Eudoxia of Canopus

Holy Martyr Eudoxia of Canopus suffered in the year 311, together with her mother Athanasia, her sisters Theoctista and Theodotia, and the Holy Unmercenary Physicians Cyrus and John. Eudoxia was eleven years old.

Cyrus was a renowned physician of Alexandria, a Christian, who healed all the sick without payment, not only bodily ailments but also the passions of the soul. Preaching the Gospel, he brought many pagans to Christ. In the time of Diocletian's persecution he withdrew into the Arabian desert, where he received monasticism and continued to heal people by prayer, receiving from God the gift of curing all diseases.

In Edessa there lived at that time the soldier John, a devout Christian, who at the start of the persecution came to Jerusalem and, hearing of Cyrus, sought him at Alexandria, then in Arabia, attached himself to him in soul and became his faithful follower.

Learning that in Egypt, in the city of Canopus, the Christian Athanasia had been seized with three young daughters, Theoctista aged fifteen, Theodotia thirteen and Eudoxia eleven, Cyrus and John hurried to help them, fearing that fear of torments might make them renounce Christ. They visited them in prison and strengthened their courage for the struggle that lay ahead. Learning of it, the governor of the city seized Cyrus and John and, seeing their unshaken confession, subjected them to dreadful torments before the eyes of Athanasia and her daughters.

The confessors endured all the torments as steadfastly and were beheaded. After them the holy unmercenary physicians Cyrus and John were put to death in the same place, in the year 311. Their bodies were buried by Christians in the church of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark. In the fifth century the relics of Cyrus and John were moved from Canopus to Menouthis; later they reached Rome, then Munich.

The Synaxarion commemorates Athanasia, Theoctista, Theodotia and Eudoxia on 13 February (new style).