St. Cyria-

A T Rome, the martyrdom of the deacon St. Cyria- •"" cus, who, after a long imprisonment, was covered with melted pitch and stretched on the rack, to have his limbs distended with ropes, was beaten with clubs, and finally beheaded with Largus, Smaragdus, and twenty others, by order of Maximian. Their feast, however, is kept on the 8th of August, the day on which their bodies were taken up by the blessed pope Marcellus and reverently entombed.