By Fr. George Dorbarakis
The Holy Martyrs Cyrus and John lived in the time of Diocletian the emperor. Cyrus was from Alexandria, while John was from Edessa. Because of the persecution that prevailed at that time and was destroying the Christians, Cyrus went to Arabia, to a coastal place, became a monk, and lived there. John, who arrived in Jerusalem, heard about the miracles of Saint Cyrus (for he healed every disease and illness). He went to Alexandria and, from there, according to what was rumored about the Saint concerning his place of residence, he reached the place where he was living and dwelt with him.
When a certain woman named Athanasia, together with her three daughters — Theodote, Theoktiste, and Eudoxia — was arrested for their faith in Christ and was about to be brought before the tribunal, Saints Cyrus and John feared that something might happen which is natural to occur, especially to women, namely that they might be frightened by the magnitude of the tortures of martyrdom. For this reason they went to the place where they were being held, encouraged them, and prepared them for the martyrdoms. Since they themselves were also arrested and confessed our Lord Jesus Christ as the true God, they were subjected to many punishments, and in the end their heads were cut off, together with the women we have mentioned.
Saints Cyrus and John belong to the great choir of the Unmercenary Saints, such as Kosmas and Damian, Panteleimon and Hermolaos, Samson and Diomedes, Thallelaios and Tryphon. Their hymnography even characterizes them as “leaders of the Unmercenaries,” among other praises. It is therefore understandable that it focuses to a great extent on the wonderworking power of the Saints and on the grace that flows from their honorable relics — a grace that heals “all our passions” and all “who are afflicted with various diseases,” whether of the body or the soul, precisely because they are “divine physicians.” Thus these Unmercenary Saints are physicians of both souls and bodies.
Yet while the hymns speak of the God-given healing grace of the Saints for the whole human being, soul and body, they place particular emphasis on the healing they provide with regard to the spiritual passions of people — or rather, the hymnographer directs our attention there more strongly.
“Shatter the sinful deviations of my mind that tyrannize me, and heal the passions of my soul.”
“Today the pair of martyrs has risen for us, healing our spiritual pains, Cyrus and John, the wonderworkers.”
This is certainly not a downgrading of the importance of bodily pains and illnesses: our body too is a creation of God, honorable and equal in worth with our soul; for this reason the Lord also healed people’s bodily diseases. The Holy Hymnographer, however, wishes to emphasize the priority of the soul, because when the soul suffers, the impact is eternal — something that does not occur with bodily illnesses, which indeed often become a means of sanctification for people through the patience they can show. “I will boast in my infirmities,” as the Apostle says, because “when I am weak, then I am strong,” since the Lord Himself assures us: “My power is made perfect in weakness.”
We even see that the Hymnographer regards as an illness — indeed as a “tyranny” of the soul — the “deviations of the mind.” Why is this so? Because the human mind, the ruling faculty of the soul, ought always to be turned toward God, with all its love and intensity. God’s commandment is clear: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength,” on the understanding, of course, that the human being is created “according to the image and likeness of God.” It is therefore entirely natural for the ruling mind to function in this way, so that all the other powers of the soul — emotions and desires — follow it, and the body too comes to be in obedience to the love of God.
Because of the fall into sin, however, and the influence of the primal evil enemy, the devil, the mind is captivated by the world and its provocations through the senses of the body. Thus, from its natural course toward God it is led into an unnatural course toward the world, with the result that it is tyrannized by the deviations of the passions and the human being becomes distorted both spiritually and bodily.
The primary healing that the Saints provide — here, in particular, Saints Cyrus and John — is therefore on this level: to help, by the grace of God, our mind to become firmly established again in its proper course, namely love for God, which is of course expressed as love for one’s neighbor. The Saints first of all lived this proper order in themselves; for this reason they were granted grace by God to bestow it upon us as well, just as they did with Saint Athanasia and her daughters who struggled alongside them.
“You, O Savior, the pair of Martyrs longed for.”
“They were captivated by love for the Trinity, and, strengthened mightily by it, the Martyrs Cyrus and John,through the higher and better union, were shown to be instruments of God.”
“With fearless resolve, John and Cyrus anointed the virgins with love for You alone and made them courageous.”
As we have said before: the more a person is turned toward God and has Him as the priority of his life — that is, the more he remains in his natural state — the more he also transcends all the problems of this life, especially the so-called psychological ones, which afflict many of our fellow human beings and make life a “hell,” as we say. The Unmercenary Saints, through their commemoration today, offer us this challenge as well: to remember that the healing of the human being is above all the healing of the soul, and in particular the proper ordering of the mind.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
