Finding of the Relics of Cyrus and John the Unmercenaries
These Saints lived during the years of Diocletian. Saint Cyrus was from Alexandria, and Saint John was from Edessa of Mesopotamia. Because of the persecution of that time, Cyrus fled to the Gulf of Arabia, where there was a small community of monks. John, who was a soldier, heard of Cyrus' fame and came to join him. Henceforth, they passed their life working every virtue, and healing every illness and disease freely by the grace of Christ; hence their title of "Unmercenaries." They heard that a certain woman, named Athanasia, had been apprehended together with her three daughters, Theodora, Theoctiste, and Eudoxia, and taken to the tribunal for their confession of the Faith. Fearing lest the tender young maidens be terrified by the torments and renounce Christ, they went to strengthen them in their contest in martyrdom; therefore they too were seized. After Cyrus and John and those sacred women had been greatly tormented, all were beheaded in the year 292. Their tomb became a renowned shrine in Egypt, and a place of universal pilgrimage. It was found in the area of the modern day resort near Alexandria named Abu Kyr.
I glorify God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for allowing me to be here today, one year from my enthronement as Archbishop of America, to be here with you so that I may be your servant, your brother, and your friend
Your Eminence: you have stood in the breach for all of us in these crises of faith and conscious. Where there is weakness, you have brought strength.
Where there is fear, you have brought courage. Where there is anxiety, you have brought comfort. And where there has been a vacuum of leadership, you have brought moral and spiritual bravery to the fore, as you, like our Holy Ecumenical Patriarch, fear only God alone.
A few years after graduating from seminary, a young priest was serving as an assistant priest in a parish in Long Island. Picking up the phone one day, he heard the voice of his Dogmatics professor from seminary. The professor politely asked, “How do you like your parish?” The young priest responded that he loved it and felt lucky to be there. The response from his professor would ring in his ears forever. “Luck is not an Orthodox concept,” the professor told him. “We say we are blessed.” From that day forward, the young priest replaced the word “lucky” with the word “blessed.”