E06044: 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 from an occlusion a certain philoponos Menas, director of a confraternity in Alexandria of *Andrew (the Apostle (S00288), 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, 5

Summary:

There was a certain philoponos Menas, a director of the philoponeion by [the chapel?] of the Apostle Andrew (philoponeion to kata ton Andreou tou theiou) located in Perone [a region of Alexandria]. This Menas fell severely ill. He had a high fever which almost completely dehydrated his body and by desiccation caused an occlusion of the stomach. The doctors who treated him neglected the fever, considering it to be benign and applied various compresses and ointments, as well as making him swallow purgative remedies and foods that were to release his stomach. They tried everything, but with the only effect that he got even worse than before. Since whatever they introduced into his stomach remained there and prevented excretion. The patient swelled up progressively in his stomach without finding any relief for his suffering.

He endured this danger for twice times seven days, and then, since he could stand it no longer, he rushed to [the sanctuary of] the martyrs Cyrus and John, entrusting to them both his life and death. He could not walk being so swollen up, so he had himself carried on his bed by sixteen people to the sanctuary.

Upon his arrival, the martyrs received him with mercy and a philanthropic zeal. They visited him the same night and gave him a dried fig to eat. It was capable of delivering him from the malady or rather from Hades. The martyrs appeared to him in a dream, so when he had woken up, he expected to have the fig. Yet he could not find it, so he was distraught, as if he was to lose his life. Thus he summoned his wife and recounted his vision to her, and asked her to bring him a dried fig.

The woman, having examined her husband's bed, noticed the fig lying in it, and showed it to him at once. He said that it was the one he had been given in his dream, ate it, and immediately was restored to health. The occlusion receded and Menas felt an urgent need to visit the latrine. When he got there, he excreted all the material which had accumulated in his stomach. Having received complete healing, he became a grateful herald of the martyrs' grace. He loaded his shoulders with the bed on which he had been carried to the sanctuary and ran to Alexandria, rivalling by this action the invalid of the Probatic Pool (whom Christ healed, having commanded him to rise from bed at the age of thirty-eight), and proclaiming to everybody the ineffable power of the saints and the miracle that was performed on his behalf.

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