Patriarch
Before his Baptism, the Hieromartyr Cyriacus was called Judas. He was the Jew who showed the Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Helena the place where the Life-giving Cross of the Lord had been buried. According to another account, it was he who discovered the Cross during the excavations. Witnessing the miracles that accompanied the finding of the Cross, Judas fervently believed in Christ and was baptized with the name Cyriacus.
For his pure and virtuous life he was ordained bishop. It is known that Saint Cyriacus himself ordered that the Holy Table be set up on Golgotha.
While passing through Palestine, Julian the Apostate heard about Saint Cyriacus and ordered him seized, intending to force the hierarch to renounce Christ and offer sacrifice to idols. The saint remained steadfast and was subjected to cruel tortures. The emperor commanded that his right hand be cut off, then that molten tin be poured into his mouth, and that he be laid upon a red-hot copper bed. The saint’s mother, Anna, came to the place of torment and was seized and hanged, after which Saint Cyriacus also died—thrown into a boiling cauldron and pierced with a spear. Saint Cyriacus completed his earthly course with a martyr’s death in 363, accepting sufferings for the faith.
