E06839: Sophronius of Jerusalem, in his Miracles of the Saints Cyrus and John, recounts how *Kyros and Ioannes/Cyrus and John (physician and soldier, martyrs of Egypt, S00406) healed a certain Theodora from an eye disease at their shrine at Menouthis (near Alexandria, Lower Egypt). Written in Greek in Alexandria, 610/615.
Creators: name: Julia
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2018
Subjects: History

description: Sophronius of Jerusalem, The Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John, 9<br><br>Summary:<br><br>This miracle was performed by the martyrs Cyrus and John on behalf of Theodora, a wife of Christodoros whose miraculous healing was described in the preceding chapter of the Miracles (E06263). This Christodoros was in charge of managing the finances of the shrine of Cyrus and John in Menouthis as he was appointed to this function by Eulogos, bishop of Alexandria [581-608]. His wife Theodora had a grave eye disease and was treated by many physicians in Alexandria. She was thus upset by her husband's nomination as the financial manager (oikonomos) of the shrine because it was located far from the city. She tried to persuade her husband to refuse the nomination under the pretext that their house in the city would be left abandoned. And she was likely to succeed in persuading him (because wives have great power and influence over their husbands), if the saints who favoured the nomination, did not appear to the woman in a dream and convince her that she should accompany her husband to their shrine in Menouthis. They asked her why she did not wish to move to Menouthis, and she revealed that she did not want to be away from her doctors who cured her eye disease. Then the saints showed her in a vision their sanctuary and the ill people who gathered there to sleep, and described the disease of each one of them. This way they persuaded her, and she agreed to go to Menouthis. Once she got there, she was immediately released from the disease. She did not do anything to be cured, but to be content with contemplating the sanctuary. For it was so agreeable that it was able to cure diseases truly disagreeable.<br><br>However, Theodora also obtained another miracle afterwards. Some time after being healed, she went to wash herself in the bath of the saints. During the bath, she slipped on some sticky ointments and fell on her back. The fall was serious, since she got a deep wound on her elbow and bled a lot. But the martyrs appeared and healed the wound immediately. On the night following that day the woman went to sleep despite the great pain, because she wanted to obtain healing from the saints in the fastest way. The martyrs hastily appeared. Standing by (epistantes) they commanded her to wipe her elbow with a sponge soaked in the wine of Mareotis (oinos ho ek Mareotou) and apply on the wound some flesh of labrax (a species of sea-fish) (sarx labrakos). And since they thought that this damage was of demonic origin, they also ordered that she took a bath, so that they set a monument of their healing in the same manner, in which the insulting accident happened (hina kath'hon tropon he touton epereia gegonen, kan touto autoi to tes therapeias stesosi tropaion). When their order was executed, Theodora obtained healing at once. The demons were defeated, their machinations were proved vain and the martyrs were glorified.<br><br>Text: Fernández Marcos 1976, lightly modified in the light of Gascou 2007. Summary: J. Doroszewska.