Martyrdom Cyril of Jerusalem

The martyrdom of Saint Cyriacus the Archbishop of Jerusalem, who found the holy cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and Anna his mother, in a peace of God. Amen. It happened when Constantine the Just reigned; he strengthened the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, being a Christian, not in a worldly manner, but as a chosen orthodox bishop, honoring God of heaven in holy worship, with zeal and love, interpreting the scriptures and the breaths of God with a burning heart. He gave his heart to the service of Christ with all his strength, like David the prophet. His blessed mother, however, Helen, came to worship God more in her whole heart, and being filled with all virtues of the Holy Spirit, she desired to place this treasure upon all her good deeds, which is to seek the wood of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and she was humble in spirit. She came to Jerusalem to fulfill her desire. But woe, for Judas, a Jew from the lineage of Stephen the protodeacon and protomartyr, revealed himself to her, along with the other nails that were fixed in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Judas himself believed in Christ and became a steadfast guide in this entire manner, with many standing. Then, when he performed the service of the high priesthood of Christ in Jerusalem through the vote of God the Creator, they called his name...

Cyriacus. And when the God-loving Helena had completed many other good works, she rested in peace. Now King Constantine, because of his great love which was fulfilled toward Christ, increased greatly in honor in the first part of his reign, for there was peace surrounding him on all sides, and he settled himself, having begotten two sons, Constantine and Constans. Constantine, his eldest son, came to his place, and his heart was not fulfilled in the manner of his father. But God turned him away in a short time, and brought Constans, his brother, to his place. He was a believer, for the most part, almost to the point that he did not die. Constantine, the peace of God was present in all the churches, for the memory of the idolaters had entirely ceased. Now there was a son of Constantine's sister, whose name was Julian, who was lawless in his character, loving the worship of idols. When Constans the king saw him, that he was lawless in this manner, he brought him into the church and made him a deacon, saying, "Perhaps he will change his evil character." When Constans died, that impious Julian seized the kingdom, and immediately he turned to Hellenism, desiring to open the doors of the temples again and to raise up great torments for the Christians, saying in his lawlessness, "I will raise up tortures, not for the Christians to honor them as martyrs, but...

I will not be cast into the public prisons until they release the one whom they have crucified.

And in this manner he wrote from his kingdom, saying: "He who will serve the gods, let him give one *loukotin* of one year. He who will serve the one whom they have crucified, let him give 33 *oggia* of gold." When they brought these writings to the palace, the blessed Cyriacus gathered the multitudes and spoke to them, saying: "Be strong, my children, and find righteousness, for the house of Christ will come down upon us. Do not loosen your grip because of this whole world, for the house has power in his hand over all things. I bear witness to you on this day that if we hope in the steadfast hope within our Lord Christ, he will not place a shame upon our head." These things also he wrote throughout the whole region, strengthening their hearts in the faith of Christ. But the inquiry reached Julian the Transgressor concerning him, and he wrote to him an epistle thus: "You are commanded to turn the hearts of the people away from the gods who save us, to Zeus. If you turn them from the Persian [faith], I will give you many gifts. I will give you honors. I will give you the Christians whom I have mentioned. And you yourself, I will give you pain." When these writings were brought to the bishop, he also wrote an epistle to him, saying: "If you have turned from the Persian [faith] of Christ, do not speak of it forever." Then Julian became enraged with the great wrath of his father the devil. He came to Jerusalem and commanded that the blessed Cyriacus be brought to him. When he was brought, he said to him: "Are you the one who disturbs the palace and hinders the service?

The gods said to him, "Ha! I am the one who will teach you." And his mother stood with him, having grown old and bent over. Julian said, "Who are you?" She said, "My mother.

The gods said to him, "Ha! I am the one who will teach you." And his mother stood with him, having grown old and bent over. Julian said, "Who are you?" She said, "My mother. She is a Christian." Julian said, "There is a great honor and glory prepared for you if you make a sacrifice to the great god Zeus." Cyriacus said, "I will offer a sacrifice to the great god Jesus Christ, who is king forever." He said to Anna, "What do you say, old woman?" The blessed one said to him, "I serve my king who is in heaven, Jesus Christ, who revealed himself to me through my beloved son." The transgressor said, "Believe me, you will gain nothing from these words, for I too walked in these lies and they gained me nothing." The holy bishop Cyriacus said, "You have spoken well: they gained me nothing at all. For you have abandoned the holy scriptures of God, you did not pay attention to reading them well. Therefore you did not know the mysteries of God, who gave you this kingdom. You have given yourself over to your father the devil. You have pursued those who worship Christ. Therefore in a short time he will take your kingdom from you and will shatter your soul's arrogance, which is puffed up." Julian said, "It is not Christ who gave me this kingdom, but Zeus. Immediately a demon seized his tongue and pulled it out of his mouth by the root and cast it upward.

