CYEIACUS

CYRIACUS

Introductio Generalis in Mist. Bed. Critice Trac -tandam, p. 115). [E. B. B.]

CYRIACUS (4), ST. His name occurs in themartyrologies, but little more can be ascertained.He is said to have been a deacon at Rome, andthere to have suffered martyrdom very early inthe 4th century. The Bollandists quote Ana-stasius, the Librarian of the Vatican in the 9thcentury, as speaking in his Vitae RomanorumPontijicum of a church in Rome, dedicated byPope Honorius I., in the 7th century, in memoryof St. Cyriacus (AA. SS. Aug 8); and thetranslation of his bones by Pope Marcellus, A.D.308, from the Via Salaria in Rome, to a spotnear the seventh milestone on the Via Ostiensis, iscommemorated on Aug. 8th. They also relatefrom an anonymous MS. (“ Palatinus s. Vati-canus”) of uncertain date, how in the 10thcentury, that most prolific period of monkishmarvels, a body was found on this spot withan inscription recording his name, was conveyedback to Rome in the 10th century by the popeAgapetus II. (“junior”), and there depositedwith much pomp in the Via Lata, in thechurch “S tl Stephani,” henceforward called“S tl Cyriaci,” but, according to the writerin Moroni ( Dizion . Bodes, s. v.) “ S 106 Mariae diVia Lata.” According to this story the emperorOtho (Otto), who was then in Rome, having gainedthe pope’s consent or connivance, carried off byforce one of the saint’s arms, to the great dismayand grief of the abbess and her nuns to whomthe church belonged, and presented it to themonastery of Bamberg, where the preciousrelic was welcomed with quite an ovation; theRoman abbess being consoled in some degreefor its loss by the promise of the emperor to !send his ambassador to the emperor Basilius, atConstantinople, to obtain certain relics of St.Nicolaus Myrensis for her nunnery (AA. SS.v. s.). The Bamberg Annans are silent, we aretold (ib.) } about this relic: but the story is atany rate characteristic of the passion for relic-worship in the age to which it belongs.

About Cyriacus himself there is yet greateruncertainty. By one account he suffered atRome, by another at Augsburg (“ Augusta Vin-delicorum ”), under Maximinus, Maximianus, or,as Baronius suggests, Maxentius; he was of anoble Tuscan family (“ in Tuscia ”) accordingto one version, according to another a slave inRome (ib.). Baronius allows that the “ActaMarcelli,” with their circumstantial and veryrhetorical narrative of the saint’s fortunes andmiracles, axe not to be depended upon (“ non-nullis corrigenda.” Annal. Bccles. iii. a.d. 309).Tillemont rejects the authority of the ActaMarcelli yet more unequivocally; and avoidspledging himself for the truth of the story of8t. Cyriacus (“ on prdtend,” &c., Hist. Bccles.v. § xlviii.). According to him, the name ofCyriacus was inserted, with the names of hisfellow-martyrs Largus and Smaragdus, “ dans lecalendrier du Bucherius ” ; March 16 being thefestival of his martyrdom, Aug. 8, of the re-moval of his bones ; he adds, that in one calen-dar his name occurs on July 15, probably inregard to a cnurch dedicated in his name on thatday (tf>.).

Tillemont, however, in another passage, affirmsconfidently that the Cyriacus, whose remains were

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preserved in the Via Lata, was one of the mar-tyrs in Rome (Hist. Bccles. vii. p. 640). He addsthat some confusion has arisen, from the legendof a certain Jew, named Judas, who after beinginstrumental in finding the Cross in Jerusalemfor the empress Helena, became a convert toChristianity, was baptized under the name ofCyriacus, subsequently was made bishop ofJerusalem, and eventually suffered martyrdomthere in the reign of Julian. This legend,Tillemont says, was soon repudiated by theGreek historians, and, later, by the Latins (ib.).

In the 5th century a church and monasterywere founded at Constantinople, outside the“ Golden Gate,” in memory of a St. Cyriacusby the Grand Chamberlain of the emperor Leo(Tillem. H. E. V. v. s.), and early in the nextcentury mention is made of abbats of St. Cyri-acus in the records of Constantinopolitan coun-cils (ib.); but Tillemont thinks that this isprobably another Cyriacus, the name beingcommon among the saints of the Greek Church,and one of them in particular, of Nicomedia,whose festival occurs on April 7, being ofconsiderable reputation (ib.). Cologne (Colon.Agripp.) claims to have the head of the LatinSt. Cyriacus (AA. SS. v. s.); at Worms, in thecollegiate church of “ Cyriacus zu Neuhau-sen,” which dates its foundation in the 9thcentury, other of his reliques are said to bepreserved (Rettberg, Kirchengesch. Deutschl. I. iii.p. 638).

See Le Nain de Tillemont (L. S.), M&noirespour servir a Phistoire eccl&iastique , fyc. Paris,1701-12, 4to. (tom. v. vii.) Acta SanctorumBollandi, &c. Antverpiae, 1735. (Aug. 8.)Rettberg (F. W.), Kirchengeschichte JUeutsch -lands , Gottingen, 1846, 8vo. (Bd. i.). Baronius(Caesar), Annales Ecclesiastici , Barri-Ducis, 1864,&c., 4to. (tom. iii.) [I. G. S.]

CYRIACUS (5), a disciple of Marcellus ofAncyra (Epiphan. Haer. 72, pp. 842, 844).

[G. S.]

(6) Commemorated in the Henology of Basilas a man of Jerusalem, who discovered the truecross, and shewed it to Helena, and was therebyconverted, and became patriarch of Jerusalem ;and was martyred along with his mother byJulian the Apostate, his right hand being firstcut off* because his writings had made so manyconverts. He is unknown to history. [E. B. B.]

(7) Bishop of Adana in Cilicia. He was pre-

sent at the council of Constantinople in 381,and by the permission of Diodorus of Tarsus,his metropolitan, remained behind on its sepa-ration to instruct Nectarius, on his unexpectedelevation from the rank of a layman to thearchiepiscopal see of Constantinople, in the dutiesof his office. (Soz. vii. 10.) Cyriacus was oneof the three bishops commissioned by the council to convey their synodical letter to Damasusand the other bishops of the West. (Theod.H. E. v. 9.) [E. V.]

(8) Bishop of Synnada in Phrygia, friendand fellow-sufferer of Chrysostom, who togetherwith Eulysius, bishop of Apamea, embarked withhim when expelled from Constantinople, June,404, and accompanied him on the first stagesof his journey. The whole party was arresteeat Nicaea on suspicion of complicity in theconflagration at Constantinople, and thrown