessant and sharp pains, she was carried to the saints; for she found no other physician who could suffice against such a calamity. Coming then, as has been said, and finding the martyrs sympathetic, she was quickly delivered from that triple punishment. Let us say also how the deliverance happened; for it is full of the grace of those who delivered her. To another of the infirm brothers, the saints appeared in a vision ^B by day and say: "Tell this monastria who is crying out"—for she was crying out incessantly and did not sleep at all—"that she should rise in the morning and go out into one of the taverns before she tastes food or drink, and let her consent to drink three kannia (this is a type of cup, so named among the Alexandrians) while fasting; and quickly she will receive healing through the drinking of the kannia."

The brother who had seen the dream related it after he had slept to the suffering woman, as the martyrs had commanded him; and she, having learned of their bidding, goes out in the morning into the tavern and ^C immediately drank the three cups, full of wine not mixed with water; for she had been commanded to drink the three kannia unmixed. Having swallowed these, as I said, she is moved quickly to vomit; and when she had vomited the wine, she clearly vomited also the three samamithia along with it, which, being cast out through her mouth, she was immediately freed from all affliction and difficult pain and the scourging which that triple burden, being carried in her womb, was bringing forth. And so Anna the monastria thus escaped the death that had been prepared for her by the demons, having obtained a help stronger than ^D the physicians, outstripping their treachery. And having urged all who saw the healing to hymns for the saints, and having praised them along with these, she departs from the shrine. But we who now hear, believing as if we were present then, having worthily praised the saints, let us prepare our ears and mouths for other hymns and miracles.

XLV. Concerning Cobiotus the deaf camel-driver.

Let us cross again from Egypt into Libya, and

^A when we have arrived at Mareotis, let us seek out Cobiotus the deaf man; for he was from Mareotis. And let us join the man we have found to those mentioned before, and relate his affairs to those who will listen, for the deeds accomplished in him by the martyrs are worthy of being written down. Cobiotus had become deaf, not by being born so from the womb, but having suddenly fallen deaf while attending to the camels; for he always took care of these animals, both before he became deaf and after the sudden deafness, an affliction that was most severe; for he heard nothing at all, nor did he perceive even the very loud sounds of the voice, such as the clamor of a crowd, or the roar of the sea swelling up, or the rushing of great winds. Everyone who saw him attributed this deafness to the operation of a demon, rather than to any suffering or accident of the body. And perhaps they ^B conjectured accurately, both because the disease had happened suddenly and because no doctor had been able to grant him any relief. For having gone to many and fulfilled the instructions of many, he himself remained in his affliction, unable to find any difference in his condition. Whence, after bidding the doctors a long farewell, he tended to the camels, no longer expecting any release from the disease.

And perhaps he would have remained thus until death, had he not been mocked by his fellow workers as a deaf man and suffered much injustice; unable to bear the difficult harassment of these men, he left everything behind—his home, his camels, his possessions—and without instructing anyone about anything, filled with zeal and divine love toward the martyrs (they themselves, I suppose, having breathed such a purpose into his mind), he ran swiftly toward the martyrs' shrine, having uttered only such a voice to his companions: "For Christ our God lives," he said, "and if I do not go to the holy Cyrus and John and make them the executors of my trouble, I shall not go away." And saying this, stripped of his clothing, he ran to the martyrs. ^C Then something happens that is miraculous and worthy of both the grace of the saints and his own great and fervent heat. For no sooner had he gone out through the gate of the city which is called Heliace, than his ears immediately began to open and he himself to perceive the voices of men; and as he made progress on his journey, he received that much more of [the power of] the voice; and thus, receiving this gift gradually as he progressed along the way, by the time he entered the sanctuary of the saints, he was recovering the perfection of his hearing, having left behind every trace and sign of that long-standing deafness. And indeed, having gathered his strength ^D during the journey, he approached the saints as one healthy and not as one having a disease; and having immediately offered his thanksgiving—the songs which honored the saviors—that same day he returned home, not even enduring to sit in the martyrs' basilica. And we, having completed the narrative concerning him and offered the thanksgiving for it to the saints, let us make a narrative of another miracle.

XLVI. Concerning the blind tribune.

And the tribune, indeed, thus benefited, having obtained his faith and the aforementioned soundness. But another certain Tabennisiote monk, one of those who boast of having had the great Pachomius as their father and master of an excellent life—as one who became the founder of their manner of life and became for them a ladder leading from earth to heaven—bearing the same ailment as the tribune, comes to the martyrs, and, having heard from them the same command, as they said, "Go, wash in Siloam, and you will see," he responded to them with an affectionate greeting: "He indeed..."

^A O blessed ones, who heard the present command from the Lord of all, happened to be in Jerusalem and had the fountain of Siloam as a neighbor; and even if he were known to be poor, he nonetheless did not lack the funds to fulfill the Savior’s saving instruction. But I, who was poor even before, and am now much poorer than I was then—for I have spent on doctors even that which I possessed before the ailment of my eyes—and am separated from Siloam by so many distances, with what money do you command me to provide for the fulfillment of your decree?" They, smiling very decorously and delighted by his fine answers, became generous providers of his expenses; for they said, "Go to what is called the storehouse ^B of Phronton (for in other regions, places, and cities they call a storehouse an ‘apostasis’), and there inquire for Thomas, the steward of the Egyptian Cuminas; and having found him, you will say, ‘Abba Cyrus and John the martyrs have sent me to you, and they command that one gold coin be given to me, so that I may find the wherewithal to cover my expenses, since they have sent me to the holy city.’" Having said these things, the saints departed. But after he had slept, he arrived at the city, and having found the storehouse and the man, he delivered the command of the saints; and having immediately received the coin (for Thomas also willingly accepted the ^C decree of the martyrs), he proceeds to the places of Christ, and having arrived quickly at Siloam, as he wiped his eyes with its streams, along with the drops of the water he wiped away also the mist from his eyes. For the water recognized the command and the martyrs who had sent him, as they were servants of Christ and ministers of Him who had sent the blind man before them. Therefore, more quickly fulfilling their commands, together with the tribune, He sent back this man also seeing, just as He had then sent back the blind man to the same Master. We, however, being content with these things that have been said concerning ^D the two cured blind men, and having now praised the saints, let us hasten to proclaim others of their miracles.

XLVII. Concerning Patricius who had albugo in his eyes.

It is logical that we should attach the Pelusiote Patricius to those preceding. For even if the ailment of the eyes is different, and the manner of the healing is distinct, yet the end result is one in both cases, namely, the blindness of the eyes and the cure of the received sight. Therefore, let us speak of the ailment, and let us not separate the healing from the ailment. Patricius was a Pelusiote, and he was a servant of him who governed the Church established there; and, falling into an ailment of the eyes, he was progressing in this from day to day, not stretching himself to the things that are before, and forgetting the things that are behind—for if he had done this, he would have been praiseworthy for an abundance of sight—but forgetting the things that were before, and stretching himself to the things that are behind; for thus a skillful physician healed him. But having come to perfection by small degrees, he was called one who sees much; for thus, laudably...

^A they name the blind, no longer causing any labor to the one who previously treated him. For having had white spots [leukomata] in both eyes, he received a most wretched freedom, by which he was no longer subject to the Asclepiadae, but had blindness as an unconquerable mistress, a captor who had snatched him away from the physicians as a spoil of war. To conquer her and take back the captive from her was impossible for all men, but possible for God alone, and for those to whom the grace of healings is granted by Him—namely, the apostles, the just, the prophets, and the martyrs who lived blamelessly and served God, and for this reason have Him as one who hearkens to them in all things they desire.

Patricius, however, knowing that Cyrus ^B and John belonged to this blessed and glorious company, and being able to deliver him from that bitter mistress and to grant the freedom which the assistance of the physicians had caused him to lose, comes to them with faith, knowing clearly that he could move the martyrs. And they stand by him in a dream and announce the manner of his healing: they bid him enter the bath, and to smear his face with a substance, and through this to recover his sight. The greatest part of this [substance], as they say, is lime, before it is irrigated with water; for it is exceedingly caustic in this state, and barely yields to the fire, so that it might better burn human bodies. ^C He, delaying nothing in regard to the commands of the saints, goes out to the bath after the dream and quickly smears himself with the described substance. And having remained a short time after the application, as those who are smeared with eye-salves by physicians are accustomed to do, he again opened his eyes—for he sat with them closed—and suddenly he saw clearly, shedding the white spots like tears; and in this way he beheld the light just as he did before, which he had surely lost through the eye-salves of the physicians.

The miracle was wonderful, for even though ^D he could see, he did not know how to exit the bath; for he did not even know by which way he had entered, but even then he needed a guide, though he saw more sharply than the guide himself. For from there, running to the shrine, he filled those who saw him with wonder and stirred them up to the praises of the holy ones’ good reputation. Being himself made whole, and having praised the martyrs who had healed him, he returned to Pelusium. And we too, crowning them with hymns, let us bring in the writing of another miracle as fuel for other hymns for them.

XLVIII. Concerning Antonius the Theban who was suffering from pain in his inward parts.

I hear Antonius still crying out, still sending forth great voices, still shouting at the top of his lungs—not on account of the sickness that has fled, but for the sake of the grace that was given; which, because of much goodwill, does not allow to be passed over in silence, but he asks that it be counted with the rest which we have already written, and to be reckoned as one with the writings of these. Praising his will, let us hasten to fulfill his request. Antonius was a Theban, and a citizen of the Thebaid of Antonius

^A of the city. He had a most grievous infirmity, which until this day has been manifest neither to the disciples of physicians, nor to other men, nor to the sufferer himself; but it remained unknown to men, both when it first existed and when it ceased. For the sufferer only cried out that his bowels were being terribly eaten away, and as if being devoured by worms, neither knowing the cause nor understanding the passion at all. But even the wisest of physicians, and those having a reputation for knowledge, observing him very frequently in his rounds, would conjecture one disease and then another; and sometimes they would speak of this, sometimes of that; and sometimes they would declare this to be the cause, and sometimes that. And what pleased everyone today with a haughty brow, on the morrow was rejected with an even more haughty sensibility; and again, what was refuted by them would be affirmed to have been the thing from yesterday. When the invalid had perceived the experience of many such trials to be great and varied, and had found no improvement of his passion, but was known to be always persisting in the same pains, he deliberated that there was one solution: the journey to the martyrs Cyrus and John. For if these, he said, do not deliver me from this necessity, as they have the investigation of hidden things and are able to know what is invisible to other men, no one else will be able to save me, not having received such grace from God. ^B Fortifying himself with this faith toward the saints, he came to them and lived for two years within their temple, and having suffered no waning of faith toward the martyrs—for which such a long time was sufficient for him—since he thus continued, as we said, in pain and crying out, and neither by night nor by the day that followed it ceasing at all, he suddenly receives health; neither having been commanded to do anything, as were all who suffered and remained in the temple for the sake of their passions, nor having introduced anything through his belly or brought it out through his mouth. But he only saw the saints after his healing saying to him, "Behold, we have delivered you from the passions, and you shall no longer endure what you have suffered until the ^C present." Arise, therefore, and reach the place that brought you forth, no longer fearing this malady. But when you are there, plant a vine in our name, and we will cultivate it with you, and we will bring to it the care that is fitting for us, and together we will pluck its grapes, and coming to the wine-press we will tread them together. And do you, sharing the wine with us, take your own portion and spend it however you wish; but bring our share every year here to this our house, and distribute it to the brothers who are sick within it. And the martyrs indeed said these things, and not only did they speak, but they also acted as they spoke. For when Antonius had returned to the Thebaid, he planted the vine as quickly as he was commanded, and found the saints to be his helpers in all things that they had said: planting with him, harvesting with him, and treading the grapes, ^D and indeed most of all blessing and protecting him, and making all things that were difficult and laborious easy. In that same year he planted.

dug, gathered the vintage, and trod the winepress, and brought a portion of the saints to their venerable temple, and distributed it to those who were held by various diseases within it and were awaiting their help. Doing this, he remained for many years, until recently he departed from the present life.

