E06903: 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 girl Marou from both teeth and ear diseases 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, 10

This miracle was performed by the martyrs Cyrus and John on behalf of Marou, a daughter of Theodora and Christodoros whose miraculous healing was described in the preceding chapters of the Miracles (E06263; E06839). Marou was at that time still a little baby and suffered great pains and fevers because she was cutting her first teeth. Finally, after the appearance of teeth, the pains and fevers ceased, but the teeth suppurated and smelled bad and the ears of the girl remained obstructed by humours which accumulated there. Thus the mother, Theodora, decided to go to Alexandria and show her daughter to physicians there, since she lived at Menouthis at the martyrs' shrine.

At the night just before her departure she saw in a dream a desolate house of a physician and found a monk who was sitting there.

Κῦρος ἦν οὗτος ὁ φανεὶς καθεζόμενος· μοναστὴς γὰρ ἐγένετο, καὶ μοναστῶν ἀεὶ ὀφείλεται φαίνεσθαι σχήματι. Πυργίσκος δὲ ἔμπροσθεν ἑστήκει τοῦ μάρτυρος, ἵνα τὸ τῶν ἰατρῶν, φησίν, σχῆμα κἀκεῖ διασώζοιτο, ὡς ἰατρεῖον τοῦτο φαίνεται ... Πρὸς ἣν ὁ ἅγιος ὁ δῆθεν ἐπὶ θρόνου καθήμενος ἔλεξεν· Ἐνθάδε, ὦ γύναι, τί παραγέγονας; Ἡ δέ, Ἰατρεῖον ζητοῦσα, πρὸς αὐτὸν ἀπεκρίνατο· καὶ τοιοῦτον μὲν ἐγὼ τόνδε τὸν οἰκίσκον νενόμικα· ἐν αὐτῷ δὲ οὐδὲν τῶν ἐν τοῖς ἰατροῖς πρὸς περιοδείαν ὄντων ὁρῶ παρακείμενον· ἀλλ’ οὐδὲ ἔνδον τι τῶν τοιούτων ἔχει σου τὸ ἀρμάριον.

Ὁ δὲ πρὸς αὐτὴν ἀκριβῶς ἀπεκρίνατο· Ἐρεύνησον, καὶ ὅπερ ἂν εὕροις, ὠσὶ τοῖς πάσχουσιν ἔμβαλε, καὶ ἰαθήσεταί σου τὸ θυγάτριον. Ἡ δὲ τὸν οἶκον ἅπαντα περινοστήσασα, θυρίδα μικρὰν ἐθεάσατο, καὶ μέλιτος ἐν αὐτῇ ποτήριον κείμενον. Ὡς οἶμαι γὰρ τὸ ἀρμάριον φαρμακοθήκη μειζόνων νοσημάτων ἐτύγχανεν. Ἀναστᾶσα δὲ θᾶττον τοῦ σκίμποδος, τὸ λεχθὲν αὐτῇ διεπράξατο, καὶ βραχὺ τοῦ μέλιτος τοῖς ὠσὶ τοῦ βρέφους ἐγχέασα, σκωληκόμεστον ἀνήγαγεν θύλακα, δακτύλων τὸ μῆκος τεττάρων, καὶ πλάτος ἀνάλογον ἔχοντα· καὶ τούτου λυτρωθεῖσα παραχρῆμα τὸ κόριον οὗπερ αὐτῇ τῶν ἀλγηδόνων ταμεῖον ἐγένετο, καὶ τῶν ἀπλέτων τικτομένων δεινῶν ἐλυτροῦτο κολάσεων.

'It was Cyrus who appeared sitting there, because he was a monk and he should always appear with the attributes of monks. A cupboard stood in front of the martyr; it all had the appearance of a surgery, so that the attributes of doctors are preserved there as well. The saint said to her sitting on a chair. Why did you come here, woman?" She replied to him: "I was looking for a surgery. And I thought that this house was one. But I cannot see here anything appropriate for a medical practice. Nor is there anything like that inside your chest."

He responded to her this way: "Search for that; and whatever you find, introduce to the ill ears of you daughter and she will be healed." She inspected the entire house and noticed a little niche and inside there was a jar of honey. Since as I think this cabinet was a pharmacy for major diseases. She quickly woke up from her bed and executed what was told her. She shortly put some honey into the ears of her baby and took out a sack full of worms, four fingers long and of the same width. The little girl, delivered of that which was for her a storehouse of pains, was immediately freed from the terrible and immense sufferings caused by it.'

Thus the martyrs healed the girl only with honey. There was also another woman, pious and a good Christian, whose name was also Mariam (because Marou is a diminutive of Maria) who was neither of the same age like Marou, nor even her contemporary who suffered from an identical disease but of different origin. She was treated by physicians without any effect and therefore she turned to the martyrs. They healed her with a salve (kerote) and mulberry (sykaminon). They prescribed her in a dream a mixture of these two ingredients which was to be introduced into her ears.

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