He's the Abbot to whom or about whom the following Epistles from St.
Gregory The Great (Pope 590-604) were written (note that another page
at this web site has other Epistles from St. Gregory written to or about
the contemporaneous Patriarch (of
Constantinople) Cyriacus):
- EPISTLE II: TO FELIX, BISHOP, AND
CYRIACUS, ABBOT(1)
The tenor of the report submitted to you sufficiently explains the
complaint of the religious lady Theodosia, in which ...
-
EPISTLE IV - TO JANUARIUS, BISHOP OF CARALIS (Cagliari), a Bishop of
Sardinia.
We knew before the letter of your Fraternity reached us what our
enemies had effected in Sardinia. As to your saying in your letter
that many persons lay complaints against you before us, this is true; but
among various things nothing has distressed us so much as what our most
beloved son, the abbot Cyriacus, has reported to us;
namely, that on the Lord's day before mass you caused a crop of corn to
be ploughed up in the field which is in the possession of Donatus, and,
as if that were not enough, ...
-
EPISTLE XIII - TO SERENUS, BISHOP OF MASSILIA
The beginning of thy letter so showed thee to have in thee the good
will that befits a priest as to cause us increased joy in thy
Fraternity. ... For Cyriacus[7] formerly abbot,
who was the bearer of our letter, was not a man of such training and
erudition as to dare, as thou supposest, to make up another, nor for thee
to entertain this suspicion of falseness against his character. ...
- EPISTLE XXIII: TO HOSPITO, DUKE OF THE BARBARICINI(7).
... And if perchance thou canst not do this thyself, being
otherwise occupied, I beg thee, with my greeting, to succour in all ways
our men whom we have sent to your parts, to wit my fellow-bishop Felix,
and my son, the servant of God, Cyriacus(8), so that in
aiding their labours thou mayest shew thy devotion to Almighty God, and
that He whose servants thou succourest in their good work may be a helper
to thee in all good deeds. ...
- EPISTLE XXIV: TO ZABARDAS, DUKE OF SARDINIA
From the letters of my brother and fellow-bishop Felix, and of the
servant of God, Cyriacus, we have learnt your Glory's good
qualities. ... for the conversion of the Barbaricini 1); knowing
that such works ...
- EPISTLE XXV: TO THE NOBLES AND PROPRIETORS IN SARDINIA.
I have learnt from the report of my brother and fellow-bishop Felix,
and my son the servant of God, Cyriacus(2), that nearly all
of you have peasants (rusticos(3)) on your estates given to
idolatry. ... ... If, then, haply from any cause you are
unable to do this, enjoin it on our aforesaid brother and fellow-bishop
Felix, or my son Cyriacus, and afford them succour for the
work of God, that so in the retribution to come you may be in a state to
partake of life by so much the more as you now afford succour to a good
work.
- EPISTLE XXVI, TO JANUARIUS, BISHOP. ** Bishop of Caralis (Cagliari) **
We have ascertained from the report of our fellow-bishop Felix and the
abbot Cyriacus that in the island of Sardinia priests are
oppressed by lay judges, and that thy ministers despise thy Fraternity;
and that, so far as appears, while you aim only at simplicity, discipline
is neglected.
- FOOTNOTE 77 (from an unfound-unquoted report): This Claudius appears
to have been a person of influence in the court of King Reccared, and no
doubt a good Catholic, of whose virtues Gregory may have heard from his
friend Leander of Seville. The object of this very complimentary
letter to him was to commend to his favour the abbot
Cyriacus, who, as appears from preceding epistles, had been sent into
Gaul to bring about the assembling of a synod there, and who appears from
this epistle to have been sent on into Spain, though for what particular
purpose does not appear. Cf. Proleg., p. xi.
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