Antonius, then, fell ill in such an unknown way, and he had an unknown disease, and received an unknown healing. A certain woman named Aphantis—this is the name of a village in Egypt from which she came (her acquaintances called her Anasiun)—being enslaved to a similar suffering, neither knew the sickness nor the cause of the sickness; and not being able to obtain the cure or even knowledge of the suffering from a physician, but being at a loss in both ^B respects, she came to the martyrs, trusting that they, being strong against all impasses, could provide a way out for her suffering. She had some difference from Antonius, not only in nature—for this is obvious—but also regarding the mentioned disease; for which reason we have grouped both of them together, because of the similarity of their sufferings; yet we present each individually, indicating the difference of the sickness. He, indeed, suspected that he was being eaten from within, while she felt a certain leaden weight. And he was healed in two years, while she escaped the sickness in three. And he received an unseen healing, but she openly brought forth the cause of her pains. This was a stone, carrying the size of a large egg, and striking with astonishment all who saw it, which she also suspended before the ^C reliquary of the saints, that it might be visible for many years as a memory of the miracle and in praise of those who performed it. Whence we ourselves, having weighed the narrative concerning them, let us praise the saints, for the sake of the knowledge of each of them, or rather for their healing, and for their care for those who flee to them; for they are concerned not only for the healing of diseases, but also provide for food and covering, and let us proclaim the gift of another healing in our discourse.

XLIX. Concerning Piamoth and Georgios, who defrauded the offerings of the saints.

Piamoth the Egyptian, having experienced the scourge and the gift of the martyrs, ought to be associated with those the accounts of whose miracles we set forth in the writings to the Alexandrians, when we were composing a text concerning the ^D steadfastness and severity of the saints. But since his lineage prevented him from being placed there, he arrived at a fitting time to display the martyr-power through himself, and how they are able to avenge themselves not only against the Alexandrians, their neighbors, when they sin against them—for those who preceded have demonstrated this—but also against those who live far away; just as they grant healings not only to those who are near, but also to those who are far off.

Piamoth, then, was an *atherophagus* (eater of porridge); it is clear also what the nation is, as it is cruel and barbaric, and differs in nothing from wild beasts, and they say the name is self-descriptive; for these people always eat *athera*. They designate as *athera* the bread which is cooked in pots and then again boiled. And Georgios, from a village...

^A near the city of Sais, was of the same class. ^A To these men, who were coming from various places to venerate the martyrs, two different women, originating from different places, provided diverse offerings to be presented to the saints. For one of them gave two *trimisia* to Piamoth, and the other provided the same to Georgios; they said that they had vowed they would bring these themselves, but being unable to bring them by their own efforts—necessity, in the form of someone who hindered the journey, standing in their way—they utilized these deacons, saying: "As you go, carry these to the saints for us; for this is a debt, and not a gift." They, having received the requests of the women, took with them also what was given—not, however, out of brotherly love or honor for the martyrs (for they would have been blessed had they done this for the sake of the martyr-cult and mutual love), but because they were thieves; for this, too, is fitting to say of them according to the divine John. And they expected the given amount to become their own possession, which indeed they did, imagining that the saints were unaware of it. But in truth, both of these wretches fared ill in their dealings; for by base gains and very paltry prices, they brought upon themselves great torments and underwent no moderate punishments, so that they might become instructors and teachers to all the Egyptians to honor the saints as was proper, and not to scorn their power. For they took the offerings of the women, and having arrived at the place of prayer, consumed them on the way; and they returned, having brought to the martyrs Cyrus and John nothing of what they had received. ^C And when these things became known, the saints were patient, awaiting their conversion, imitating in this, too, the philanthropy of the Lord Christ. But when they saw them returning to their own homes, having turned back to themselves but not turned to repentance, they chastised both of them fittingly: Piamoth they bound by the hands and feet, and scourged his entire body with the pains of paralysis; as for Georgios, who had eaten the pig [(2)] received along with the other, they permitted the most wicked demon to enter him. And when the wretches quickly recognized those who were tormenting them, and openly confessed their faults to all their kin, and begged the women who had given them the offerings not to assail them with curses, they came to the saints—something they had not hoped to do—and besought them to obtain forgiveness for those things in which they had sinned against them, promising to live soberly for the future. The martyrs, after having scourged Piamoth for six months, released him from his torment. We shall also tell the manner of the release, for it is worthy of narration. Piamoth was sleeping on his bed, and he seemed to see the saints in a vision, approaching him and saying: "Do you wish to obtain health and to escape the torment of the disease?" And he replied to them: "I do indeed." "If you wish," they said, "to escape this scourge, bring the two *trimisia*

which you received but have not brought, and bring health the sooner." Turning around—for he had not provided them, nor had he brought them as he came—he told his friends of the dream; and they loaned the aforementioned money for his use, which the sick man having received and offered to the martyrs, was released from his stripes, having been taught their extraordinary power, and promising on oath no longer to dare such things. But they deemed George not yet worthy to be freed from the wicked demon, but rather that he should still be kept by it for his own correction; and they decreed that he should clean their temple twice a day, so that, by looking down more frequently, and imitating the state he had assumed, he might remember his offense and repent of having acted so wickedly. As for us, having also learned through these saints of their power, let us make them favorable through good works; and because of these things, let us again praise them, and for the future let us cherish the memory of their benefits rather than their threats.

L. Concerning Nonnus, who had a semi-paralyzed foot.

Since the miracle which preceded this one taught us not a little about the power of the saints—for it showed how strict they are, and how merciful, and how they reasonably discipline those who are ^B looking toward repentance—in which it was not fitting for the narrative of the miracles performed by the martyrs among the Egyptians and Libyans to find its end, that it should have begun with a benefit and compassion for the sufferers and ended in retaliation and retribution for faults; but just as it began from mercy and grace, so it should conclude in a merciful manner, according to the harmonious line of a circle which, having received its beginning of movement from the same point, recurs to the same point to receive its cessation. Therefore, let the beginning and the end be merciful; for so also the middle parts, being held by such limits, will surely be judged merciful [and let not things that are not such be thought of as existing, due to our carnal mindset]. Therefore, passing over that which is thought to be sorrowful, let us conclude in this the writing which we have composed concerning the Egyptians and Libyans. And thus, with God and the martyrs, let us begin the account of the miracles which were performed in foreign lands. Furthermore, we deemed it good that, starting from the Egyptians, we should end with the Libyans, so that the former, having been allotted the beginning, and the latter the end of the narrative, might in no way contend against each other, as if the writing consisted of Libyans and not Egyptians, or of Egyptians and not Libyans; but deeming this common, they may enjoy together in peace, as is fitting, a mutual understanding.

Let Nonnus therefore come forward to us, fulfilling and putting an end to the narrative of the miracles which have been written concerning the Egyptians and Libyans, who was himself a Libyan, and was born there in the city of Nicius ^C, and was among those who were held in high repute for their wealth, and flourished by his distinguished family in his own region. This Nonnus, then, who was eminent in many things, was most distinguished for a cruel suffering of his body. This, indeed, was his...

^A infirmity, a weakness of the right foot; for he had it half-withered, differing nothing from a dry stick, but lacking every function of a foot, and unable to benefit the rest of his body in any way, but rather proving highly injurious to it. For not only did it not bear that which it was allotted by the Creator to bear, but it hung from him in vain, imitating, if I may use an image, a withered branch hanging from a tree. And perhaps it was even worse for his body than that; for a branch, indeed, might perhaps in no way harm the tree that bears it, but the tree itself would seem to flourish in its other branches and trunk, would be adorned with leaves in season, and, if it happened to be so, would be laden with fruits, and would enable the farmer to walk upon it, and would partake of its blessing, ^B if we may speak after the blessed Paul, without being harmed in any way by the withered branch. But here, the foot was not only deprived of its own proper function, but it compelled the whole body to suffer with it; and would that it were only inactive, and did not cause the inaction of the whole body! It had, however, something even more grievous than this; for as he himself suffered and was held by pains, he made every member of the body suffer with him; for the one who said that all the members of the body suffer together with the member that is suffering speaks truly; just as, when one is glorified, it is established that the rest are glorified with it.

And this, indeed, was Nonnus’s malady, which, as it began and was not yet manifest to all, found a multitude of doctors as adversaries, and especially those of them who excelled in discourse; who often grant mere words to the sick, producing nothing of these into action. But as much as he progressed, so much did he see those who fought against him become the weaker; and as much as it showed itself to be increasing, so much did they gradually diminish; until, arriving at the perfection, such as it was known to have become, it tyrannized the man with impunity, having henceforth no adversary among men. ^C Witnessing, then, his victory and their defeat, he ran to the martyrs Cyrus and John as to invincible physicians, and as to those who are able to do all things whatsoever they wish to do; for the Divinity has granted them such power as to be able to suffice against every malady. Whence, admiring the man’s faith toward them, they deemed him worthy of clear knowledge, the faith of which he had possessed even before the trial. And having come to them by night, they commanded him to anoint his foot with the oil whose unsleeping splendor radiated near their confession, or with the wax-salve that has the power against every malady; by doing which, after the martyr-like manifestation, he acquired it sound, just as the other had, so that he made a total forgetting of the most grievous malady that had preceded the gift of health he had received. Moreover, having offered praise to the saints with a clear voice, and having prayed to have their assistance as a dwelling-companion, he departed from the temple rejoicing and leaping. ^D Now as for us, regarding these miracles that have been recounted among the Egyptians and Libyans, five and these ten

^A finished, let us praise the martyrs who are the guardians of these, and calling them to us for our aid, let us proceed to the divine account of the miracles which were performed among the other nations.

BEGINNING OF THE MIRACLES WRITTEN FOR FOREIGNERS

^A LI. Concerning George who suffered from cataracts.

It is now time to write down, even if briefly, those portents which have been performed by the martyrs in foreign lands—namely, among the Romans, the Galatians and Cilicians, the Asians and Islanders and Phoenicians, the Constantinopolitans and Bithynians and Ethiopians, the Thracians and Medes and Arabs, the Palestinians and Syrians and Elamites, and indeed among all the nations that are under heaven—in order to commend them to this collection of praises. For I am no longer able to endure the accusation and ceaseless annoyance of these people; ^B because they say that, since the saints distribute healing to all without respect of persons and lavish the gifts of their goodness equally upon all, you have placed us last in their praises, perhaps implying that we are more sluggish, ungrateful, and slow to offer songs full of thanksgiving for the benefits conferred. Yet we would be worthy to be preferred, having sustained much labor, enduring the weariness of travel, despising the surging of the sea, bearing cruel dangers, traversing ^C countless spaces, and out of love for the martyrs going from them even to the very ends of the earth, and everywhere proclaiming the miracles of Cyrus and John, and their ineffable and divinely-bestowed power. We, marveling at their zeal and astonished by the diligence they showed toward the praises of the saints, should soothe their sadness in a few words, rendering an account to them and resolving the complaint that existed against us.

For we have already said, in advance, that because of the faith, we described those miracles that shone forth among the indigenous people before those that happened among the foreigners, and we have already woven an apology for this; and we have already explained that we neither placed you last as if you were ungrateful, nor did we prefer those others as if they were more devoted to us. For in such matters, to put one person before another ^D or to write another later, neither harmed the one put later, nor did it show the one who was put forward to be better. For the Master of the vineyard, when paying wages to the laborers, did not consider those who worked first to be more honorable than the last; nor, by beginning the payment of wages from the last, did He blame those who had labored before, unless, filled with envy, they murmured and wished to receive more than had been decreed. But I also feared lest the Alexandrians might blame us, as having suffered an injury because of the privilege that you think you possess, since helmsmen, who are more honorable than the sailors, are placed in the back of the triremes, and charioteers are placed behind the haunches of the horses, and the

^A lowest are commanded to be first. For the first become lowest, and the lowest in turn become first; and the less honorable members of the body clothe themselves with greater honor, and those things which seem dishonorable have more abundant honesty. Therefore, accepting the reason for this prescription and regarding it as necessary, do not contend about primacy, nor, if you are postponed, think that you have suffered an injury, lest, having divided yourselves into heresies and schisms, you cut off the lovable proclamation of the saints and obscure the beauty of their good fame. But rather rejoice and congratulate one another, making the honors of others your own, and bestowing your own upon others; and that which is the greatest and most blessed, because you have been deemed worthy to be numbered in the praise of such great and illustrious saints. Come, therefore, let us also bring forward ^B the miracles that augment their praises, and may you not appear to me less than those who came before you, being surpassed by the greatness of the miracles.

