In Tauride Chersonesos there is a new capsule exhibition called “The Holy Physician in Byzantine Chersonesos”

By CrimeaNEWS On Дек 6, 2023

CrimeaPRESS reports:

A new capsule exhibition entitled “The Holy Physician in Byzantine Chersonesus” has opened in the hall of the Byzantine exposition. It shows a bronze icon of the 10th–11th centuries. with images of Cyrus and Lucillian.

Archaeological data indicate a fairly high level of medicine in Byzantine Kherson. There was a public hospital in the city; local doctors used various medical instruments, including surgical ones, which were usually made of bronze. Much attention was paid to personal hygiene — Kherson residents, for example, visited the city baths.

Like all Byzantines, the residents of the city turned to the holy doctors with prayer. In 1964, during excavations in the Port area near the “Temple with Arcosolia,” a bronze icon with gilding was found depicting the unmercenary physician Cyrus. In Orthodoxy, this was the name given to healers who did not take payment for curing the sick, for example, Cosmas and Damian, Cyrus and John, Panteleimon and Ermolai.

According to one of the Lives, St. Cyrus, a doctor by profession, was from Alexandria. He received the sick, and at the same time treated not only physical, but also mental ailments, thanks to which he was able to convert many to the Christian faith, turning them away from paganism, which aroused the wrath of local authorities. During the terrible persecution of Christians during the reign of Emperor Diocletian, Cyrus retired to the Arabian desert, where he accepted monasticism, continuing to heal people there.

On the Chersonesos icon of St. Cyrus (right) is depicted in a himation (cloak). In his left hand he holds a casket for a vessel with oil, in his right hand a stick for oil. To the right of the figure of the saint is an accompanying inscription in Greek: “Saint Cyrus.” To the left of St. Cyrus depicts St. Lucillian in a military cloak. In his left hand the saint holds a cross, his right hand is in a blessing gesture; The figure is accompanied by the inscription: “Saint Lucillian.”

You can get acquainted with the icon until December 23 in the hall of the Byzantine exposition of Tauride Chersonese. The exhibition “The Holy Physician in Byzantine Chersonese” is open to the public from Tuesday to Sunday from 09:00 to 17:00.

Free admission.

source: Development Department of the State Museum-Reserve «Chersonese Tauride»

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