The Ante-Nicene Church · AD 180–313
Cyriaca (Kuriake)
fl. c. AD 230 · Named for remembrance on the worship hall floor · Kfar Othnay, by the camp at Legio
The Ante-Nicene Church
Who Cyriaca (Kuriake) was
One of four women whom the church at Kfar Othnay set into its floor to be remembered. The **Women Inscription**, a panel of about fifteen by thirty-four inches on the eastern side of the southern panel, reads in full: *“Remember Primilla and Cyriaca and Dorothea, and moreover also Chreste.”* That is the entire text — four names and an imperative, and nothing else.
Kuriake — rendered Cyriaca in most translations — is Greek, and means “of the Lord”; the same root gives the Greek name for Sunday. In the inscription it breaks across two lines.
**Why they were to be remembered is not recorded**, and the archive does not guess. It may be a memorial to women who had died, or thanks to women who had helped pay for the room; both have been suggested and neither is stated. The verb is μνημόσυνον, the same word used in the Akeptous Inscription for the offering of the table.
What the panel does establish is that an entire inscription in a third-century Christian worship hall was given over to four women and nothing else — and that of the seven people named on this floor, **five are women**. Set beside Paul’s roll of names in Romans 16, that is the same church keeping the same habit two centuries later, in stone rather than on parchment.
Nothing further about her is known.
The Women inscription of the Megiddo mosaic, c. AD 230; named second of the four and nowhere else.
Common questions
When was Cyriaca active?
Cyriaca (Kuriake) is dated fl. c. AD 230 in the archive, which places Cyriaca in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Cyriaca?
Cyriaca (Kuriake) is named in 1 primary-source passage catalogued here, drawn from —. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Cyriaca from?
The archive associates Cyriaca (Kuriake) with Kfar Othnay, by the camp at Legio. The sources record more than one location, so the places are listed in the order the record moves through them.
Who were Cyriaca’s contemporaries?
The archive links Cyriaca (Kuriake) to 5 other figures, including Jesus of Nazareth, Akeptous, Primilla and Dorothea. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Primary-source mentions (1)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
The Megiddo Mosaic — the Women Inscription
c. AD 230“Remember Primilla and Cyriaca and Dorothea, and moreover also Chreste.” [The whole of the text: four names and an imperative. **The fact that these women are the sole content of the inscription is itself the evidence** — a full panel in a Christian worship hall given over to naming women and nothing else. The verb is μνημόσυνον, as in the Akeptous Inscription. Whether the charge to remember marks a bereavement or thanks for support is not stated, and the archive does not decide it.]— · Greek inscription, eastern side of the southern panel (c. 15 × 34 in.)
Object. The Megiddo Mosaic — floor of a Christian worship hall at Kfar Othnay, beside the Roman legionary camp at Legio, c. AD 230. Excavated by Yotam Tepper for the Israel Antiquities Authority during salvage work on the grounds of Megiddo Prison, 2003–2005; the inscriptions edited by Leah Di Segni. Lifted in 2024 in ten pieces and exhibited at the Museum of the Bible, Washington DC, 15 September 2024 – 6 July 2025, then returned to Israel. Three Greek panels name seven people; five are women.
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 177 · Persecution at Lyon and Vienne, AD 177
- AD 180 · The Scillitan martyrs, AD 180
- AD 190 · The Quartodeciman controversy, AD 190
- AD 202 · Perpetua and Felicity martyred, AD 202
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Cyriaca.