Athanasia of Canopus

Saint Athanasia of Canopus suffered together with her three daughters and the holy Unmercenaries Cyrus and John, in Egypt, in the time of the persecution of Diocletian, in the year 311. They are commemorated on 13 February.

Saint Cyrus, born and raised in Alexandria, was a famous physician. He was a Christian and healed all the sick without payment, not only of bodily illness but also of the sicknesses of the soul, which are often the cause of bodily ones. Preaching the Gospel, he brought many pagans to Christ. During the persecution of Diocletian (284 to 305) he withdrew into the Arabian desert, where he received the monastic habit and went on healing people by prayer, having received from God the gift of curing every disease.

In Edessa at that time lived the soldier John, a devout Christian. When the persecution began, he came to Jerusalem, and there, hearing of Saint Cyrus, set out to find him, first at Alexandria, then in Arabia. Having found him, he attached himself to him with all his heart and became his faithful follower.

Learning that at Canopus in Egypt the Christian woman Athanasia had been seized with her three young daughters, Theoctista, aged fifteen, Theodotia, thirteen, and Eudoxia, eleven, Saints Cyrus and John hurried to help them, fearing that terror of the torments might make them deny Christ. They visited them in prison and strengthened them for the struggle before them. Learning of this, the governor of the city seized Cyrus and John and, seeing their firm confession of Christ, put them to terrible tortures before the eyes of Athanasia and her daughters. The confessors bore all the torments just as steadfastly and were beheaded. After them, in the same place, the holy Unmercenaries Cyrus and John were put to death. Their bodies were buried by Christians in the church of the holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark. In the fifth century the relics of Saints Cyrus and John were moved from Canopus to Menouthis; later they went to Rome, and from there to Munich, as told in the commemoration of 28 June.