E07113: 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 Photeinos from blindness at their shrine at Menouthis (near Alexandria, Lower Egypt), involving in the cure a follower of the doctrine of fatality; the latter commemorated the event by setting up images at the shrine of Christ, *John the Baptist (S00020) and Saint Kyros. Sophronius also mentions a church in Alexandria dedicated to the *Three Children (presumably the Three Hebrew Youths of the Old Testament Book of Daniel, S01198). Written in Greek in Alexandria, 610/615.

Sophronius of Jerusalem, The Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John, 28

Summary:

There was a certain aristocrat by the name of Nemesion, a very dignified and rich man who held the honorary office of prefect (apo eparchon). He was also very well educated in pagan doctrines and used his vast knowledge to speak against God and the gospels. He fought with the possibility of the providence of God over all his creatures, arguing that both God and human lives depend on the stars and their movements. However, he claimed to be a Christian, even though he foolishly followed those who proclaim fatality, the power of fate (heimarmene). Yet he was justly punished for his sins, since he lost sight in the eyes with which he impiously observed the sky and the stars, forgetting his baptism and that which he promised Christ. He did not realise the cause of his misery and visited elite physicians and was quick to pay lavish wedges to obtain healing. But despite spending a lot money for the treatment, he remained blind. As a matter of fact, he did not really have to do any of this, as he shamelessly followed the doctrine of fatality and taught that it determines all thing and announces all events. He should rather have resorted to the observation of the stars' movements to see if they predicted healing for him and ordained it.

Yet he spent a lot of time and money on medical treatment, but without any effect. So he decided to go to the martyrs Kyros and Iohannes, probably thinking that they would be executors of the decrees of fate. He thus arrived at their sanctuary and asked for both the restoration of his sight and the completion of the decree of fate, since he wanted to credit it for his healing instead of the martyrs. The martyrs, however, did nothing of what Nemesion wished for, but wanted to strike the fool and show him his impiety.

There was a certain Photeinos, a man from a very modest milieu, who sold fruit in front of the sanctuary (neos) of the Three Children [in Alexandria]. He also lost his sight and frequented at the same time the shrine of the martyrs, hoping to obtain healing from them. The martyrs appeared to him in a dream and told him to find Nemesios and put his hand on the latter's eyes in order to regain his own sight. Photeinos, however, was afraid of doing this as he knew Nemesios' rank and riches. Yet when he was two or three times reprimanded by the saints for not executing their order, he decided to recount his vision to the audience in the sanctuary. These people went to find the advocate Kyros, who was a good Christian and a frequenter of the shrine, and told him about the apparitions seen by Photeinos. Kyros immediately went to find Nemesios, revealed the order of the martyrs to him and persuaded him to execute it. Thus Nemesios went and placed himself in front of the martyrs' tomb. He prayed for a long time and then, bursting into tears, he touched the tomb with the relics (he soros ton leipsamenon) and the probe (he mele) of the saints. Then he put Photeinos' hands on his own eyes, since he was there as well. The latter regained his sight as soon as his hands touched Nemesios' eyes. It stimulated everybody present including Nemesios to cry, whose tears were nevertheless useless, since he did not change his opinions.

Photeinos offered thanks to God and the martyrs and went away very happy.

Νεμεσίων δὲ τάχα μὴ βλαβεὶς ἐκ τοῦ θαύματος, μέρος τι τοῦ τοίχου πλησίον τοῦ μνήματος μαρμάροις ἐκόσμησεν, Χριστὸν ἐν ταύταις καὶ Ἰωάννην τὸν Βαπτιστήν τε καὶ πρόδρομον καὶ Κῦρον τυπώσας τὸν μάρτυρα, καὶ ἑαυτὸν τὴν ἐπὶ τούτῳ χάριν κηρύττοντα.

'Whereas Nemesios, probably unaffected by the miracle, decorated with marbles a part of the wall near the tomb. He depicted on them Christ, John the Baptist and Forerunner, and Kyros the martyr, as well as himself as a herald of their grace.'

Text: Fernández Marcos 1976, lightly modified in the light of Gascou 2007. Summary and translation: J. Doroszewska.