Holy Abba Cyrus of Alexandria

Venerable Cyrus of Alexandria (Feast Day - June 9)

Verses

With the noetic image is defilement Cyrus,
You stand before God, indeed as His image.

Abba Cyrus of Alexandria was asked about the temptation of fornication, and he replied, 'If you do not think about it, you have no hope, for if you are not thinking about it, you are doing it. I mean, he who does not fight against the sin and resist it in his spirit will commit the sin physically. It is very true that he who is fornicating in fact is not worried about thinking about it.'

The old man questioned the brother, saying, 'Do you not usually talk to women?'

The brother said, 'No; my thoughts are about old and new representations of them: it is their remembrance which overcomes me.'

The old man said to him, 'Do not fear the dead, but flee from the living, and before all things persist in prayer.'