Cyriacus
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- For other uses of the name, see Cyriacus (disambiguation).
| Saint Cyriacus | |
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| Martyr | |
| Died | circa 303 |
| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church; Roman Catholic Church; Oriental Orthodoxy |
| Feast | August 8 (Roman Catholic Church); July 7 (Eastern Orthodox) |
| Attributes | depicted as a deacon; book of exorcism; with Artemia |
| Patronage | temptation on the deathbed; viticulture (in the Pfalz; Saint-Cierges, Switzerland; eye disease |
 Saints Portal |
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Saint Cyriacus is a saint who lived under Roman Emperor Diocletian, one of at least twenty-seven Christian martyrs named Cyriac ("patron").[1]
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[edit] Life
A Roman nobleman, Cyriacus converted to Christianity during his adult life and renounced his material wealth, giving it away to the poor. He spent the rest of his life ministering to the slaves who worked in the baths of Diocletian. Under the reign of Western Roman Emperor Maximian, Cyriacus among others was tortured and put to death, beheaded on the Via Salaria in 303, where he was then buried. With him were killed his companions Largus and Smaragdus, and twenty others, including Crescentianus, Sergius, Secundus, Alban, Victorianus, Faustinus, Felix, Sylvanus, and four women: Memmia, Juliana, Cyriacides, and Donata.[2]
[edit] Miracles
Cyriacus is credited with exorcizing demons from two girls, both daughters of influential Romans at the time. The first was Artemisia (or Artemia), the daughter of Emperor Diocletian; which resulted in both Artemisia and her mother Saint Serena converting to Christianity. He is also credited with driving demons out from Jobias the daughter of Shapur I of Persia (reigned 241 - 272), which led to the conversion of the King's entire household.
[edit] Veneration
It is claimed his relics were later moved to Santa Maria in Via Lata in Rome, and the abbey of St. Cyriaque in Altorf.
The church of Sanctus Ciriacus in Thermae Diocletiani, "Saint Cyriac in the Baths of Diocletian", dedicated to this martyr, was a former titulus church. The titoli were commonly named after their patron, often a lay patron in the early centuries: Cyriac in Greek simplifies simply "patron". This titulus, to which a cardinal was assigned, whatever its claimed second or third century origins, existed certainly in the fifth century, when Marcianus was cardinal priest of the title of S. Ciriaco alle Terme di Diocleziano in 494 at the time of Pope Gelasius I. The titulus was suppressed in 1477 by Pope Sixtus IV in favour of Saints Ciro e Giulitta. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI restored the name of S. Ciriaco. The title was definitively suppressed in 1587 by Pope Sixtus V who assigned a titulus of Saints Quirico e Giulitta to Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici.[3]
There are monasteries in the destroyed Arab village of Majdal Yaba in Palestine and the existing village of al-Fasayil near Jericho dedicated St. Cyriacus. The two villages' residents venerated him during the Byzantine era.
Cyriacus was venerated as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.
On his feast day, 8 August 1899, a category four hurricane made landfall in Puerto Rico and was named after the Saint, the Hurricane San Ciriaco.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Cyriac as "patron": see for example Antonio Borrelli, "San Ciriaco di Roma".
- ^ Alban Butler, The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints (J. Duffy, 1866), 123.
- ^ This history of the titulus follows Salvador Miranda., "The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church", s.v. "St. Gelasius I (492-496)"; Miranda's source in Annuaire Pontifical Catholique, 1926.
[edit] External links
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