He did not delay for an hour. He set him down, then he became angry and said, "You will see how he tortured me.

How is this?" said Zeus. "I have honored you with my whole heart, all of it." Then he commanded them to bring the instruments of torture and place them before him. He said to him, "Perform a sacrifice to the god of the dead, Kakos, with these instruments of torture, which are evil, and with other evils even more terrible than these. I will torment you," said Cyriacus to him. "You have no power to inflict bodily torments that are comparable to the torments that Christ has prepared for the soul. All the apostates who have fallen away from your judgment: the body, indeed, endures pain for a short time, but it produces a great harvest for the soul. For just as the earth, when it is plowed and turned over with a hoe, and when it is broken up with a hoe, brings forth its fruit in abundance, so too the body, when it is broken and dissolved by severe pains, then the soul hastens and flies up to the heights, to Christ, who suffered for its sake, bearing the marks of the nails that were driven in. *Cyriacus said, "What is this you are thinking of, Cyriacus? Are you prepared to accept pain and death for the one who was crucified?" Cyriacus said, "I am prepared, and I hope, and I am ready." Julian said, "Abandon this error, and recognize the true gods and the savior." The holy bishop said, "It will not happen that I worship these soulless destroyers of the soul, that I abandon the one who led me out of the error in which I was first, Jesus Christ, and that I become...

I honor you, O apostate, for you have abandoned the one who did good to you.

You served stones and rocks that have no power to see, hear, or move. Bring them, said the Holy Spirit. All whose hearts are set on them, you have fulfilled the will of the demons, whose desire is to judge you with them in the fiery Gehenna. When Julian heard these things, he became angry like a wild beast and commanded them to bring lamps of fire and place them under his ribs, saying to him, "This is the fiery Gehenna into which you will be thrown." The saint said to him, "Come, O wretched one, this is the only fire into which you will be thrown, because this fire, a little of it extinguishes, and likewise you will not see the fire of Gehenna at all. But he into whose fire you will be thrown, along with your father the devil, the waters in the sky, those on the earth, and those beneath the earth cannot extinguish it." Julian said, "If you have conquered this fire, I will bring other fire without end to you." Then he commanded them to melt a copper pot in a fire and pour it over his heart. The blessed bishop said, "Truly, it has become like water cooling in my palm by the power of my Lord Jesus Christ." The transgressor said, "Behold, the fierce fire is coming to you, and let us see if that one will save you." Then he commanded them to bring a bed of bronze and to stretch the blessed one upon it, and...

They cast him down beneath him, and they bound him with ropes until the fire consumed him.

His entrails, as he said, "Now I will overcome the fire." The blessed one, however, prayed in this manner, saying, "My Lord Jesus Christ, the creator of all things, the savior of my soul and my body, it is you who are my strength and my steadfastness and my refuge, my hope, my security, my protector. Grant to me, who hopes in you, O Lord, look upon your servant, help the son of your handmaiden, for there is no other besides you, O Lord Jesus Christ." As he was saying these things, the tyrant marveled and said, "By Zeus, I marvel that he still lives." But he was filled with rage and said, "You have overcome the fire, Cyriacus." The saint said to him, "I have overcome, and I will overcome again through the grace of my Lord Jesus Christ. Not only I, but also all who hope in him. As for you, you, the fire, are unconquerable; I will take you because of your impiety." When the transgressor heard this, he commanded to cast upon his head some burning coals, upon the furnace of the bath, while the fire was kindled around him. The Lord, however, protected him, and he did not feel any pain at all. Julian, however, became angry with the servants and said to them, "Why do you not overcome the fire well?" They said, "Behold, you see that he is scorched exceedingly, for this also is their desire." When they had said this, the fire moved out and burned forty of them. The co-regent of the king said to him, "Let them cast stones upon him, lest he extinguish the fire.

all of us through his magic. When they placed the fire upon him, however, the fire did not consume him, but they turned it backwards, and it destroyed many among the godless ones who were steadfast with the king. Then Julian commanded that he be placed

