SAINT CYRIACUS OF PALESTINE

On October 12, the Church commemorates Saint Cyriacus the Anchorite (449–557). The saint was a great ascetic, one of the greatest fathers of Palestinian monasticism, a prophet, and a miracle worker. Among his spiritual fathers and interlocutors were Eustorgios of Palestine, Euthymius the Great, and Gerasimus of Jordan. The life of Saint Cyriacus was recorded by Cyril of Scythopolis (524–558), a monk, hagiographer, and historian. A contemporary of the ancient great Palestinian fathers, Cyril is known for his dedication to documenting and clarifying the chronology of events and circumstances in the lives of the saints he wrote about.

Saint Cyriacus lived an extremely long and eventful life. He was born on January 9, 449, into the family of a priest of the cathedral church in Corinth. Bishop Peter of Corinth, one of the participants in the Fourth Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon (451), was his uncle. Such origins predicted a prosperous ecclesiastical career, and his uncle ordained him as a reader in the local church. However, Cyriacus was not satisfied with “ordinary piety.” He developed a deep love for reading the Holy Scriptures and constantly reflected on the mysteries of God’s administration of the world. It is possible that the ordination of the reader by his uncle was an attempt to prevent the young man’s possible departure from the world through canonical obligations, but it did not help.

“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me,” like St. Anthony the Great, during Sunday liturgy he heard Jesus’ call in the Gospel of Matthew (16:24), got on a ship, and fled to Palestine. For a long time, he lived in practically all the great monasteries for significant periods. Already in his mature years, he was ordained a presbyter, acquired the gift of clairvoyance, and cast out demons.

Saint Cyriacus died in early 557 in the famous Souka Lavra, the third great monastery of Saint Chariton (+350). This monastery, better known as the Old Lavra, was located on the Souka stream. Palestinian monasticism at that time was going through a period of doctrinal conflict and was under the powerful spiritual influence of the Origenists and Monophysites. The Origenists claimed that belief in the resurrection of the dead was merely an idea, and that particularly skilled ascetics could equal Christ Himself in spiritual perfection, and that, at the end of history, even demons would be saved. In those times of impending cultural decline, these were very dangerous delusions. It was precisely to oppose the Origenists with his spiritual authority that, at the request of his brethren, Cyriacus settled in his last monastery. He agreed on condition that he would live in the cave of Saint Chariton, an extremely uncomfortable and inaccessible place. There he passed away at the age of 108. His memory is celebrated the day after the memory of Saint Chariton.

At the very beginning of his biography, Cyril of Scythopolis put into the mouth of Cyriacus such a confession of faith in the genre of spiritual reflection: “God glorified Abel by sacrifice; Enoch was honored for his righteousness by being taken up; Noah was preserved, like a spark of the human race, for his righteousness; He revealed Abraham as the father of nations for his faith; He accepted the pious priesthood of Melchizedek; He raised Joseph and Job to life as examples of patience and chastity; He made Moses a lawgiver; He gave Joshua command over the sun and moon; He revealed David as a prophet and king, and the progenitor of a tremendous mystery; He changed the flames of the Babylonian furnace into dew; He taught Daniel to compel the lions in the den to refrain from food, and turned the sea monster into a prophetic palace. Above all this is the seedless birth, the Virgin and Mother; God the Word, unchanged, became man, and by his cross and resurrection stripped off the armor of hell and trampled on the evil serpent in triumph; and having revived Adam, who had been killed by his own fall, raised him up again to paradise. This remarkable text, the Symbol of Faith of St. Cyriacus, is best learned by heart and repeated like a prayer, in gratitude to God and the great Orthodox founding fathers.