I think I hear from their midst the elder, George, who was indeed the abbot of their congregation, and who longed to be a leader in the recounting of the miracles. Since he had taken the primacy, worthy in worth and in time and in the antiquity of the miracle, he seemed not undeservedly to be the leader, and was exhorted by others to take the lead; he who still lives and is in the body, reporting with his own mouth the prodigy of the saints which occurred in him. For no one of those who in these sixty-seven years have come to the temple of Cyrus and John is ignorant of him; but everyone, I think, knows him: for for so many years has this old man served Christ and the martyrs holily and purely, having completed all the orders of the clergy, and having for some time miraculously presided over the temple. ^C George was a Cilician, and happened to be a citizen of no obscure city; for he boasted of Tarsus as his metropolis, and called Paul his fellow-advocate, glorying in his fellow-citizen and his city, and being not ignobly honored by these things. This George, therefore, while still among infants and children, departed from his homeland with his parents. The intention and occasion of the pilgrimage was for the sake of veneration at the shrine of Saint Mennas in Mareotis; which, having arrived at Alexandria, they rendered to the martyr. And when winter had prevented their return, and a short time had passed, the boy's father died, and the boy was left an orphan, and the successor to his orphanhood was the loss of his eyesight, caused by an effusion from a passion. ^D When every physician had failed in the face of this affliction, and had openly confessed their defeat, Cyrus and John the martyrs were immediately proclaimed as the healers of the passion; coming to whom, George did not put to shame those who had spoken of them; for he cast off the effusion, and recovered the sweet sight of his eyes. Now this, they say, was the remedy for his health: they command [the boy], the artisans of health, to grate cheese brought from Bithynia, and to mix it with wax, and to apply it solely to his eyes.

the holy ones; and when they had executed the command of the saints, all the fluid of his eyes immediately flowed downwards; the pupils, having become clean and bright and liberated from that thick matter, remained clear and received light without impediment, and thenceforth functioned with the same operation they had had before the passion. And this, indeed, was the miracle that was spoken of as having occurred in his case. ^A Other gifts of grace that were bestowed upon him by the saints would truly be long to recount one by one, as they require a separate writing and have need of more time than can now be granted to them in equal measure. But so that we might not for this reason leave these things unwritten and unremembered, and thus appear to harm the listener, we shall recall one or two of them, abridging these as much as our strength allows. For ^B the most merciful martyrs took up George while he was a boy, and loving him with fatherly affection, they deemed it best not to return him to his mother; but taking the place of a father, and dividing the children with the mother—the two daughters who were already fully grown being assigned to her—they themselves took up George, persuading his mother through dreams to entrust him to them, as he would be cured by them. For these things happened before his health was restored, and they promised to perform what a father would not have done even if he were still alive. And what they said, they truly performed. For having received the stranger, who was also blind, an orphan, a wanderer, and a pauper, they cured all ^C these things in summary fashion: for the loss of his country, they made it their own; for his blindness, they illuminated his eyes; for his orphanage, they became fathers; for his wandering, they provided a dwelling; they enriched his poverty in both respects, I mean in soul and body, if indeed he was permitted to be made rich in body. For having nourished him in their temple just like the ancient Samuel, they made him a possessor of virtues and gradually advanced him into the clergy, as was fitting for each stage of his age, and they deemed him worthy of their own administration when he became able to manage it. Him they delivered from death twice, granting an increase of days and of life. There was a pestilence, and those who fell ill at that time died before the malady was even recognized. George also fell ill, and, the limits of his life being fulfilled, he departed this life. He saw the angels taking him and leading him away, and the martyrs Cyrus and John meeting them and interceding for the priest to be granted to them; ^D this, those powers said they could not do, as they were accustomed to obey the divine decree, but they suggested that they should await the prayer made to God and attend to His further command. The martyrs, having received this answer, turned to prayer, and bending the knee before God, they besought that their servant be returned to them. And as they did this, a voice was carried down from heaven, commanding the martyrs to be given the presbyter, and ordaining that he should live in the flesh for twenty years. And thus it was that this man miraculously escaped the death that then pressed upon him, receiving five years of life more than Hezekiah, through the zeal of the martyrs and the divine gift. But when the twenty-year

period of his life was fulfilled, he died again and departed from the present life, following the angels who took him up; but having again met the martyrs, he was again released as before, having been blessed with an indefinite period of life. ^A Having died a second time, and having escaped death a second time, he stood as a proof of the confidence that the saints have before God, and as an image of their power and grace. As for us, let us entreat these holy men to intercede for us, and praying to make them our own patrons, let us proceed to the narration of another miracle.

LII. Concerning Zosimus the archiatrist, who was suffering from paralysis.

^B There came at some time a man named Zosimus, a Byzantine by birth, a supreme physician by profession, and a paralytic by affliction. And where this affliction came from for him, we cannot say, except that he was paralyzed, and he bore the marks of paralysis, not carrying this dissolution in one member, but in all of them, and in the body itself which contains all the members. This man was not even contented with two people to carry him, but had need of many; nor when lying on a bed could he turn himself at all, but was in need of another to turn him; nor could he partake of food touched by his own hands, but another standing by fed him; and he was convicted of not being a physician, ^C and he showed his art to be weak, and while promising healing to others, he could not help himself, but called upon the martyrs for protection.

When therefore Zosimus had come to those who are truly physicians, and had borne witness to them of the remedy that was given by them, he prayed to obtain this; and having prayed, he obtained it; and having obtained it, he enjoyed health. For when he had prayed to the saints for only three days, he was commanded to go to the bath and to wash his body in the warm waters; and indeed, being obedient to those who commanded him—for the martyrs were most divine—he came to the bath, and, having entered inside where the airs were more fervent, he was placed upon a mat by those who carried him. And when those who carried Zosimus had set him down, by the dispensation of God they went out from those more fervent places, providing by their departure an opportunity for necessary things.

^D When these had departed, the martyr Cyrus stood by the sick man in the habit of a monk, not in a dream as he appears to many, but in reality, just as he was and as he is depicted; and appearing, he commanded the invalid to rise and to be immersed in the warm waters. But he, not being astonished at the vision, nor entirely taking into his mind the wonder that the martyr had performed at that time—lest he should suffer anything in his mind from fear—replied that he could not do so. But when the martyr who had appeared urged him again to do this, and to proceed little by little to the basin, and to go down and bathe, the invalid was compelled to strive toward what had been commanded, the one who spoke breathing power into him; and crawling with his hands and feet, he reached the basin with difficulty, dragged along like a serpent, and as he was able, having gone down into the waters, he came up as he had not hoped.

^A For his infirmity was buried with him as he went down, but as he came up, it did not rise with him at all. Then the bathing at the Probatica pool imitated the bath of warm water, not by receiving an angel to wash and stir the waters by his descent, but by seeing the martyr Cyrus and receiving his benevolent decree. Whence, having received Zosimus as a paralytic, it returned him vigorous to the one who had sent him; and accepting a sick man who could not move, it released him whole and agile. He, as he went down into the streams, saw the saint standing by, but as he came up from the warm and kindly water, he was unable to see the physician. Nor was Zosimus, even when made whole, without sadness; for he rejoiced that, having laid aside his infirmity, he had gained health, but he was sad because he did not see the giver of that health. Rejoicing and sorrowing at once, he walked out of the warm air, using his feet, singing a hymn to God and to the martyr who had healed him. With him, all those who saw it, whether relatives or strangers, foreigners or fellow-countrymen, brought back one song of praise for the visitation of the martyrs. And they came to the bath as if to a temple, and entering, they washed and then prayed, defining it as both temple and bath, and reaping a double blessing there.

LIII. Of the boy from Eleutheropolis.

^C Let the great and spacious sea succeed this small and brief bath, and let there succeed the warm and most sweet stream, the salty and most cold one; and for Constantinople, Eleutheropolis; and for Zosimus, Procopius, or rather Procopius’ servant, Theodore, and let them add to the praises of the saints, becoming themselves also a part of these acclamations. Procopius dwelt in Eleutheropolis, which is a city in the province of Palestine, and he was among its illustrious citizens, and he possessed a servant named Theodore. He had an incurable ailment, namely, flesh that had grown over his nose. Since none of the physicians had been able to remove it, he came by ship to Alexandria after taking Theodore, contriving to approach Cyrus and John, and to receive from them the desired health. And he himself, having approached, was not disappointed in his desire, but obtained entirely what he wanted, although he waited a long time before he obtained it. That remedy, however, was pepper, roasted in a pan and inserted into the nose.

^D As Procopius persevered with the martyrs, Theodore, being a youth, threw himself into the sea more frequently, and took pleasure in its currents; he dove into them and swam with great spirit. But one day, as he was swimming and playing and wrestling manfully with the waves, a sea dog came along, and biting his heel, dragged him into the open sea. After dragging him a short distance, it buried him deeper in the sand, thinking that he was dead and reserving its prey as a meal ready prepared. Yet he was not yet dying, although he was hidden in the bowels of the abyss, having found Cyrus and John as helpers.

^A For as Theodore was being dragged along, he called upon the martyrs; while lying beneath the sand, he kept Cyrus and John in his mind. He remembered that they were close to him, and he besought them to help him from the sea and to rescue him from the surging waves, for he was submerged. And Theodore cried out, and the martyrs heard his prayer from heaven, and seizing the one buried by his hair, they said to him, "Do not cry out," ^B and they brought him up from the water and placed him upon the dry land; they showed Theodore to be a new Jonah, not breathing; but before long, granting his breath back to him, they brought him to a sense of the wound which the dog had caused by its bite; for having seized his heel with its teeth, and having dragged the man by it, it had divided his whole sole right up to his toes. This, hanging like a leaf from a tree and swaying ^B hither and thither, they joined together with the medicine of cerate, granting his foot and his life back in a very brief moment, and allowing him an unexpected escape from the beast. But we, together with him—for he still remains in this life—and with those who were present at that time and those who have just heard, having sung the praises of those who saved him, and having asked them so quickly to provide help for us also in our dangers, let us make of this other miracle an occasion for other praises.

LIV. Concerning Isidore the epileptic.

Let Damascus also be adorned with the ^C gifts of the martyrs, which received Paul when he was not seeing, and sent him away seeing; which gave hospitality to a persecutor and made him a herald; which hid him when he was sought for to be killed, and spirited him away at night by a window in a basket; and let it be considered all the more illustrious for participating in the grace of the saints than for the happiness that preceded this. For this metropolis of Coele-Syria ruled as the leader of the whole East, having Ninus reigning ^D within it, and the famous Semiramis. For both reigned there, and having surrounded the city with walls, they led out colonies from it, both into Asia and into Arabia, which is called the Blessed. Damascus remained reigning until Alexander the Macedonian, having slain Darius, took his treasures from it, destroying with it the royal structures. And these things we have learned from without concerning Damascus; nevertheless, we also see the monuments of many kings within it. But from the divinely inspired Scripture we know it to have been reigning again, having ^D as kings the son of Ader, Phula, Teglath-Phalasar, Azael, and Rhaason, of all of whom, counting more upon the gifts of Cyrus and John and in addition to its boastings under Paul, it glories with exultations. There was a Damascene, Dionysius, one of those who seemed to be held among the nobles and the illustrious, who sprang from a race that always shone brightly; whose beginning and root was Nicolaus the philosopher, the tutor of Herod and teacher of the children of Antony and Cleopatra; from whom also twelve Nicolai in succession blossomed forth, prideful in philosophy, lightening the race and leading it to great glory and splendor.

^A From these was born the illustrious Dionysius, who had as a son and successor of his lineage, Isidorus. While he was still a youth and was making constant use of the bath, a most wicked demon entered into him. Those who were raising the boy picked him up as he fell and lay upon the ground and carried him outside the hot vapors—for it was inside that he suffered the assault of the demon—thinking that the affliction was a swooning spell (which often happens to many in baths) and not the activity of wicked spirits. But when he endured the injury even without the bath, and there was no excuse left strong enough to conceal the affliction, they recognized the boy’s suffering and reported the circumstances of the demons’ injustice. Then they understood that the first alteration that took place in the bath was of the same nature. ^B Having learned this, his parents were distressed beyond measure and were in anguish; for Isidorus was their only male child, and he carried all their hope for their posterity. Whence they applied all their zeal for the boy’s healing and showed him to reputable physicians, supposing that those frequent epileptic fits and long, heavy headaches were caused by a multitude of melancholic humors; for we know that he suffered from both—the one more frequently, the other more persistently and for a longer time. But they heard essentially one opinion from all: that the malady was unconquerable by men, having as its cause a wicked spirit and not a melancholic humor.

