ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY
Saints celebrated on the 31st of January
Prayer to the Angels and the Saints
Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.
In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.
Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.
Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.
ST CYRUS AND ST JOHN, MARTYRS
Cyrus, a physician of Alexandria, who by the opportunities which his profession gave him, had converted many sick persons to the faith; and John, an Arabian, hearing that a lady called Athanasia, and her three daughters, of which the eldest was only fifteen years of age, suffered torments for the name of Christ at Canope in Egypt, went thither to encourage them.
THEIR MARTYRDOM
They were apprehended themselves, and cruelly beaten: their sides were burned with torches, and salt and vinegar poured into their wounds in the presence of Athanasia and her daughters, who were also tortured after them.
THEIR MEMORIAL
At length the four ladies, and a few days after, Cyrus and John, were beheaded, the two latter on this day. The Syrians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Latins, honour their memory.
NOTES
See their acts by St Sophronius, commended in the seventh general council. St Cyrus is the same as Abba-Cher, mentioned in the Coptic calendar on this day, which is the 6th of their month Mechir. He is called Abbacyrus in the life of St John the Almoner, written by Leontius, in many ancient Martyrologies, and other monuments of antiquity. Abbacyrus is a Chaldaic word, signifying the Father Cyr. As this saint was an Egyptian, it is probable he was originally called Pa-Cher, or Pa-Cyrus, the Egyptians having been accustomed to prefix the article Pa to the names of men, as we see in Pa-chomis, Pa-phantis, Pa-phnutis, etc.
THEIR RELICS
It is said in the acts of our two martyrs, that they were buried at Canopus, twelve furlongs from Alexandria, and that their relics were afterwards translated to Manutha, a village near Canopus, which was celebrated for a great number of miracles wrought there. These relics are now in a church at Rome, called St Apassara: this word being corrupted by the Italians from Abbacyrus.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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