From love spells to bishop's throne
Antioch’s most powerful sorcerer sent demons against a devout young Christian woman three times – and failed every time. In the end, a demon himself revealed the truth that led to his conversion.
There were few men like him in Antioch. Cyprian was born in Carthage and dedicated to Apollo as a child. As a young man, he climbed Mount Olympus, served Hera in Argos, and studied “even greater sorceries” in Memphis, Egypt. At the age of thirty, he traveled to the Chaldeans, the finest astrologers of the ancient world. By the time he finally settled in Antioch, he had no equal. His Life describes him as the “chief priest and wisest servant” of the pagan gods.
Anyone struggling with enemies, illness, or matters of the heart knew where to turn: Cyprian. One day, a wealthy young man named Aglaidas appeared at his door.
A commission to win a woman’s heart
Aglaidas had fallen in love with a young woman named Justina. She was a Christian who had firmly resolved to devote her life to God. When she rejected him, he tried to abduct her in the street, but her neighbors intervened and rescued her.
The rejected suitor turned to the sorcerer. He promised Cyprian gold and silver if only he could make the young woman fall in love with him. For the sorcerer, it was a routine assignment. How many hearts had he already brought under his spell? Cyprian summoned a demon and sent it to Justina.
Three demons, three defeats
The first demon returned empty-handed. It had seen “a certain sign” upon the young woman and fled in terror. Justina had simply made the sign of the cross and prayed.
Furious, Cyprian sent a “fiercer” demon. But it, too, came up against the same wall of prayer, fasting, and strict ascetic discipline. The young woman did nothing extraordinary. She recited no incantations and drew no magic circles. She prayed and made the sign of the cross.
Finally, the sorcerer resorted to his most powerful weapon. He summoned the very “prince of demons.” The demon approached Justina cunningly, disguised as a woman. A seemingly innocent conversation about virginity began. Why deny yourself the joys of life, the demon asked? Was marriage a sin?
Justina listened to it attentively and suddenly realized who was before her. She made the sign of the Cross, and the visitor vanished.
Meanwhile, the demons also tried to deceive Aglaidas himself. On one occasion, a demon appeared to him in Justina’s likeness. But the moment the young man called her by name, the apparition dissolved.
The defeated demon’s confession
Cyprian was beside himself with rage. He, the master of spirits, could not overcome some young girl! He demanded an explanation from the prince of demons. And to the sorcerer’s astonishment, the demon told him the truth: “We cannot bear to look upon the sign of the cross, but flee from it, for it scorches us like fire and drives us far away.”
Something shifted inside Cyprian at that moment. Having spent his entire life serving these powers, he suddenly saw how weak they really were.
He then asked the demon a question that would determine the course of his life: “For if you fear even the shadow of the Cross and tremble at the name of Christ, what will you do when Christ Himself comes against you? If you cannot overcome those who make the sign of the cross, whom can you snatch from the hands of Christ?”
There was no answer. Instead, the demons turned on their former master and began strangling him. And then the great sorcerer, a man versed in every secret art, did something no one had ever taught him. He made the sign of the cross and cried out, “God of Justina, help me!”
The demons retreated.
The skeptical bishop
Cyprian went to the local Christian bishop, Anthimus. Seeing the notorious sorcerer before him, the bishop was hardly pleased. He suspected a trick rather than genuine repentance and asked his visitor to leave the Christians in peace.
But Cyprian tearfully recounted everything that had happened to him. He brought his books – a library of magical knowledge accumulated over decades – and they were burned publicly before the Christian faithful. Everything he had learned on Olympus, in Argos, in Memphis, and among the Chaldeans went up in flames.
His subsequent rise through the ranks of the Church was remarkably swift. On the eighth day after his conversion, he became a reader; on the twentieth, a subdeacon; and on the thirtieth, a deacon. A year later, he became a priest, and eventually a bishop. Justina became a deaconess and took charge of a convent of virgins.
The kontakion for Cyprian’s feast calls him a “most wise physician” who turned away from the “art of sorcery.” The former magician had become a healer of souls.
Execution in Nicomedia
According to tradition, in the early fourth century, during the persecutions of Christians, Saints Cyprian and Justina were arrested and taken to Nicomedia, one of the capitals of the Roman Empire. After being tortured, they were sentenced to death.
Before the execution, Cyprian made one request: that Justina be executed first. He feared that watching him die might terrify her. The man who had once sent demons to torment her now thought only of sparing her fear.
A man named Theoctistus stood nearby. Moved by compassion for the martyrs, he shared their fate. All three were beheaded. Their bodies lay unburied for six days until travelers secretly carried them away.
The sorcerer who became an object of magical veneration
The story of Cyprian’s conversion to God was so striking and instructive that it survived the centuries and spread throughout the world. Scholars see it as one of the foundations of the Faust legend. The Spanish playwright Calderón wrote a play about the sorcerer who found faith, The Wonder-Working Magician. And popular devotion gave rise to the so-called “Prayer of Cyprian,” which people carried as a protective charm. The Church, however, has always regarded this text as apocryphal.
The irony is striking. A man who burned his books of magic and renounced the occult himself became an object of magical veneration. People sought to endow the former sorcerer with supernatural powers once again.
Scholars, incidentally, still debate Cyprian’s historicity. His name does not appear in the early lists of Antioch’s bishops, and some researchers regard him as an entirely literary figure. The Church, however, preserves the memory of the martyrs and commemorates them on October 15.
The power that defeats magic
The most important thing in the lives of the saints is not the miracles themselves, but the way divine grace works in the world. Justina knew nothing about magic. She had no books, no teachers, and no spells. She simply prayed, fasted, and made the sign of the cross. And that was enough to defeat the greatest sorcerer in Antioch.
The sign of the cross is central to this story. Justina protected herself with the cross because she entrusted herself to Christ. Cyprian, meanwhile, had spent his entire life searching for hidden power, only to discover that its true source lay not in secret knowledge but in the simple faith of a young woman.
And when fear finally seized him, he called not upon his spirits, but upon the “God of Justina.”