^C When Dionysius, the boy’s father, had perceived the weakness of the teachings of Hippocrates, he sent him with his mother to Cyrus and John, just as the king of Damascus once sent Naaman the Syrian to Elisha. When they had arrived, the martyrs received them, and after a short while sent them away, having granted them a cure. For appearing to the boy’s mother while she was sleeping, they commanded her to anoint him herself from his hair down to his toenails with swine’s lard, using this by divine dispensation and being eager to heal her soul as well. For it was rumored that Iulia (for this was her name) was suffering regarding the faith, inclining toward Hellenic error, and for that reason was refusing pork on account of the death of Adonis. And whether the things that were said were true, or whether they were false—the stuff of hearsay—God and the martyrs who commanded this knew. ^D For it was manifest and indisputable that she was refusing swine’s flesh; but for whose sake she was not eating it, none of those who were not close relatives knew. Nevertheless, the boy’s infirmity compelled her to carry out what was commanded, and having anointed the boy with the lard as instructed, she clearly anointed the one who was infirm and bearing the manifest signs of his sickness.

Moreover, the demon that was troubling and oppressing him did not await the complete application of the ointment, but fled as if scourged by divine power. For Cyrus and John were invisibly scourging him, as they were accustomed to drive around the demons by divine power; whence from that time until this life

Isidorus was inaccessible to demons, and he did not again experience such attempts from them as he had received before his refuge with the martyrs Cyrus and John. I believe, too, that his soul ^A benefited from the miracle, assuming it was truly harmed, or at least not entirely senseless and impious. But we, having praised God and the martyrs who are the workers of this miracle, let us arm our tongue for another miracle, making those workers of miracles our helpers in this.

LV. Concerning Theodore the Cypriot who, following sorcery, became a lordus.

Cyprus lies near Phoenicia, having the Parthenian Sea between them; sailing across this in our minds, we arrive at the island from Phoenicia. Having found Theodore the Lapithian, and having examined his affairs very closely, let us write these things to the praise of those who performed the work. Theodore was a physician, well-approved in his art and therefore famous everywhere. He becomes motionless from sorcery, ^B and, being ignorant of the cause of the ailment, he strove to cure himself, doing those things that he hoped would heal him, and which he had often applied to others who were suffering—not from sorcery, but from laxity of the limbs—and which had been beneficial. But since, after doing everything, he did not manage to banish the disease from himself, having recognized the weakness of his art, he becomes a suppliant of Cyrus and John, who are capable of driving away the disease and granting health to the sick. For when he had come, the martyrs appeared to him in a dream, and having appeared, they immediately banished the ailment. They command him to take a ^C pig’s lung, to roast it on burning coals, and when roasted, to mix it with wine and anoint the limbs that were suffering. But since it was fitting that the saints should not grant an incomplete grace, they healed Theodore with the aforementioned remedies; but having recognized the one who practiced the sorcery, and having laid bare the instruments of the sorcery, they render a fitting recompense to the author. For when they were ordering Theodore to prepare the remedy, they also mixed this into their command, saying: "Send one of your attendants to Lapithos, and command him to dig in front of the threshold of your bedchamber; for there ^D he will find the malice of the one who did this, invisibly concealed under the threshold; and when it is revealed, it will immediately destroy the one who made it." Theodore, having sent as he was commanded to the aforementioned place, found the cause of the infirmity. And this having appeared, the one who had wrought the evil immediately vanished, as death snatched him away instantly, the martyrs’ will defending Theodore. He was a Hebrew, and in no way free from such a reputation; wherefore he also reaped the toils of his own works, having received sheaves appropriate to his husbandry. But we, having marveled at the strength of the saints, and having praised them as we are able, shall proclaim other deeds of theirs, of no less movement and power, in this writing.

LVI. Concerning George the Cypriot, who was afflicted in his feet by the operation of a demon.

^A Let us not despise George, while dwelling in Cyprus, because he is poor and weighed down by indigence; ^B for neither Cyrus and John, the martyrs, despised him, but took him up as lovers of the poor, and presented him as worthy of healing, being true lovers of the poor. For George was a farmer, and he lived on a farm that lay near Limassol. The farm was called Phava, and it was fifty [stadia] from the city, and three and a half stadia from the sea. George fell ill in his feet in this way: he was surveying the things in the fields and he saw a hare, as he supposed, and looking upon it, he began to pursue it. For such hunting is sweet to rustics, and if it appears, it incites one to capture it. But pursuing, he did not catch it; for that which had appeared was not a hare, but a wicked spirit, and one that hates mankind. ^C But when he ceased from his running, he could not move his feet, but remained motionless after his run, not having caught the hare, but having caught a bondage of the feet; for such are the gifts of that hare.

From there, George was carried on his shoulders to Cyrus and John the martyrs, and was cast at their feet by those who had brought him; and having spent a fair amount of time, until such time as God and the grace of the saints willed it, he obtained health in this manner. He was burdensome to the sick, and caused no small labor to those who were diligently serving in the temple, for he would come to the latrines quickly, but would not return from them quickly, so that he was often permitted to sleep in them, for the reason that he would go often and was delayed by the habit of sitting. ^D Seeing George in this state, the martyrs were moved to pity and compassion, and to him sleeping in the latrines one day, they appeared in a dream, saying: "Rise and go out, and sleep on your own bedding." But he, having woken up and seeing no one, slept again. And again the martyrs stood by a second time, ordering the same things. But he, having turned again and seeing no one again, slept a second time. But for a third time the saints appeared to him, and commanded him to go out from the latrines on foot, offering him bread to eat. Having become awake for the third time, he did not indeed see the martyrs present, but he found the blessing given for his healing, and having eaten this, he was restored to strength. Remembering the command of the saints, he rose from the latrines, and went out leaping, leaving the disease there, and glorifying the power of the saints. And this man is still alive, and he travels about the shrine of the martyrs, recounting the disease and the healing alike, and moving those who hear him to the praise of God and of the saints who healed him.

LVII. Concerning Cyriacus the Rhodian, who suffered from a demon.

It is not inappropriate to make mention also of Cyriacus the Rhodian, and to reckon the islander with the islanders, and to join the Rhodian to the Cypriots; for I have learned that islanders rejoice more in one another than

^A those who are not islanders. Cyriacus, then, the Rhodian, had an unclean demon, and one much more grievous, wilder, and more misanthropic than most, and one that entangled him in many misfortunes; and he would often have deprived him of this life, had not Christ, the provider for all and the unsleeping guardian of human nature, rebuked and prevented him. For he suffered the man to have no rest even for a little while, nor to be subjected to bonds, nor to submit to iron chains, nor to be constrained by other contrivances by which such persons are accustomed to be disciplined; but he was fearless and undaunted, destitute of reason, and orphaned and alienated from all understanding.

Being very violently brought to the martyrs Cyrus and John, he was rid of the demon; for, having little by little restored his reason, they granted him to think as other men do. And having thus disposed the man, by a most wretched remedy they also drive out the demon, wishing, perhaps, to show the weakness of the Wicked One. For they ordered him to take cow's flesh, and commanded that it be burned with coals, and to refine it with wine and to anoint his body; and when Cyriacus had quickly done this, the demon instantly vanished. It was not that the most wicked demon feared the remedy, but that he trembled at the command of Cyrus and John; and he did not return to his dwelling, but departed, fleeing into a desert place, ^B crying out his own powerlessness and the power of those who had chased him away. But as for us, rejoicing with him who was cleansed, and glorifying the saints who cleansed him, and revering Christ who gave them such might, let us make a beginning of another miracle.

LVIII. Concerning Peter of Ammada, who had scrofula about his neck.

Peter of Charax was a man of honor, priding himself in birth, wealth, and prudence, and being famous in the Third Palestine (for Charax is a city of this region). Having become renowned, he passed the borders of his homeland with his praises, and was as well-known to those abroad as he was to the local inhabitants, known to them not so much by sight as by reputation. This most excellent Peter, then, flowing with wealth and adorned by birth and prudence, has fallen into a grievous disease; for the properties of nature do not even spare such ^C as these, even if they think that with the aforementioned advantages they differ from their fellow men. And such was the disease. You have surely heard of scrofula, and hearing of it you surely know, and you know that it is a condition difficult to treat, not obedient to the laws of physicians, and fiercely strangling those who suffer from it. Peter had this about his neck, and having it, he was in danger of dying (for such is the birth of scrofula), and being in danger, he was at a loss for one who could save him, with no physician able to struggle against the condition, or, having struggled, to carry off the victory; but though many were leaping into the stadium, no one was receiving the prize, but rather, being defeated and fleeing, he was crowning the disease with his flight.

^A Since the disease had held him for a long time and the physician who was struggling with it had failed, Peter was nearing death. But the martyrs forestalled this and delivered him from the hands of the under-world. For when he was in danger of being in his final moments, he heard of the holy Cyrus and John, who alone were able to conquer the illness; and without delay he sailed from his homeland, led by a most pure faith which was able to sway the martyrs. Whence, the divine ones did not endure to see him suffering for more than four days; but appearing to him in the night of that very day, they offered the remedy for his infirmity. It was bread, still holding the heat from the fire, which they ordered him to slice and, being warm, to bring it as a poultice to the scrofulous swellings; and to carry this for an interval of about five hours, applied kindly to the neck, ^B and then to approach the bath and, being inside amidst the hot air, to draw away the medicine from the neck, and to use this again while he was being bathed, until the perfect healing of the disease.

He, having awakened (for he was ordered to do these things in a dream), zealously carried out the injunction, and more zealously cast off the disease. For, having fulfilled the command of the saints, and having put the aid around his neck, and having after this been in the bath, as he was drawing the medicine away from his neck, he drew away the scrofulous swellings along with it, and with the swellings the danger that was without doubt about to arise from them. They say also that these were counted to be sixty-seven when they had fallen from the fold of the neck, and two along with them of the masculine and feminine sex, which had generated this human-eating army. ^C But when he had applied the medicine to his neck again for about three days, his wounds were also healed, and having offered hymns of thanksgiving to the martyrs, he departed, rejoicing and leaping at the same time, having agreed to build a temple for them where he had been saved.

LIX. Concerning Stephen the Aphrodisian who extracted a centipede from his head.

Why should we not also bring forward Stephen, who came from Asia, and tell the lovers of the martyrs what concerns him? For these things are sufficient when they have come to our knowledge, as much to display the virtue of the saints as to increase the affection of those who love the saints. Stephen was an Asian from the city of Aphrodisias. ^D He entrusted money to certain persons who were begging, giving the money with faith according to the saving commandment, and taking nothing for his own security. For those who had received the money were relatives, and therefore he thought it was not necessary to demand anything, as we are accustomed to require from those whom we suspect will be ungrateful in the future. But they, detecting his simplicity, and hastening to make a profit of what had been given, rendered a wicked return for a good one; and they attacked the man with sorcery, desiring to make him disappear from the midst more quickly, so that, because the manner of his removal was unknown, they might escape justice and

and not pay the debt; for this was what they desired. The wretches perhaps even reasoned among themselves that if they could escape the notice of men, they would likewise escape the eye of the Lord, who does not sleep.

Denique, as I said, Stephen was ^B assailed by sorcery, and death was the goal of the sorcerer; a fate which, through the protection and will of God, he indeed escaped, yet he did not entirely avoid the injury of the sorcery. Rather, he fell into the infirmity of a hemorrhage, and every day he looked upon his own death, pouring out blood through his stomach and mouth, astounding all by the volume of the discharge, and compelling those who saw him to cry out that he would certainly die before the flow of blood could be stopped. As Stephen was in danger in this way at every hour, and because of the flow of blood was expecting death, and not having found a doctor who could drive away death, he sailed to the martyr Cyrus and John, the companion of this martyr, having learned that these, after God, were the only ones who could cure his infirmity and redeem him from his present necessity. Arriving at them, and offering prayers to them, he was heard and was saved from the dangers. For the saints, appearing in his sleep, commanded him to eat leeks that had not been brought to the fire or to water; having eaten these just as he was ordered, he was freed from the flux of blood, and thus he achieved complete health.

It was night and he was standing before the monument ^C of the saints, and he was praying to obtain this [grace], using the bending of his knees and the bowing of his forehead to the ground. And while he was doing this, and at times standing up, and at other times bowing toward the ground, the crown of his head opened in the middle, and from it leaped and fell a scolopendra: a beast crawling along with numerous feet, very similar to a small asp. When it had fallen out and made its escape as quickly as possible, Stephen stood in astonishment; and feeling the top of his head, where he had perceived the scolopendra to have come out, he found no wound in that place, nor did he perceive a flow of blood, but he noticed only a certain moisture and a softness of the bones. And having thus gained healing, to this day he makes those who hear it marvel and stand in awe, and join him in praising the admirable power of the saints. But we, having once again praised here the wonder-working martyrs, shall make mention of another miracle performed by them.

