Cyril of Scythopolis (Greek: Κύριλλος ὁ Σκυθοπολίτης, romanized: Kyrillos ho Skythopolitēs; c. 525 – c. 559), also known as Cyrillus Scythopolitanus, was a Christian monk, priest and Greek-language hagiographer or historian of monastic life in Palestine in the early years of Christianity (6th century AD).
[1] Very soon thereafter he went to Jerusalem and spent some months at a hermit community (lavra) near the Jordan River, before entering the monastery of Euthymius the Great at Jericho in 544.
[1] He remained there until 555, when he was one of the orthodox monks sent to replace those expelled for Origenism at the New Lavra of Saint Sabas (today in ruins at Bir el-Wa'ar near Teqoa).
[1] Cyril is known for a number of hagiographies of seven Palestinian monks: Sabas the Sanctified, Euthymius the Great, John the Silent, Cyriacus the Anchorite, Theodosius the Cenobiarch, Theognius, and Abramius.
[1][2][3] This ambitious undertaking was "fostered both by local patriotism and a firm belief in the relationship between holiness and the desert".