E07359: 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 and converted the teacher of medecine, Gesios, 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, 30

Summary:

There was a certain Gesios, a very learned man who was a teacher of physicians (iatrosophistes). He gained celebrity among students of that time. He was baptised, but he openly mocked his own baptism, since he had submitted to it because of the threats of the emperor [Zeno, r. 474-491]. Furthermore, he mocked the Christians in general, who, in his opinion, venerated Christ wholly unreasonably and obeyed his precepts like slaves. He also mocked the very martyrs Cyrus and John, saying that they healed people through medical art and not by virtue of divine and supernatural power. He pretended that they prescribed the same remedies that were used by Hippocrates, Galen, and Democritus, and that are to be found in their writings. The martyrs therefore punished him with a disease which affected his back, and his shoulders and neck, so that he could not make the tiniest movement and suffered terrible pains. Since he ignored the true cause of the disease, he tried to cure himself with various ointments and purgatives, and different diets, but without any effect.

He thus began to visit the most skilful physicians. They, however, suggested the remedies that he himself had already tried. When they learnt that their patient had applied to himself the same remedies as the ones they tried to use in his case, and that the disease did not at all recede, they told him that the only physician who could heal him was the God of the Universe, whose power surpasses that of humans. They instructed Gesios to go to the martyrs Cyrus and John and have himself examined by them, since the martyrs participated in divine grace and performed healing miracles by virtue of the power of God. The physicians quoted innumerable examples and cases of miraculous healing accomplished by the pair of martyrs; but Gesios rejected all they said. Eventually, however, he surrendered and decided to go to the sanctuary of Cyrus and John, but less because of their persuasion and more because of the great pain he suffered from.

Once he got to the sanctuary, he supplicated the martyrs, asking to regain his health. The martyrs reacted immediately, since they wanted to punish Gesios who held himself to be wise, whereas he was a fool. So they appeared to him in a dream and told him to cover his back with the skin of an ass, shoulders and neck with it, and make a tour of their sanctuary, screaming “I am foolish and mindless!” Having obeyed this order, he would regain his health at once.

When Gesios woke up, he though that the vision was only an illusion, so he did nothing of what he was told to. He kept supplicating the martyrs instead. So another night the martyrs appeared again to him in a dream and told him to put the asinine covering on himself and suspend a bell to his neck, and, so equipped, to make a tour of the sanctuary, shouting “I am a fool!” Again Gesios, once he awoke, said to himself that this vision was merely a delusion, and turned with his prayers directly to God, asking him to heal him rather then mock him with such illusions.

Yet the martyrs, who are truly divine and merciful, appeared to him once again, and this time they commanded him to add to the things previously prescribed also a bridle to his mouth, and make himself be carried by one of his servants. When Gesios woke up, he was afraid of insisting that this third version of the vision was only a delusion. Thus, out of fear of the martyrs’ wrath, he did everything he was told to do by them. He covered his back, his shoulders and his neck with the asinine covering, he suspended a bell to his neck and took the bridle in his mouth, and, carried by a servant of his, made ten tours around the sanctuary, according to witnesses. He regained his health immediately afterwards.

On the following night, the martyrs appeared to him in a dream and told him that everything he was saying about their healing methods was a lie, since the remedies used by them can be found neither in the writings of Galen, nor in those of Hippocrates or Democritus. Still in the dream, Gesios was stupefied and astonished by this wise refutation, and had nothing to say to oppose the martyrs. So he admitted that they healed people by virtue of divine power. Then he left their sanctuary.

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