LX. Of Theodore the Byzantine who had the fever.

Non nos, we do not lead Theodore the Byzantine to our narrative, ^D but the saints call him again, just as they had called him to be healed while he was suffering. For they exercise equal providence for all those who are on earth, and they liberate those who are near them from their suffering, just as they encourage those who dwell far away to come and gather healing from them, as if from a delightful and pleasant meadow, reaping the sweet-smelling calyxes of flowers. For Theodore was suffering from [...]

^A an inextinguishable fire affecting his foot; it burned the foot, leaving not even a small part of it unconsumed, but transforming the whole thing into something else, or rather, a mockery of a foot. The sophists and leaders of the physicians, who were the shining cream of their art, hurried in with their assistants and young students, and although they were eager to extinguish that fiery malady, they were proven powerless to quench it.

For just as when a fire grows strong, everything brought to extinguish it becomes fuel, and the flame, which cannot be subdued, immediately transforms everything given to it into the nature of fire, so too here, when the conflagration was intense, everything the doctors brought to stop it increased the malady all the more and likewise fed the inflammation. The sickness would have consumed almost his entire body, feeding like a fire, had not the most merciful ^B martyrs, who are present everywhere and know all things, and who understood the malady and took pity on the man and wished to grant him healing, urged John the deacon—whom we mentioned before, when we were recounting the miracle of the girl who had fallen—who was also from Byzantium, and who knew the man, to inform him through a dream to come to them and receive salvation.

Having received the letter of John, he believed those who had ordered it to be written (for the deacon did not know whether Theodore was gripped by such a malady), and he immediately boarded a ship and reached the sanctuary of the holy ones, bearing the letter of the commanded summons as a truthful pledge of his healing. And so, when the summoners saw him come and obey the call, they let him go more quickly, having provided the healing, bestowing as a gift the speed granted by the faith which was in him. The time for healing was very short; but the medicine for the malady ^C and its extinction was mud dissolved in water and applied as a poultice, of the kind the Egyptians who cultivate the Knidian vine use to stop the mouths of their jars. This, the praiseworthy martyrs, appearing in a dream, had ordered him to do. Theodore then, having obtained the healing according to the promise of the letter, sang a song of thanksgiving and sailed to Constantinople. But we, having celebrated with hymns both the cause of this miracle and the call before the miracle, those who invited and those who performed the miracle, let us sail on to the narration of another miracle.

LXI. Concerning Philemon the Macrocomite who suffered from a liver ailment and had a fistula.

Let us look also at Philemon the deacon, and let us learn of his double malady, and let us observe his double healing. For the man is here, having arrived to us from Phoenicia with the rushing of a great journey, and from the long castle ^D which he received as an abode there. He is here, then, by his letter, indicating his diseases to us, and the medicines that drove out the diseases.

^A And which even now he desires to be written and everywhere proclaimed to the praise of the power of Cyrus and John, who with mean and humble aids put an end to strong and great diseases. Therefore, let us arrange these also with the preceding ones, admiring his goodwill held toward the saints.

Two cruel and difficult-to-heal sufferings were upon Philemon: one, indeed, of the liver, always pressing and making one like unto death; the second, that of the fistula, which, having taken possession of his neck, caused him to spit out a fountain from his neck. And for the pains of the liver, there was a season and a periodic interval of time, during which they took strength and flourished and tortured the man, and during which they gave way and rested, and let the man be without pain; but for the findings of the fistula, there was no defined time, nor a periodic interval occurring by turns, but it was always discharging humors, and unceasingly kept the man bridled. Because of these things, he did not cease to molest physicians; and as he was being severely tormented by these, he sought the better ones, and now pursued these, now those, but was sent away having been helped by neither.

^B Ergo, as he changed many doctors and found no change in his diseases, he came to Cyrus and John the martyrs, with whom, having become full of faith, he changed his diseases for health, but he did not again change his doctors. For whom the saints, having received grace from God, would not wish to deliver from sufferings, not all the world of physicians, if I may so speak, shall deliver. But let us come to the remainder of the narrative, and let us tell of the healing of Philemon, just as we have also told of his diseases; for this is the sweet main point of the things being said. The deacon was sleeping upon his bed, and the martyrs stood by him as he slept. And one, indeed, was examining his liver, and the other was considering the fistula of his neck; and the one caused the pains of the liver to cease, and the other dried up the fountains of the fistula. ^C And when they had ceased doing these things, they ordered him, as they were departing, to do these things, in order that he might receive complete health for both. He therefore who had made the flux of the fistula stand still, commanded him to grind lemon leaves and apply them to the sore. But he who had healed the liver by his touches, commanded him to bring green olives, and to eat some of them, and to soften the others, and to apply them as a poultice to the place of the liver. The sick man, rising after his sleep, fulfilled the commands of both saints, and reaped the healings of both saints. Philemon, therefore, that admirable man, thus having escaped his diseases and received the remedies, departed praising those who had given them. ^D And we, celebrating the martyrs with hymns in a dual manner on account of both healings, let us approach the mother and nurse of other hymns as an offering.

LXII. Concerning Rhodope who had ebullient carbuncles.

Rhodope, making her stylus run, and hastening to record other miracles, from the journey to

^A restrain it, and having transferred it to herself, she compelled [the author] to write first of the things that concerned her; just as once, when the martyrs were passing by her and turning aside from the visitations of other sick people, she presumed to impede them, and [demanded] that they make their visitation of her along with everyone else; even though she profited nothing by doing this, for death forestalled the healing, and repelled the relief of the saints. ^B Therefore, we too, while recording the things of the saints and explaining their good condescension toward all, let us imitate them, and record the things that happened to her, not leaving her unremembered.

Rhodope was by birth from Theupolis [Antioch], which presides over the entire East, named after King Antiochus, and she shone brightly in that city by the distinction of her lineage and wealth. For a long time, however, she lived in Alexandria, having John as a husband, with whom she had made the journey thither; he was a teacher of rhetorical discourses, and an intimate disciple of Eulogius, the great preacher of the faith, and he dispensed to others the utility which he had drawn from the most holy Eulogius while living with him. ^C Rhodope, being the wife of this man and living in that city of Alexander, suffered a final illness, carbuncles breaking out over her whole body. But when the illness became a little milder, and the great fury of the carbuncles had appeared on the surface, and those things were thought by the physicians to be stalling in her body, the little woman desired to come to the basilica of Cyrus and John, so that by their help and command, she might receive a more rapid removal of the carbuncles. And behold, she arrived. Sleeping by night, she sees the martyrs traversing the phalanxes of the sick, and coming to each one individually, and granting healings to everyone; and to one they commanded this, and to another something else to do. Beginning, therefore, from the start, and, she says, healing those in order, they arrived at her, and passing her by as if she were absent, and leaving her unvisited, they come to the man who was lying after her; and having visited him, and having commanded him to do things for his health, they arrive at the one after him, and from there they departed to those lying next in line. ^D When she saw the martyrs passing by, and that they had not looked at her at all, nor commanded her to do anything for her salvation, but rather were approaching and staying at no great distance from her, she spoke these words to them: "O servants of Christ the Lord, and imitators of His goodness toward us; O you who drive away whatever is harmful to human nature, doctors of our passions given by God, sent from God as pursuers of all diseases, and perpetual givers of every cure, for this help of yours, which you have toward us, I too have come, desiring not only to see, but also to partake of the grace by suffering, and with everyone to enjoy the health which you abundantly to those who are

coming to you grant. Why then did you overlook me, though I had sinned against you? Or which of your commands did I transgress, that you passed me by without a thought? Or in what way did I offend you, that you deprived me of your merciful gifts? I myself know of nothing of the sort that I have committed against you. But if anything of what has been said has been done by me, and is covered by the cloak of forgetfulness, tell me this, I beseech you, and I shall quickly make correction of it.

The saints, having heard these things from Rhodope, do not dishonor her blameless supplication, ^B but turning to her, they comfort her with such words as these: "It is not as one who has sinned against us, O woman, that we passed you by, nor as one who has trampled upon any of our commands, as you say, but because we see your dissolution drawing near, and the completion of your temporal life, and the laying aside of your present existence, and the inevitable approach of your falling asleep in Christ; of all of which we are not the dispensers or the inflictors, but Christ, the God and Master and Ruler of all, who holds the rudders of life and death. What, then, shall we do for you regarding these things? Or what medicine of immortality shall we offer? And for what purpose would recovery be granted? Or what is the use of healing? And who is there to receive these things from us? Or who is it that would enjoy these gifts? ^C For after a very short time you will leave behind the things of mortals and travel the path of all, having fallen asleep, the way which apostles and prophets and martyrs have trod, and Christ himself who became man, the author of life, although by rising on the third day he provided us with the pledges of the resurrection. Rise, therefore, and go, and return to your home before the separation of soul from body overtakes you." And having said these things, the saints departed; but she arrived at the city in the morning, and to her husband, who was marveling at the swiftness of her return, she recounted the prophecy of the martyrs. And not many days later, as the illness fiercely increased, she departed to the Lord, as she had learned from the saints. We also, here, upon the prediction of Rhodope's death, marveling at those who foretold it, and bringing the account concerning her to a close, let us proceed to the instruction of another miracle.

LXIII. Concerning Helpidius, who suffered from the quaking of his face due to witchcraft.

Let Helpidius come forward after Rhodope, and let him refresh the audience with the account of his own case; for this is very suitable for refreshment, and knows how to piously nourish those who hear. For this man, having enemies, as it seems, who always lived in wickedness and were workers of lawless deeds, was subjected ^D to witchcraft by them—not having suffered magic through food, nor having taken poison in drink, but having been struck unsparingly by a demon, a foul spirit that does the greatest harm; for his entire face was always being shaken, upon which he had received the blow, which, moved not spontaneously but by force, moved the whole head along with itself, and

it presented to all a spectacle of compassion, moving to pity those who saw him being moved. For he represented ^A Cain in part, with the incessant movements of his face, having received the trembling as a perpetual destiny—a penalty for his fratricidal intent. And Helpidius was shaken in his features even worse than this person, and he was being excessively afflicted by the tremors, in such a way that God was mercifully chastising him, but the demon was mercilessly scourging him. Helpidius, suffering in this way and truly being pitied by all who beheld him, was such that no physician attempted to help him, nor did anyone even dare to look at him at all; for the infirmity was beyond their art, and the passion was curable only by God and by His divine servants, to whom He granted [the power] to do whatever they wish.

But those who heard of the miracle-working of Cyrus and John, ^B and not only heard but clearly understood—for the region is nearby, and they learn of things pertaining to the Alexandrians no less than the Alexandrians themselves—they brought this man and fell before the tomb of the saints, beseeching them to help the sufferer. They, having pitied Helpidius even before their arrival, and not being ignorant of the ambush of the demons, appeared to him in a dream and healed him; and they commanded this to be done for the perfect health of the passion: they ordered that water be brought from the "Adyta." The Adyta is a lake, distant five hundred stadia from Alexandria to the west, and near to Libya. They commanded that water be brought from this stream, and be given to the sufferer for drinking, and for the washing of his head and face. ^C When the command of the saints had been carried out, the water having been brought, Helpidius drank, and washed his head and face, and the passion immediately disappeared and vanished. And the matter was worthy of a miracle, because the unstable stream made the unstable head and face stand still; and water that is always moved by its flow rendered the neck, which was always being shaken, immovable. Helpidius, therefore, having found healing in this way and having shaken off the disease, praised the saints and departed, and reached his home in good health. And we, also, by worthily honoring them, shall write down other mighty deeds of theirs.

LXIV. Concerning the mute man

It is not right to do injustice to a mute man, even if he cannot accuse us of doing him injustice, nor should we leave him in silence; because the glorious martyrs did not even let him be silent always, ^D but they made him eloquent from being speechless, and granted him to speak well, so that their perfect gift might not be lacking in this perfection of theirs. Let us, therefore, also imitate the saints, and what they themselves did then by works, we shall do now by words; and we shall not make him who once spoke, mute again by covering the narrative about him in silence, lest he perhaps denounce us to the martyrs and become a detractor of our silence—he who obtained the use of speech from them and does not wish others to be silent or to be kept silent, so that [they might not] make him, who speaks,

^A a detractor of our silence and ungrateful, by choosing to remain silent about their gifts.