He stood before him and said to him, "Have you not found your mind, Cyriacus, to offer sacrifice to the great god Zeus?" The holy one said to him, "O godless one, you rather have abandoned your mind, having become a transgressor of this entire way. Moreover, you have despised God who created you, and the honor of his holy altar. You worship sticks and stones, soulless things." The lawless one said, "I worship these, for I have not found Jesus of that time, who did not give me any heed. Then I repented; I recognized the true gods, those who give salvation and victory to me." The holy one said to him, "I know that you have recognized your father, the devil." The transgressor then commanded that his right hand be cut off, saying, "This is the hand that wrote the letter by which you call the multitude to turn from knowing the gods." The holy bishop Cyriacus said, "You have done well to cut off the hand that is defiled; we do not know that it is eternal life that you have prepared for me. Before I knew my savior Jesus Christ, I used to write in the synagogues of the Jews many times, so that they would not believe in him. Behold, the scandal that was in my body, you have removed it from me. It is good for me that one of my members perishes, and they do not strike my entire body into Gehenna." The transgressor said, "Not only that, but cut off the right foot and the tongue, and gouge out his eye, and tear out his other tongue." His mother, the blessed Anna, was there.

She stood before him in all these things, giving him strength, saying to him, "Be strong, even if you are weary.

She stood before him in all these things, giving him strength, saying to him, "Be strong, even if you are weary. For you have fulfilled the law of your Lord. Now these things that she said, the tyrant ordered them to take the eye and the hand and the foot, and they cast them into her face, saying to her, 'Behold the law of her Lord, let him now take and save him.' The blessed Anna said, 'O small-hearted one, O wretched one, you will see the power of my God.' Then she took the holy members of the blessed bishop, and she placed each one in its place, and said to him, 'My son and my father, say in the name of Christ.' And when he said it, his members became as they were before. The whole multitude cried out, saying, 'Great is the power of Christ.' When the transgressor was amazed, he said, 'Now I know that you are not chosen magicians, but I will bring magicians more numerous than you.' Then they found for him a great magician named Admon, and he said to him, 'I wish to fill a pit with snakes and dragons and lions and leopards and basilisks.' And he himself did his evil art to the one who commanded him. Then they bound the blessed one and cast him down into the pit. He turned to the blessed Anna and said to her, 'What is it that you say, old woman? Let Jesus now save him.' She said, 'He has saved him and he will save him again.' The holy bishop stood in the midst of the beasts, praying in this manner, saying, 'I give thanks to you, my Lord Jesus Christ.

that you have become a helper to me, for in your name we have been saved.

over the snakes and the vipers according to the authority that you have given. Those who believe in you, all the wild beasts, however, were subdued by the power of Christ, like dead men. When the tyrant saw that no destruction had happened to him, he ordered that a fire be cast down into the pit, so that, he said, he and the wild beasts would burn together. And the fire burned the wild beasts, but the saint was not even singed in a single hair. And by the power of Christ, he was found unharmed and stood before the king. When the multitudes saw this, they marveled, saying, "There is no other god besides you, O Christ; the God of Cyriacus is one." His mother cried out, blessing him, saying, "O blessed one, my beloved son, for you have contended in the good contest; you have completed the race; you have kept the faith; you have prevailed over the fire like the three holy ones. They wished to burn you in the furnace like Paul, and they cast you into the pit like your brother Stephen. And if it is not a bold thing to say, you have trampled upon a snake and a basilisk; you have trodden upon a lion and a dragon, according to what is written concerning Christ." The tyrant, however, was enraged, gnashing his teeth at them, wanting to kill them. Admon the magician, when he saw these marvels, said to the king, "You are filled with great folly, wanting to destroy these righteous ones. Truly, there is no other god besides Christ, the God of these saints. This one I also believe in from now on.

The tyrant, however, became angry and gave orders to cut off his head. But he himself prostrated himself at the feet of the holy Cyriacus, saying, "My Lord, the father bishop, give me also the seal of Christ and the baptism." And he made the sign of the cross over himself, saying, "May the holy Trinity seal you, my son. The baptism you will receive through your own blood." And thus he stretched out his neck, looking toward the east, saying, "My Lord Jesus, do not abandon me in my ignorance, but number me among your holy martyrs." And immediately they cut off his head, and he became worthy of eternal life. Julian the transgressor said to the holy Cyriacus, "Will you not tell me how you learned this great magic? For behold, you have defeated the chief of the magicians." The holy one said, "I know nothing except my Lord Jesus." The lawless one said, "By Zeus, if I had known this from the beginning, I would have destroyed everyone who believes in this name, Jesus. Who is this Jesus?" The holy one said, "Know, you wretched and foolish one, that you will destroy the beginning while you are alive, but you are a dead man, for you have been cut with a hidden sword, and he whom you have cursed will destroy you from your root." The impious one became angry and had him thrown down to be sawn in two, and he said to the blessed Anna, "What do you say, Anna? Perform a sacrifice; do not be stubborn like your son, who chose death for himself.

