CONCERNING ST. CERYCUS OR CYRICUS IN THE FORTRESS OF APROS IN THRACE.
CommentaryCerycus or Cyricus in the fortress of Apros in Thrace (Saint)
The appendix of an unknown author to the Chronology of Theophanes names ton Apron, kastron kai auto: which is itself also a fortress of Thrace (for he had previously treated of the fortress of Rhaedestus), and describing the devastation of that region, made by the Bulgars in the first year of Leo the Armenian, he asserts that it, together with many other fortresses, was overthrown and burned. Perhaps in that same devastation all the monuments that existed concerning this Saint perished. Meanwhile his commemoration has remained in both the printed and manuscript Menaea under this formula: te aute hemera ho hosios Kerykos, or (as in the Chifflet manuscript) Kyricos, ho en to Apro. And this distich is appended to him:
Ego, Pater, Keryce, kai tethneekota Kan kardia pherein se, kan glotte thelo.
"I, O Father Cerycus, even in death wish to bear you both in my heart and on my tongue."
From which one might conjecture that he either had the care of souls in that place, or was a founder of the anchoretic or monastic life for others. We dare not conjecture more. Let it suffice to have said here that Apri is written in the plural by Pliny, Ptolemy, and others; and that Ortelius cites Cedrenus, who when he wrote, says the place was called Theodosiopolis -- which does not seem to have been long-lasting, since Apri are still noted on all maps at the river Melas.