A Phoenix was the mute, and he originated from the city of Tyre, perhaps refuting by this the Greeks and their false and old-wives’ tales. For hence do they invent the myth that Cadmus was the first to be the progenitor of letters, and that he bestowed them upon uncultured Greece, from which has now blossomed the mute, appearing as a manifest proof of that fiction; which the Greeks, in their ignorance, kept hidden, not seeing the primacy of Moses, and being completely unaware of the times of Cadmus—times which the present intention does not allow to be set forth for a greater refutation, or to make the error more manifest to those who wish it, as it draws us to itself and compels the pen to fulfill its task. He was a Tyrian, as I said, the mute, and he possessed the ailment as a connatural thing, not something that happened to him at some time due to another malady, but one born with him from the very moment of his conception. And having received this affliction by nature, he emitted no sweet voice to those who begat him; he never addressed his mother with a stammer, nor did he call his father with a lisp—things by which parents are always gladdened by their children, even if the stammering and lisping of their affection are inarticulate—just as the Athenians did of old in regard to the orators Aeschines and Demosthenes and their eloquent glibness.

When he had become a man, therefore, he had a tongue that was immobile and not in harmony with the rest of his limbs; and he might perhaps have departed ^C from this present life in such a state, had not certain friends of Christ and lovers of humanity, recognizing the grace of Cyrus and John and the miracles that are performed through them for the faithful, acting as believers and feeling compassion, brought him to the martyrs. Having arrived there, and having the faith of those who brought him as an intercessor, and having aroused the compassion of the saints for his own wretched state, he attained a talking tongue—not by acquiring another tongue, but by laying aside the bond of the one he had.

It is logical, moreover, to mention the remedy ^D through which he escaped the affliction of his tongue. The saints appeared to him while he was sleeping and commanded him to drink water, not prescribing this with words (for he did not hear), but with gestures and by pointing to the spring. Having awakened, he signaled for the spring to be brought; for he had learned through a gesture that whatever he might see while sleeping, he should do upon rising. And when the water was given to him forthwith, he received it and drank. And having drunk, he immediately spoke; and he heard men speaking; and he recounted the instruction of the saints, explaining the dream in clear words and celebrating the power of those who had appeared.

Thus the deaf man heard, and the mute spoke words, without tasting the waters of Castalia, without drinking water flowing down from the Styx, without drawing from a Caucasian stream, praising Pythagorean virtue as the myths of the Greeks decree—the poverty of those writers regarding the truth—but having obtained the command of John and Cyrus, which supplied for him that which nature had allowed them to create; by which appeared

rent martyrs from thence to grant healings, and to accommodate to men those things which were lacking for their perfection, whence also from the beginning they received their origin. On account of which we also, praising them as much as we are able, and praying that a word may be given in the opening of our mouth, as they have now given one to the present mute, eagerly hasten to the narration of the remaining miracles.

LXV. Concerning Theodore the blind man who possessed a demon.

At a fitting time ^A there came to us Theodore the Cilician, recounting the flight of a double infirmity of his own, and wishing to be written down together with the preceding man, who had been mute and deaf; and he received a double healing for his double malady. Having received him kindly, on account of the goodwill which he has toward the martyrs, we shall grant to him for a brief time a tongue, and we shall lend a hand, and we shall provide a mutual quill, to one who is weaving praise for the saints and is eager to proclaim their virtue arduously. Let us therefore begin to relate the story concerning him, being eager to become everything for him—hand, and tongue, and quill—by encouraging him to write rapidly and most fully.

Theodore was a Cilician, arising from the city of Anazarbus, and was constrained by two difficult passions; of which the one was a most wicked demon, coming upon him with beastly savagery and always rending whatever it found; for many times, as the father of him who was suffering from a demon said to the Lord in the Gospels, it threw him into fire and water, ^B wishing to kill and destroy him without sparing; the other, however, was blindness of the eyes, not brought about by an infirmity of nature, but prepared by the operation of the demon, not introduced by bodily sickness, but having entered in from the ferocity of the spirit; so malignant was the demon, and on account of the abundance of its rage, hateful to man! But while Theodore was in these straits, and hoping for nothing saving, or expecting to flee from these passions before the liberation which occurs through death—for death is indeed a rest for a man, as Job, who philosophized in his passions, declared, removing all the difficulty in life, and the much-suffering and much-toiling of the present life—Cyrus and John were announced as divinely-given expellers of demons and ^C true repellers of bodily passions; and believing in God and the martyrs, he came to Alexandria and arrived at the sanctuary of the saints, declaring by deed the immovability of his faith toward Him. Whom the servants of Christ receiving, they freed him from the evils by which he was afflicted, and rendered him a worker of a life pleasing to God.

For appearing to him not long after his arrival, not when he was awake, but while he was sleeping upon his bed, they entered into pacts and commands with him, and thus made him worthy of health; the pacts and the commands made through them required the deposition of a tumultuous life, and the taking up of the tranquil monastic life. For this is a thrice-beloved reward to them from those who are healed: the correction of life. Whence they also receive such, and immediately ^D release those who are healed; and this is manifest[.]

^A from many other things, but no less so from our present narrative. For having come, as I have already said, to Theodore, they said, "Do you wish to become healthy, Theodore?" And upon his nodding and saying "Yes" with his mouth (for what else was he to say, being crushed by such a great evil?), the martyrs again said: "If you wish to obtain health and to escape the danger of infirmity, enter into a covenant with us that, when healed, you will dwell in the heavenly wilderness of the divine river Jordan, where Christ the Savior of all was baptized. And becoming an inhabitant of this place, you shall demonstrate the habit and manners of a monk, imitating John the Baptist, who was once an inhabitant and citizen of this place; and God shall grant you health through us and deliver you from the punishment of your present ^B dangers." When the sufferer had quickly agreed and sworn to fulfill their command, the saints immediately cast out the demon like some rogue and runaway, and they healed the blindness of his eyes which the demon had brought in with itself, putting the demon to flight by their vision and driving out the blindness by the application of wax. Theodore, finding that those who had come to him had fled and having obtained health beyond his recovery, after giving thanks as much as he could and was able, reaches the wilderness, and there he fulfills the saints' lovely and venerable instruction. We, however, admiring them and having praised them for their divine care toward men, shall record others of their graces bestowed upon us men.

LXVI. Concerning Menas the Lycian, who fell into the disease of dropsy.

Why should we not bring forth Menas, who is hidden under the sand, and make him known to those who are ignorant of him? For the things concerning him are worthy of Scripture, and not of the shroud of sand and oblivion—unlike the demon of Menouthis and its rites, altars, and shrine, the oblivion of which is useful, and for this reason it has been brought about by the martyrs. For the sight of it is very harmful to those who look upon it, and for this reason it is covered by the sea sand, which utterly destroys its memory and creates the profit of ^C invisible things. Let the Lycian, therefore, come having rent the covering of the sand, and let him make the prodigy concerning him manifest to us; and let that not be hidden evilly under a bed or a bushel, which, if placed upon a lampstand, is able to shine well.

Menas was known to be a Lycian, and he said that he originated from the city of Patara. He had a passion, not a light one, but a very great one, difficult to heal, and—for the doctors of this day—incurable by art alone, unless God were to grant them a helping power. For falling into an incurable dropsy, and lingering in that same malady, he was in terrible danger, being exhausted by the pains of his viscera ^D and suffocated by the swellings of his entire body. But

why should I wish to commit this suffering to writing, when the very name of the ailment is sufficient for everyone to know it? For immediately upon hearing the name of this condition, those who hear it imagine the magnitude of the pain in their minds. But as long as Menas was in the early stages of the illness, he both took care of himself and summoned physicians, and was eager to carry out their instructions; but when he progressed in the malady, and no physician summoned would come, knowing the incurability of the sickness, he desired to meet death, that he might thus escape the malady. But when even desiring this he did not obtain it, he is led to the martyrs Cyrus and John, for the sake of one of two things: either that the saints having taken pity on him would heal him, or that, being moved with compassion for him, they would mercifully intercede regarding his death. Whence he obtained one of the two, health, I say, and strength; and he escaped the malady, which he did not think he could escape in any way without death. ^B Let us also describe the cure; for it is sophisticated and full of both martyric grace and power. For appearing to the sufferer in his sleep, and knowing precisely the things in his heart, and how sometimes in his sorrow he would call for death and wish to be covered by the earth, while at other times he would intercede for his health and pray to live if he were cured, they commanded him to do both in a certain way: both offering him health and granting him to be buried in the earth. "If you wish," they say, "to obtain release from the malady, depart from the temple and bury yourself in the nearby sand." And he, having turned after that most excellent dream, took the burial in the sand to be a sign of death rather than of health; yet because he was desiring both, namely death and health—although not in the same way—on account of the malady, he promptly carried out the command, preferring to the life lived with pain both options: death without pain, and life without malady. Therefore, having gone out from the temple and been covered in sand as he had been commanded, he both received health and escaped the expected death. For when he was being buried in the sand, he had his malady also being buried with him; but arising from this after the burial, he did not have the infirmity rising with him; but he rose having scattered the sand as he had come forth from the womb without passion. And Menas indeed obtained health in such a manner, and having raised a hymn of gratitude to the martyrs, rejoicing and leaping, he reached Lycia. But let us, having again praised the saints, offer another of their miraculous works. ^{C D}

LXVII. Concerning George who, agitated by a spirit, killed himself.

^A For these things are indeed pleasing to us, and let us declare the power that was manifested among the saints in his case; for the miracle possesses an excellence, imaging forth the grace of those who performed it by itself.

Cyprius was named Georgius, and he possessed a demon known for its great malice; for it was much more wicked than many demons, and it strove to commit on its own the evils that were practiced by many others; and that cruel one assumed it to be a great defeat ^B if it appeared even in a small degree milder than all the rest. Since it was so savage and misanthropic—treating the man more savagely than others did, always immersed in him, crushing the miserable wretch, and acting more maniacally in many things—Georgius, desiring its flight, came to Alexandria, reached the temple of the saints, and dwelt in it, living together with the other infirm people ^C. But that savage demon, being scourged by the hands of the martyrs, and no longer bearing Georgius's dwelling there, nor being ordered by them to be separated from him, devised something most wicked and worthy of its own depravity, promising itself flight from the scourging of the saints. It caused the bird called the night-raven to nest in the roof, and to sleep and perch in the places high above, in which were the bedclothes of Georgius; hence the night-raven, sitting ^D above, kept shooting its dung upon him, and was making all his bedding filthy. When the ministers serving in the temple found this out, they moved the infirm man to another place, having been brought to pity on account of his injury. But again the bird, as if by some necessary pact, accompanied his bedding; and as if it had accepted the guardianship of these, and could not leave them, it kept defecating from above, and along with them kept defiling Georgius with dung very often. Again, the doorkeepers, pitying him, moved him to another place; and the bird did this too, and did not neglect the transfer; not doing this of its own accord (for it is without understanding), but with the demon driving it. And when again—or rather, many times—those performing the administration of the temple had transferred the infirm man (for they did this ten times), and the bird did not cease to follow, in the end they ceased, perceiving that the concurrence of this bird was the operation of a demon.

Georgius, therefore, having become enraged at this, and having found a sword—evidently through a diabolical arrangement—the wretch snatched it and turned it against his throat, and caused a great slaughter upon himself; for having first pricked his throat, he moved the sword hither and thither again, as if the first wound were not sufficient for destruction, unless he also moved the sword after the stabbing and made the wound greater. When the thrice-wretched man had received a very deep one, he fell to the ground and rolled about, and he was struggling just as those struggle who are being slaughtered, thinking he was losing his life, and being thought by those present to be dying immediately. Which the doorkeepers, while performing their office for the saints, seeing, fell into no small fear, their own crime and cul

culpability in not having prevented such an attempt by one possessed of an evil spirit; and fearing that some danger might come to them, they ran about to the neighboring villages, calling upon physicians, if by any means they could, by sewing together the lethal wound, save ^A the man who was surely dying, and themselves who were in danger along with him. Having found only one man at Heracleion, and having persuaded him with many entreaties, they brought him to the shrine. When he saw that the wound was mortal, he withdrew without attempting any procedure, constrained by great fear and astonished at how George, who had inflicted this wound upon himself, was not yet dead; especially since air was being expelled through it, and again breathed in through the same, and likewise food and drink would issue forth from it.