But as for life, she said, "Shut your mouth, you who are greedy." Rather, he himself will inherit eternal life in the place of this death of mine and this temporary life.

When the tyrant became angry, he had her thrown onto the fire, and the hair of her head was singed. For a moment, through the grace of Christ, she was not entirely burned. She cried out, saying, "The one who is more cursed than anyone else, if you have tortures there, bring them again." Again he had them throw red-hot candelabra beneath them. For a moment, the Lord protected his saints. The holy Cyriacus gave this prayer, weeping, together with his mother, saying in this manner: "Lord, the Pantocrator, who created all things out of nothing, you fashioned man according to your image and according your likeness. You placed him in the paradise of joy. But he fell from that glory through the deception of the serpent, your adversary, because it was your creation. And until now you have helped him through the law and the prophets. Again man has gone astray, crawling beneath like the serpent that went into the thicket of his impiety, the race of men. For you are God, the true glorifier of heart, who saves times in all places for those who hope in you. And you took the struggle of the lawless ones, as you did with the blessed Noah, when you saved him in an ark, and you destroyed the impious in a flood. When sin multiplied in Sodom, you destroyed five impious cities. And your righteous one, Lot...

You saved him, and the evil one is coming to contend with me continually, worshipping the creation and raging against you on behalf of the creator. But at the end of the days, you sent your only-begotten son into the world, the living word, the one from you, whom you begot before all the ages, and he became man for the sake of man. He saved himself through the salvation that worked upon him in the midst of the earth, the cross, the one that endured death at his hands until he saved man again and established him in paradise, the place from which he had fallen. Your salvation spread everywhere, for man said, "Know your creator," and they abandoned the error of idolatry through the holy cross of your beloved son. This one also redeemed me from the error within it. Now again, the lawless one has raised the error of idolatry, which had diminished, but I know that you will destroy it and its foul religion, and you will save your people and your inheritance. Your grace will endure forever. If they dwell in those who have no command, those you have established for us through Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom the glory is fitting for you and with him and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen. After these things, they were brought down, and the transgressor said, "Do you see that I have made an example of you? Until you say how many times? For I also have heard these many times, and nothing has been accomplished for me. I know that you

...men of hard hearts, and you have deceived yourselves concerning this. I will set the same before you. Not only do you confess that Zeus is great, but you also blaspheme the one who was crucified. And I will release you. The judges answered, saying, "The one who is accursed by every man, we will blaspheme the one who did these good deeds for us.

...all of you, along with your foul gods, will be destroyed. When he heard these things, he was enraged and commanded that they be placed over a bronze vessel of oil until it boiled. They were cast into it. The blessed one said to his mother, "Do not be afraid, my mother. Christ is with us. Do not fear." The strong one said in the Lord, "I am not afraid, my son. Through your holy prayers, this one whom you see has become like a fish of water swimming before me." The blessed one said to the faithful who surrounded him, "Depart from me quickly, my children, lest you also be seized." Then he took the hand of his mother, and they went down into the bronze vessel as if descending into a pool of water. The boiling oil splashed upward and destroyed some of the godless hyperetai and the Jews who were standing nearby. Then the transgressor, who had become envious and small-hearted, had them bound in a hidden prison within their hearts. And after they were sealed, they gave their spirit into the hands of God and became worthy of eternal life. The faithful took up their bodies and placed them in a holy place. Many healings occurred through them. The transgressor went away in wrath and madness, giving praise to God. But God took vengeance on his enemies, for he had given them trouble. He bound him in a hidden prison of a holy army, which he saw descending upon him from the air. And thus he met his end. God, however...

He raised up another judge of the truth, whose name was Ioubianos, a man of the pistos, and

of the pious from his youth, and in this manner the peace of God spread abroad in all places where the holy martyrs of Christ, Jesus Kyriakos the holy bishop, and Anna his mother, and Admon the magician of the twenty-second of Paopi, received the crown of martyrdom in Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom glory