Legendary discoveror of the true cross. He's said to have been Judas Quiriacus, , who assumed the name of Cyriacus upon conversion to Christianity. He's also said to have been the Bishop of Jerusalem. Cyril was the Bishop of Jerusalem in 350 and may have been become mis-associated because of the Cyr in both names. Many of the ancient Christians had been Jews. The Roman Empire considered Christians to be just another Jewish sect until around the year 70 - after the destruction of Jerusalem.
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- An alternative version in The Legend of St. Helena and the Sweet Basil doesn't mention Quiriacus at all! Neither is he mentioned in the Chandlery book of 1903.
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THE LIFE OF ST. JOHN KHAME
... Hear again, O thou that gainsayeth, that I may convince thy heart through the Holy Scriptures. For seeing that the lawless Jews hid the holy Cross and the tomb of Christ and spake falsehood concerning his resurrection, after 300 years Cyriacus revealed it by command of the King Constantine (and) heaven and earth were filled with its holy glory. -
SwaSmœteGold Material Purgation and Spiritual Refashioning in Old English
Visions of Judgment - Christopher Fee
... It is only through the spiritual “forge” of the pit that Judas is, first, “geclænsod”-- “cleansed”--of sin, and then refashioned into the form of the Christian bishop Cyriacus. ... homiletic addition with which Cynewulf ends his version, Elene follows closely the text of The Acts of Saint Cyriacus which Allen and Calder include in their work.
Bibliography:
Inventio Sanctae Inventio Sanctae Crucis.
Crucis (Cyriacus
legend) Pub: ca. 1000?
LC#: Incun. 1497.B49; Alternative class.: BT465
Inventio Sanctae The finding of the True Cross : the Judas Kyriakos legend
Crucis (Cyriacus in Syriac : introduction, text, and translation / by
legend) English Han J.W. Drijvers and Jan Willem Drijvers
& Syriac Pub: Lovanii : In aedibus Peeters, 1997
LC#: BR60.C5S85 t. 93; Alternative class.: BT465
