Cyril Phileotes

Venerable Cyril Phileotes (Cyril of Philea) was a Byzantine ascetic, born around 1015 in the village of Philea, near Derkos, and fell asleep on 2 December 1110. Our sources give no church day of commemoration.

Cyril is his monastic name; his birth name is unknown. He led an active life before becoming a monk: he worked three years as a sailor, married young and had children. He was widely travelled for the time, even visiting Rome once. Early on he was drawn to monastic life and restricted his diet and bodily life accordingly. He built in his house a small cell where he could kneel and pray. Eventually he entered a monastery in his home village, founded by his brother Michael.

Cyril was well known to the religious circles of Constantinople; he used to walk every Friday from his home village to attend the service at the church of Saint Mary of Blachernae. Anna Dalassene, mother of the future emperor Alexios I Komnenos, patronized Cyril even before he entered a monastery, well before her son's accession to the throne in 1081. As Cyril's fame grew he became connected to a number of prominent court figures of the early Komnenian period, such as George Palaiologos or Eumathios Philokales. Alexios I used to take his family on day trips from Constantinople to visit Cyril at his monastery, to which he later granted a full tax exemption. Cyril died on 2 December 1110. His life was written by Nicholas Kataskepenos within a few years of his death and was published in a critical edition by E. Sargologos, at Brussels in 1964.