E07062: 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 Paulos from a head disease 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, 18

Summary:

There was a certain Paulos who was a poor man. He was incurably ill in his head and suffered terribly from pain, insomnia, and swelling. The physicians were helpless, since they could not find the cause of the illness. So he turned to the martyrs Cyrus and John. They knew the cause exactly, and healed it in a very generous fashion, showing that what for the famous physicians was impossible, for them was merely a plaything.

They made Paulos fall asleep even though he had stopped sleeping due to constant pain. They approached him at night, bringing him health as a gift. They commanded him to wake up very early from his bed and go to the gate by the sea that closes the precinct of the sanctuary. And then to hit most vigourously in the jaw the one whom he would meet there. After that he would be very soon delivered from the disease that he had. Paulos, when he woke up, thought that the apparition was only an illusion, so he executed none of the orders he had been given in his dream. Then he received a similar vision again, and again did nothing. When for the third time the martyrs talked to him, he realised that he would not obtain healing, if he did not execute what they ordered. So he woke up early from his bed and went to the indicated gate. There he met a soldier with a stick in his hand, who looked as if he was angry at heart. Paulos thus hit him powerfully in the jaw. The soldier, without hesitation, responded to the blow, and struck Paulos on the skull even more powerfully with his stick. Paulos fell to the ground. He was wounded, and gushed with blood and worms through the wound on his head. Once he was relieved of all the worms that were devouring his head from the outside, he was delivered from his illness. The wound healed very quickly. Paulos, when he had fully regained his health, sang a hymn in honour of the martyrs and God.

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