Veneration
The bodies of the two martyrs were placed in the church of St. Mark the Evangelist in Alexandria.
At the time of St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria (412-444), there existed at Menuthis (Menouthes or Menouthis) near Canopus and present-day Abu Qir, a pagan temple reputed for its oracles and cures which attracted even some simple Christians of the vicinity. St. Cyril thought to extirpate this idolatrous cult by establishing in that town the cultus of saints. Cyrus and John. For this purpose he moved their relics (28 June, 414) and placed them in the church built by his predecessor, Theophilus, in honour of the Four Evangelists.
Before the finding and transfer of the relics by St. Cyril it seems that the names of the two saints were unknown; it is certain that no written records of them were known prior to then. In the fifth century, during the pontificate of Pope Innocent I, their relics were brought to Rome by two monks, Grimaldus and Arnulfus—this according to a manuscript in the archives of the deaconry of Santa Maria in Via Lata, cited by Antonio Bosio.
Mai, however, for historical reasons, justly assigns a later date, namely 634, under Pope Honorius I and the Emperor Heraclius (Spicilegium Rom., III, V). The relics were placed in the suburban church of Santa Passera (a linguistic corruption of "Abbas Cyrus") on the Via Portuense. In the time of Bosio the pictures of the two saints were still visible in this church (Bosio, op. cit., ib.) Upon the door of the hypogeum, which still remains, is the following inscription in marble:--
- Corpora sancta Cyri renitent hic atque Joannis
- Quæ quondam Romæ dedit Alexandria magna
Their tomb became a shrine and place of pilgrimage. In Coptic Cyrus' name became Difnar, Apakiri, Apakyri, Apakyr; in Arabic, 'Abaqir, 'Abuqir. The city of Abu Qir, now a suburb of Alexandria, was named after him.
At Rome three churches were dedicated to these martyrs, Abbas Cyrus de Militiis, Abbas Cyrus de Valeriis, and Abbas Cyrus ad Elephantum — all of which were transformed afterwards by the vulgar pronunciation into S. Passera, a corruption of Abbas Cyrus.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite, Cyrus and John are among the saints who are commemorated during the Liturgy of Preparation in the Divine Liturgy.
Read more about this topic: Cyrus And John
Famous quotes containing the word veneration:
“It is evident, from their method of propagation, that a couple of cats, in fifty years, would stock a whole kingdom; and if that religious veneration were still paid them, it would, in twenty more, not only be easier in Egypt to find a god than a man, which Petronius says was the case in some parts of Italy; but the gods must at last entirely starve the men, and leave themselves neither priests nor votaries remaining.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“Erasmus was the light of his century; others were its strength: he lighted the way; others knew how to walk on it while he himself remained in the shadow as the source of light always does. But he who points the way into a new era is no less worthy of veneration than he who is the first to enter it; those who work invisibly have also accomplished a feat.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)