E07361: 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) punished with death a certain pagan, Theodoros, for sacrilegiously taking communion at their shrine at Menouthis (near Alexandria, Lower Egypt). Written in Greek in Alexandria, 610/615.

Sophronius of Jerusalem, The Miracles of Saints Cyrus and John, 32

Summary:

There was a certain money-dealer Agapios who, to this infamous practice, added the fact that he was a pagan and venerated idols. Because of his impiety he was arrested in the imperial city [Constantinople] and chastised. He escaped justice, however, not due to a change of his beliefs and opinions, but thanks to distributing money, which was an act of extreme impiety. He thus escaped death, but did not escape from the Divinity.

When he was liberated from prison, he fled Byzantium and arrived in Alexandria intending to hide himself there, because he did not know that the power of God is omnipresent. So in Alexandria he was again captured and chastised, not by the hand of the law as on the previous occasion, but by a severe disease which affected his entire body; it was paralysis. Since he ignored the true cause of the disease and thought it to be a physical infirmity, he kept visiting physicians. These treated him with various measures of the medical art, but in fact knew very well that he was condemned and that his case was incurable. However, since they received remuneration for their treatment, they were content to cheat their patient.

At the end of one year, the paralysis developed to the point that it also affected his tongue, so Agapios could no longer emit articulate sounds. Many people advised him to go to the martyrs Cyrus and John, as they could heal him, if only he approached them with belief and tears.

Agapios, out of fear they discover his paganism if he chose not to go to the martyrs, went to their sanctuary. When he came there, he saw the martyrs in a dream in the form of Christodoros, the manager (oikonomos) of the sanctuary, as he was making a tour of the sanctuary, burning incense in honour of God. They approached Agapios and asked him in a menacing voice why he, who was so impious, came to their sanctuary, and if his goal was to mock them. They warned him that they were going to publicly whip his back so that he would learn who were those whom he intended to mock.

Agapios woke up trembling in terror and tried to communicate with those who looked after him. Christodoros, the oikonomos, was also present, since it was the time of censing. Agapios commanded his servant with a sign that he wanted to be moved. When he was moved, he caught the feet of Christodoros and begged him not to whip him. Christodoros, who did not know of the vision that Agapios had received, in surprise promised not to do that to him.

Shortly afterwards, he was forced to pretend to be a heretic when he refused to take communion. However, since other sufferers in the sanctuary began to murmur against him because of this, he eventually took communion in order to avoid suspicions. Then a ferocious demon caught him, and Agapios fell to the ground in convulsions. He had his eyes distorted and emitted through his mouth a foam resembling that of a sea wave. In this manner he was tortured by the demon for three days and his assistants thought he was going to die. Thus they decided to take him to Alexandria so that he might die at home. As he left the sanctuary of the martyrs, he died after a very short distance, and did not see his native city again. He thus met the much-deserved end of a most impious man. This case has been told in order to show that the martyrs are no less effective in punishing as they are in healing.

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