But the martyrs, coming by night, arranged a remedy for the sleeping steward: this was wine and oil, through which the Lord also saved him who had fallen among thieves, pouring wine and oil upon his wounds; through which the emulators of the Savior also rescue George, commanding Christodorus to do the same. Having seized a certain doorkeeper named Kaloetes, they whipped him, having fashioned a large scourge from a rope; for he himself was the one who had brought that physician into their temple. And as they whipped him, they said: "Do you not know that our house constitutes the medicine for the whole world? Do you not know that Christ has bestowed us as physicians upon the faithful? For what reason, therefore, have you brought another physician to our house, while he himself is in need of our remedy?" And having beaten him well, they let him go, threatening him not to do such a thing again. Those who heard this would have said that they had justly whipped him, had they learned of the operation performed upon him by the saints. For he was in danger in his lungs, and was continually dwelling at the gates of hades, and finding no hope of salvation from physicians, the martyrs healed him by giving him only aloe to drink. And not for this reason only did they whip him as ungrateful, but because, seeing so many obtaining healing and enjoying the all-powerful aid of the saints, he—as if they were weak for his salvation and deliverance—attempted to bring another physician. Thus, therefore, George escaped both the madness of the demon and his own attempt to kill himself. As for us, also praising the saints for this, let us record another marvel of their greatness.

LXVIII. Concerning Joannia who was suffering torments from a malevolent spell.

Beauty has destroyed many, and the appearance of the body has caused ruin, as they fell into cruel envy and became the victims of bitter malice; for things that are good and better are always envied and are destroyed by the eyes of the envious. This is something that those who are good in both soul and body also suffer very often, if they do not have God as the savior, keeper, and protector of their beauty. For if the hard diamond, which is more precious than noble stones—that which is said to be stronger than bronze and iron—

^A does not shatter, yet the eyes of the envious consume it, what can the human body not suffer when it is the subject of envy? For those who, when they do not succeed in causing the envied object to wither with the glances of their eyes, hasten to destroy it with other instruments; this Joannia nearly endured, had she not found Christ and the martyrs as guardians of her own life. Let us, therefore, recount in this writing both the envy, and the healing of the injury caused by that envy.

A woman had come from Hierapolis ^B, which is in Syria, and she possessed a comeliness of body, and had nobility of parents, and wealth that magnified both. She was married into Caesarea of Palestine, not for the sake of family or money, but on account of the beauty of her body. For in Hierapolis, the discursor Theodorus, who became proconsul of Caesarea—being originally from Caesarea, which was once called the Tower of Straton—was joined to her for beauty alone. But when she had come with him to Caesarea, the sisters of her husband, through jealousy, envied her, seeing that she was better than themselves; ^C and having envied her, they practiced sorcery against Joannia, casting a mortal poison into a cup and offering it to her to drink, when she was unaware. She indeed drank the poison, but she escaped immediate death, as God commanded it to be bypassed. Having the poison in her belly, she endured relentless torments, as if serpents were consuming her entrails. From then on, suffering unbearably and not finding a doctor—even though a thousand came to visit her—she could neither take her customary food, nor could she tolerate drink, nor did she enjoy sleep pleasantly, nor was she able to walk upright or sit as usual; but bending downward, and holding her belly in her arms, ^D and groaning from her pains, she spent all the hours.

And thus, gradually wasting away, she would have died if some, having mercy on her, had not reported to her the powers of Cyrus and John, and the wonders performed by them. And she, having heard of these things, and believing the reports, reached the city of Alexander, and approached the martyrs’ temple, and besought them for her restoration. And they, imitating the philanthropy of God, had mercy on her as she was perishing dreadfully; and appearing to her in her sleep, they took pity on her and prescribed the cure for her suffering in a vision. This was lentils, a legume to be boiled and eaten, and again made into a plaster for the suffering belly in a bath. And she, as soon as she arose after the dream, did what was commanded; and the belly having received this both from within and from without, she immediately vomited up the entire poison she had drunk before, which bubbled up across her surface; and once this had happened, the pains quieted a little. The saints appearing again, granted her complete health, offering her a pastillum to eat (this is a certain type of flat cake), and giving her a certain psalm of those said in honor of them, written as if on a small note, and commanding her to say it continuously. And she, when she had eaten the pastillum, and

had obtained ^A complete recovery, and had sung the hymn, and had promised to sing this melodiously forever to the martyrs, went on to Palestine and Caesarea. But let us, now that we have sung the praises of the athletes, hasten to another of their deeds which is to be praised in every way.

LXIX. Concerning John the blind Roman

How long shall we vex the reed, and urge our right hand to writing, and stir up our voice to crying out? For the reed is weary, and the hand is no longer able to run, and the voice along with these has grown weak, ceasing and desisting from its intensity; although from the wise Solomon’s writing we learn that “a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Eccl. iv, 12). But these things, being three, and having one counsel, and existing of one mind, and having set for themselves one goal—to proclaim the miracles of Cyrus and John—have endured a breaking, and have been cast down by toil, and have succumbed to fatigue, and have donned defeat, before they could proclaim anything worthy of the saints, or even a very small particle of their awe-inspiring wonders. They are able only to cry out the magnitude of their own weakness; whence, even though they barely proclaim the present wonder, they will cease in the prodigy after this, ^B asking much of the saints that they might grant them pardon, with oblivion, for their rash and very great daring.

But now, leaving these things aside for the time being, let us tell of the affairs regarding John as best we can, and make them known to those who hear. For he was a Roman, not emerging from a city reduced to tribute under the Romans, but possessing Rome itself, the first of their cities to reign, as his fatherland and city. For Rome indeed truly desired to add this to its own brilliance: namely, to be adorned by the miracles of Cyrus and John as by certain divine things, knowing these to be much brighter than crowns and scepters and purple. For these things indeed have their origin from the earth, and are dissolved back into earth; but the charisms of the martyrs, descending from above from heaven and produced by divine power, never admit of a resolution into the earth. Let us not, therefore, envy Rome’s desire if, having earthly brilliance, it also craves the glory of heavenly things. But having summoned John, who was from this city, into the midst, let us through him fulfill its desire.

He was first held by a weakness of the eyes, on account of which a crowd of physicians occurred to him, both desiring to lay aside the sickness, and to recover the freedom from suffering which had been before it, which is the mark of everyone who is sick. But he was not able to attain this, although he had paid a great fee to the physicians; for always pursuing the better one, he kept making the sickness worse; and while he embraced him who was conspicuous in these things, he himself gradually became sightless; until, approaching the ^D visible and illustrious, he is shown to be completely obscure and dim; and

^A perhaps he would not have escaped the hands of the physicians even then, had not the evacuated purse revealed the blindness of his eyes. For with the light of the eyes, the radiance of the purse also passed away; and as he had been suffering incurably, and was able to receive no discharge, he learned that he himself was also, in an incurable manner, wasting away. For as long as the purse was full, he would often hear from the physicians: "Take heart; have no grief or anxiety, for we hope that you will soon see well." But when the purse had suffered emptiness—for it had flowed away in sympathy with his eyes—he himself suffered with it the deprivation, which he had previously suffered in his eyes. "Go away," he heard them say to him, "let no mortal deceive you by saying that you will see the sun. For your pupils have flowed away, and your eyelids have become frozen together. See to it that none of the physicians eats your money, making you full of good hope with words alone, when he is unable to make you have good eyes."

Having received these pronouncements, John could no longer trouble the physicians, not only because he had learned that he would never see again, but because he was also destitute of the wealth through which he might appease the physicians. ^B Having arrived at this state, he sought a physician who could do more than the physicians, and who possessed a mind that did not require money, and who—not only this—would also feed the sick man. Seeking this more zealously, he found it according to the saving prophecy, and knocking more insistently, he obtained an opened door. For at Alexandria he hears of Cyrus and John, not far off, and he desires and longs to find such as they, who would be stronger by their power than his diseases. And having learned this, or rather being persuaded—since he already knew of it by report—he reached the saints all the more quickly, having set a stationary boundary: not to enter their venerable temple unless he should first see light and cast off the blindness of his eyes. And this definition of his own he fulfilled after no moderate testing, saying more frequently, "I have sworn and performed it," and, "the things proceeding from my lips I will not make void," ^C crying out with the Melograph. For he used to sit, lie, eat, and sleep before the door of the temple; in summer time parched, and in the season of winter frozen; and at one time drenched by more violent rains, at another scorched by more intense rays, having above his head the sun burning during the day, and by night the moon dissolving [him]; ^D and thus having spent eight years in the open air, and not having dishonored his own resolution, nor expecting that he would dishonor it thereafter, or make a departure from that place, even if he were to be proven blind until death. Whence he was judged worthy, by all who knew him, of praises for so constant a mind and steadfast judgment, and was judged worthy, by the martyrs, even of perfect healing. Standing by him, therefore, as he slept at night, they grant him health and bestow upon him his sight, with words

commanding this, and touching his eyes, and instructing him not to use medications. However, we did not learn in what manner or by what method they opened and cleansed his eyes. For, rising from his bed after his sleep, in the very middle of the night, and taking sinopia—a color that resembles flame—he wrote these things on the wall that is before the door of the sanctuary where he had been lying: ^A “I, John, hailing from the great city of Rome, having been blind for eight years, by the power of the holy Cyrus and John, having persevered here, have regained my sight.” And having etched these words with that color, and having entered and seeing into the temple as he had promised, and having offered his prayers to the martyrs before the sun had risen over the earth and illuminated with its rays those who were on the earth, he departed joyful; leaving behind the writing he had fixed on the wall as a memorial of his own devotion and of the grace of the martyrs. But we, having told of his recovery of sight, and having dedicated to the saints a hymn for this, let us turn our pen toward ourselves and record the restoration of our own eyes, making it the very last of the written miracles.

LXX. Concerning the monk Sophronius, the author, who suffered in his eyes.

Great and manifest is the devotion of him who was tormented by a demon, who before his death dwelt in the tombs, as the divine word bears testimony to him. For this man, having received health from the Savior, and fleeing the demons who were raging against him without restraint (for he had a legion, a most wicked throng of many demons), desired to become a follower of Christ who had saved him; and not being able to show his devotion to Him in this way (for he who had been possessed by the demon implored Him that he might be with Him; but Jesus did not permit him, ^C but ordered him to go away and announce to his own people the saving mercy shown to him), he departed as a diligent and munificent preacher of the Savior in the Decapolis, considering it a mark of ingratitude if he were to proclaim his benefactor only to his own kin, and not to all who had seen him afflicted.

Therefore, let no one find fault with us if we wish to become his imitators, and to proclaim Cyrus and John as our benefactors after God, and to describe this gift of grace in our writing. For no one has ever reproached the leper whom Christ cleansed from his leprosy, and who, though he heard that he should tell no one about the healing, but only offer the gift according to the commandment of Moses, instead proclaimed the Lord everywhere, and made known his cleansing, and did not wish to remain silent as he had been commanded. ^D Imitating whom also out of gratitude, we shall not hide our healing, but shall become grateful for the saints.

^A And let us bring our own matters to those previously mentioned; and, imitating Christ their own teacher, let us not wish to tell anything to anyone. Yet let us tell the name, and the city, and the fatherland, and the monastery, whence we sprang, and where by the will of God we were stationed, and in addition to these, the infirmity of the eyes and the divine visitation of the holy ones, just as we did in the preceding accounts, granting nothing more to ourselves, but recording these things for the sake of the knowledge of those who are to read them. And the reason why we have placed ourselves last, we shall speak of later, when we have written of the affliction and the healing.

There is, then, a name for him who has written: Sophronius. The city is Damascus, the metropolis; ^B the fatherland is Phoenicia—not the maritime one, but that which is named after Mount Lebanon, of which Damascus is the ancient metropolis. The monastery is that which the holy Theodosius, who, on account of his virtue, presided over all the Palestinian monks, as well those before him as those after him, founded in the desert of the holy city of Christ our God. And so, having come to Alexandria for a reason which there is no necessity to mention in this work, Sophronius was afflicted in both eyes. He did not, however, have the malady for merely a few days, but was worn down for several months; and not bearing the sea of pains (for the affliction he suffered was restless), he exhibited himself to the best physicians, and especially to those who were thought to possess more than others in both words and bearing. ^C They, frequently drawing the suffering one toward the air, and examining the pupils against the rays of the sun, at first said that a change of air was the cause of the affliction; for immediately after his arrival, Sophronius endured this. But as the infirmity extended to a dryness of the eyes, a xerophthalmia was taking form for him, having its cause not in foreign airs, but in an intemperance of the body; whence they also prescribed things that thin the body, as if by these they were healing those who had fallen into such a disease. But when they could accomplish nothing through these, ^D although they had the infirm one compliant to all things because necessity compelled him, they fled to the incurable cataract and platicoria. For some named it by this name, and others by the other, ceasing to speak of strange airs or intemperances of the body; and at first, indeed, they were in agreement with one another, but later they struggled against each other by the exchanges of names, and also [ struggled against ] themselves and him who...

