Cyril and Maria

Venerable Cyril and Maria were the parents of Saint Sergius of Radonezh and died in the monastic schema, he a schema-⁠monk and she a schema-⁠nun, around the year 1337. They are commemorated on 28 September.

The family

They were of noble birth, but above all pious and full of virtue. The child in Maria's womb cried out three times in church during the Liturgy: before the Gospel, at the Cherubic hymn and at "Holy things for the holy". The parents understood the sign and decided to dedicate their child to God. The son, Bartholomew, born around 1314, had two brothers, Stephen and Peter. Because of unrest, Cyril moved the family from Rostov to Radonezh. The parents asked Bartholomew to stay with them until their death, and he obeyed. Toward the end they retired to different monasteries. Forty days after their burial Bartholomew gave his share of the inheritance to his brother Peter and entered the monastery, being tonsured on 7 October with the name Sergius.

Veneration

The chronicle of the Khotkovo Protection Monastery relates that people were healed praying to Venerable Sergius and to his parents. Their relics remained in the monastery's cathedral, and their images were painted with haloes as early as the fourteenth century. Pilgrims on their way to the Holy Trinity Lavra visited Khotkovo first. After 1917 the monastery was destroyed. In 1981 Cyril and Maria were glorified for local veneration, and in 1989 the cathedral was returned to the Church and the relics brought back. In 1992 they were glorified for veneration throughout the Russian Church.

Their commemorations, by the Russian calendar of the old style, are on 28 September, 18 January, 5 June, 6 July and on the Thursday after the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee.