Hieromartyr Cyriacus, Patriarch of Jerusalem (†363) — October 28 / November 10 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, October 28 according to the Julian Calendar (November 10 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Hieromartyr Cyriacus, Patriarch of Jerusalem.

The holy martyr Cyriacus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, was a Jew by birth and bore the name Judas. He was one of those who knew where the life-giving Cross of the Lord lay buried. Two feelings struggled in his heart: loyalty to the false Jewish worldview, and the suspicion that Jesus Christ was indeed the promised Messiah whom the Jews had crucified.

When Empress Helen came to Jerusalem to seek the Lord’s Cross and other holy things (see the reading for September 14), Judas gathered his kinsmen and warned them: “I know that a search is being made for the wood on which Jesus was crucified by our fathers. Beware lest any of you reveal it; otherwise the Law handed down by our fathers will surely be destroyed. For Zacchaeus, my grandfather, charged my father Simon, and my father charged me, saying: ‘Beware, my son, when a search is made for the wood on which the Messiah was crucified. Reveal it before you are put to torment, for the offspring of the Hebrews will no longer reign, but from then on the kingdom will belong to those who worship the Crucified One, for He will be King forever — Christ, the Son of the living God.’”

Soon Empress Helen summoned the Jewish elders. The Hebrews took counsel and resolved not to tell the empress the secret, but when they came before her they were afraid and pointed to Judas: “This man is the son of a righteous prophet and knows the true Law. We beg you, O Empress, may he fulfill the desire of your heart.” Empress Helen released them all and said to Judas: “If you desire life on earth and in heaven, tell me where the Cross is hidden.” At first Judas refused: “How are we to know about events that took place two hundred years ago?” Helen ordered him thrown into a pit and left him there hungry for a week. Solitude only deepened Judas’s doubts. He resolved to entrust everything to the God of the Jews and promised to help the Lord’s chosen one. Judas himself did not know exactly where the holy object was buried. He approached Golgotha, which had first been turned into a refuse heap and then covered with pagan buildings, and cried out to God, the Creator of heaven and earth: “If it is Your will, reveal to us that hidden treasure, and cause a fragrant smoke to rise from this place to the glory of Christ, for He is the Lord Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” When he had finished praying, the place where the holy object lay hidden shook, and a wondrous fragrance spread all around. Then Judas believed in the crucified Lord, raised his hands to heaven and said: “Truly, Christ, You are the Savior of the world.” With his own hands he dug the ground, and he beheld the life-giving Cross and the raising of a dead man by it. The enraged devil cried out: “O Judas, what have you done? Through the first Judas I led the people into sin, and now I am being driven out through this Judas. But I too will find what to do about you: I will raise up another king who will make you deny the Crucified One, do my will, hand you over to those terrible torments, and by scourging make you renounce Him.”

At baptism Judas was named Cyriacus. Afterward, for the sake of his holy life, he was appointed Patriarch of Jerusalem. In 363, under Julian the Apostate (361–363), the fierce persecutor of Christians, he bore witness with his blood to his devotion to the Savior: when the blessed one refused to worship idols, the ungodly poured molten tin into his mouth, laid him on a red-hot iron bed, cast him into a boiling cauldron, and at last cut him down with the sword.