^A neighbor, they waged war, agreeing in this alone, in the incurable nature of the afflictions of which they spoke. When Sophronius saw this, and that he would have no help from men, he clearly recognized that the physicians would not raise him up, just as the great Isaiah prophesied concerning them. Meanwhile, always learning of the gifts of Cyrus and John, and hearing what miracles they perform upon countless diseases, he went forth to them full of faith, with which those who approach them obtain everything they desire, finding them to be more than abundant in rewarding the faith that burns towards them. And when they saw Sophronius, who then suffered in his whole soul, possessing faith, they judged him worthy of healing. And first of all, by overturning the entire promise of the physicians’ foolish talk, and persuading the sufferer that he would experience nothing of what the physicians had most recently asserted, they then granted him the health which those others could not provide.

Therefore, both of them stood by him in his sleep (and it was the third night since he had arrived), and in this way they deposited faith in him concerning his future state. One was dressed in the holy habit of a monk, and he resembled John, the spiritual father and teacher of the sufferer, who himself was also there in the martyr’s shrine, supplicating for his disciple and son. Cyrus the martyr it was, who had taken on the form of the father as a monk, and was clad in a monk’s stole. But John, the equally blessed one, figured forth Peter of Alexandria, who was prefect of the praetorium; he, coming and wearing a flashing chlamys, asked Cyrus, who had appeared in the form of the sufferer’s teacher: “Have you,” he said, “a disciple who is called Homer?” Now even those who have only trodden the vestibules of worldly learning know that Homer was blind, old age having brought cataracts upon him; for the saints wished to indicate this by their enigma. But he spoke with an oath that he did indeed have a disciple, but that he was by no means called Homer; and he further added that he had never even touched a Homeric verse; signifying by this that he was free from Homeric blindness. To whom the holy John answered, as if speaking to ^D a father and instructor: “Having learned this, we have come together to see him. But if he is not called Homer, as we have heard, let us glorify God who is above all, who delivers him from such an affliction and a title.” And then, appearing in such a way and convincing him with such words that he would not be a participant in Homeric blindness, they departed and ended the dream.

^A A few days later, they appeared again in the habits of monks and commanded that their own wax, dissolved in the oil that remained from the candle on their tomb, should be put into his eyes. He performed their command and received in part the subsequent healing. But because they mercifully desired to grant him complete recovery, they fashioned the gift in a dream as follows: It was night, and Sophronius was sleeping upon his bed. As he slept, he thought he saw John the teacher inviting all the brothers who were in the shrine to a banquet. A single table was made for them all, circular, and extending through the whole porch of the sanctuary; for the porch itself had been allotted this shape, and although with eight angles, it distinguished one circular line and showed a form not entirely differing from roundness. ^B The table therefore clearly followed the shape of the porch. At the head of it rested the martyr Theodore, for he too was deeply compassionate toward the sufferer. After him was the magnificent Cyrus, leading John the brother to his right, and thus he stood in the middle between the two athletes of piety—not using other shapes, nor appearing in alien forms, but in those in which they had existed and are depicted. Behind them the rest of the company of infirm brothers lay down, and Sophronius served them all alone, while John, his teacher, prepared the feast as if in a neighboring cell.

When the feast had reached its end, and the three saints had risen from their places, Theodore said to Sophronius: “Go, call your teacher, so that Cyrus the saint may render whatever he owes him.” He ran and carried out what was commanded. When John—for this was the teacher's name—had come, the martyr Theodore said to him: “Tell me, what does Cyrus the saint owe you, so that he may pay the debt immediately?” He fell upon his face and said that the martyr owed him nothing. But the martyr Theodore replied, “You will surely say.” And again the Father gave the same answer as before. When he had done this many times, and saw that the saint would not desist but was compelling him in every way to speak, he said: “He owes me nothing; however, I beseech and pray, and with all my soul I ask the martyr, to come to our humble cell and visit us there frequently, and to bless those who are well, and to heal those who are afflicted with illnesses.” ^C When he heard these things, Cyrus the saint immediately replied: “Verily I come, verily I come, verily I come,” confirming his holy arrival with a threefold oath and an utterance of this kind; which he has truly fulfilled, and fulfills by coming continually. For knowing that it is proper for the saints to say, *I swore and I have established [it], and I will not make void the things that proceed from my lips* (Ps. CXVIII, 106), while he was still alive in the flesh he was constantly saying this, and when he had been separated from the flesh and flown to heaven, he did not cease to do it again. And thus John the teacher was pacified by these words, having received an oath-bound promise concerning the things he had requested. ^D His disciple, Sophronius, gave cheerful da-

- ^A seeing the holy ones, and for this reason he was persevering at the table. After the meal, having approached Theodore the martyr, he kept saying that he should intercede for him with holy Cyrus, situated upon the ground with his knees and neck bowed. Theodore the general, having received his supplication, immediately interceded with Cyrus, saying, "On account of the Lord, and on account of this your servant, be entreated." He, however, answered him, "Yes," and commanding the one lying there to rise, he fenced him about with the sign of the cross three times, making the seals in the air within a very small space with the index finger of his right hand, and saying "Blessed is the Lord" at each seal—which was a promise of approaching health, and not the actual signs of the healing; for the martyr's finger was indeed near, but it did not touch the eyes of the sufferer, and "Blessed is the Lord," being spoken alone, signified the healing as neighbor and consequence.

^B Whence, immediately and not many days later, the martyrs appeared again to Sophronius while he was sleeping, providing the fulfillments of their previous promises. The matter of the vision took place clearly in this way: He who now reports these things was sleeping, and he beheld himself entering a certain oratory of those that were in his own house. And as he was going out through the very threshold of the door, he met the apostle and martyr Thomas inside; and having recognized the saint by his robe, his form, and every detail pertaining to his appearance, he embraced him the more quickly, and begged him about his healing, since this man manifests many powers and frequent and wondrous signs in Damascus, considering ^C that he also raised the brother of Sophronius, who was dissolved by a very long ailment and had spent six months in suffering, in a very few days; and for this reason, the Apostle is honored excessively by those in Damascus, as those who harvest his healings and gather the gifts of his grace. Having found him, Sophronius, possessing faith in him and immense love, supplicated for his eyes, whether it was Cyrus the martyr who, knowing the desire of the latter, transfigured himself into the Apostle, or whether it was truly Thomas the apostle who was present and with him, together with the company of martyrs—for a multitude of monks followed him, and other saints [4] flashing with splendid garments. The martyr and at once disciple and apostle, having stretched out his right hand, and again touching the eyelids of his ^D left eye with his index finger, sealed him a third time with the cross of Christ. And as he spoke to the one writing, "Let me go," he entreated him to seal the right eye also. But the saintly one declared that he had no ailment, and having said this, he withdrew; and being released from the arms of the one holding him, this brought the vision to an end.

For he had joy mixed with unbearable sorrow—joy, in that he had obtained the visitation of the saints; but sorrow, in that he had allowed the saint to depart without having signed the other eye. And being thus sorrowful, he immediately awoke again. And he immediately sees John, the companion of Cyrus, conversing with John the rhetor, who was worthily honored with the rank of prefect, and inquiring about the assistance of the saints. He himself told of the visitation, and how he was troubled on account of his right eye, inasmuch as it had not received the seal of the saving sign, nor had it received perfect healing. But the martyr sufficiently reassured him, saying: "Your eyes shall suffer no evil henceforth, neither the eye that was signed, nor the one that remained unsigned," the saint affirming that the eye which you fear will not be diseased. ^B And having spoken these things with oaths, for the greater confidence of the sufferer, the martyr kissed the unsigned eye three times with his mouth; and having done this, and having granted him perfect health and grace in due time, he brought the vision to an end; since those who imitate God, the giver of all good gifts and perfect boons, were not themselves dispensers of imperfect joy and a flawed gift.

Thus, therefore, Sophronius, having received the gift of the saints and cast off the dimness from his eyes, set out upon the writing of all that had been said, ^C ever mindful of the healing and of the promise that he had made before his recovery. Whence, immediately after his healing, he composes this work and fulfills his vows without any delay, having imitated the zeal of the saints shown toward himself; and he placed himself last among those whom he had written about, as being the least of all and unworthy of the martyrs' healing—the participation in which he seeks for his whole life, so as to walk upright in both soul and body and to be delivered from every more difficult occurrence.

These things for you, O blessed Cyrus and John, Sophronius has written and dedicated. These things for you, O servants of Christ the Savior, who also became saviors to him, he took the boldness to offer, having gained confidence in you and making you the assistants of his offering. These things, O noble martyrs, he was brought to offer to you, ^D not recompensing you with gifts for what you wrought in him, but defining this writing as an offering of praise, which partly announces the fervor of his own devotion, but entirely falls short of your greatness. Yet do you receive them kindly and behold them with a merciful eye, and pour out upon them abundant grace, lest you suffer injury through these things if they should be destitute of your divine coloring. Receive him as an unprofitable servant who has done what he ought to have done, and accept him as a grateful debtor, and make him worthy of pardon in these matters, knowing the smallness of his intellect—

and not ignorant of the slowness of his tongue, and looking upon the humility of his speech. ^A And may you always protect him while he lives, and always guard him with divine power; always save him from the evils of the age, and always deliver him from every temptation, present or future, whether he is awake or asleep, on land, on sea, in cities, or in the wilderness. And when he is dead and has departed this life, deliver him from dark confusion, and present him to the Lord, and make him a beholder of His majesty, and cause him to be a partaker of the blessings which have been promised to those who see Him. May we all be worthy to attain these things; in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, ^B honor, dominion, greatness, and magnificence, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

We shall provide in the following volume a free account of this last miracle, as well as the first, from Sophronius, by the author Peter of Naples, so that scholars may recognize how much difference there is between his polished style (though he is a man writing in the eleventh century) and the harsh and semi-barbaric elocution of Boniface and Anastasius, even though they preceded Peter by nearly three centuries.

At the end of the codex, which contains the Sophronian work in Latin, translated by Anastasius, the following is read concerning the age of the codex itself and its scribe:

The book is finished; let there be praise and glory to Christ. May he who reads in this book bless the soul of Master Gualterius. Presbyter Gualterius made this work, When the third Pope Innocent reigned. In the year one thousand two hundred and four, the book having been completed by the hands of the aforementioned, at the request of Cencius the chancellor and senator. Therefore give honor to the holy martyrs Cyrus and John, for the love of whom he did this. By their prayers may the gates of paradise be opened to him, and those of hell be closed. Who did many good things in life and after death, They came from Alexandria of the Saracens to Rome.

MONITUM

After publishing above the copious history of St. Sophronius concerning the holy martyrs Cyrus and John and their miracles, it seemed a sin to me if I were to omit two ^C other histories written in the same codex, and indeed in the preceding place; of both of which, or at least of one of them, the author was the same Sophronius, as will become clear in what follows. The first begins: *Thearxiks hemin logos*—the second in the codex is headless (acephalous); but in both are commemorated the short orations of St. Cyril concerning the same martyrs, hitherto unknown and unpublished, which are in fact inserted in the codex between the two histories. And indeed all these exist in a very ancient Greek codex, which was once in the monastery of Crypta Ferrata, but now is kept in the Vatican Library under number 1607. In the Latin codex, also Vatican 5410, the first history is not read, because the codex is acephalous, ^D nor is it taken from the aforementioned Greek one (which the different order and quantity of materials demonstrate); the second, however, is read there, but it lacks the beginning, yet it is finished with the short orations of Cyril. Both histories are unpublished in Greek; in Latin, however, the first was published, having been elaborated by him, but with immense variety, by Otho Zylius in the Bollandists. No one had published the second even in Latin; for that one which Surius recites for the day of January 31st is clearly different.