Saint Cyriacus

Saint Cyriacus

300–303 · Early Church

Feast day: August 8

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Biography

Cyriacus (Greek: Ἅγιος Κυριακός, romanized: Kyriakos, fl. 303 AD), sometimes Anglicized as Cyriac, according to Christian tradition, is a Christian martyr who was killed in the Diocletianic Persecution. He is one of twenty-seven saints, most of them martyrs, who bear this name, of whom only seven are honoured by a specific mention of their names in Roman Martyrology. Of the Saint Cyriacus who, together with Saints Largus and Smaragdus and others (of whom Crescentianus, Memmia and Juliana are mentioned in the Roman Martyrology), is venerated on 8 August, all that is known with certainty, apart from their names and the fact of their martyrdom, is that they were buried at the seventh milestone of the Via Ostiensis on that date. However, legend has it that Cyriacus was a Roman nobleman who converted to Christianity as an adult and, renouncing his material wealth, gave it away to the poor. He spent the rest of his life ministering to the slaves who worked in the Baths of Diocletian. Under the reign of Western Roman Emperor Maximian, co-emperor with Diocletian, Cyriacus was tortured and put to death, beheaded in 303 on the Via Salaria, where he was subsequently buried. With him were martyred his companions Largus and Smaragdus, and twenty others, including Crescentianus, Sergius, Secundus, Alban, Victorianus, Faustinus, Felix, Sylvanus, and four women: Memmia, Juliana, Cyriacides, and Donata. Saint Cyriacus is credited with exorcizing demons from two girls. The first was Artemisia (or Artemia), the daughter of Emperor Diocletian, which resulted in both Artemisia and her mother Serena of Rome converting to Christianity. The second was Jobias, the daughter of Shapur I of Persia (reigned 241–272), which led to the conversion of the King's entire household. However, this is impossible, because Shapur died thirty years before the reputed exorcism and because he had only one daughter named Adur-Anahid.

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Prayers

  • Novena in Honor of Saint Cyriacus

    novena

    Preparatory Prayer. Almighty and eternal God! With lively faith and reverently worshiping Thy divine Majesty, I prostrate myself before Thee and invoke with filial trust Thy supreme bounty and mercy. Illumine the darkness of my intellect with a ray of Thy heavenly light and inflame my heart with the fire of Thy divine love, that I may contemplate the great virtues and merits of the saint in whose honor I make this novena, and following his example imitate, like him, the life of Thy divine Son. Moreover, I beseech Thee to grant graciously, through the merits and intercession of this powerful Helper, the petition which through him I humbly place before Thee, devoutly saying, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Vouchsafe graciously to hear it, if it redounds to Thy greater glory and to the salvation of my soul. Amen. Prayer in Honor of St. Cyriacus. O God, who didst grant to St. Cyriacus the grace of heroic charity and trustful resignation to Thy holy will; bestow upon us, through his intercession, the grace to walk before Thee in self-denying charity and to know and fulfil Thy will in all things. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Invocation of St. Cyriacus. St. Cyriacus, great servant of God, loving Christ with all thy heart, thou didst for His sake also love thy fellow-men, and didst serve them even at the peril of thy life, for which charity God rewarded thee with the power to overcome Satan, the arch-enemy, and to deliver the poor obsessed from his dreadful tyranny; implore for me of God an effective, real, and true charity. Show thy power over Satan also in me; deliver me from his influence when he tries to tempt me. Help me to repel his assaults and to gain the victory over him in life and in death. Amen. Concluding Prayer. My Lord and my God! I offer up to Thee my petition in union with the bitter passion and death of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, together with the merits of His immaculate and blessed Mother, Mary ever virgin, and of all the saints, particularly with those of the holy Helper in whose honor I make this novena. Look down upon me, merciful Lord! Grant me Thy grace and Thy love, and graciously hear my prayer. Amen.

    — Mary, Help of Christians, and the Fourteen Saints Invoked as Holy Helpers (Bonaventure Hammer), 1909 edition, p. 228 (Novena in Honor of St. Cyriacus)

Patronages

Sources: Wikipedia (5). Wikipedia content used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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