Cyprian and Justina
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| Saints Cyprian and Justina | |
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| Martyrs | |
| Died | September 26, 304, Nicomedia |
| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church; Roman Catholic Church (formerly) |
| Feast | 26 September |
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Saints Cyprian and Justina are honoured in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy as Christians of Antioch who in 304, during the persecution of Diocletian, suffered martyrdom at Nicomedia on 26 September, the date of their feast. Their feast day appeared in the calendar of saints to be celebrated wherever the Roman Rite is observed from the thirteenth century to 1969, when it was removed because of the lack of historical evidence of their existence.[1] Their names were also removed from the subsequent (2001) revision of the Roman Martyrology, the official but professedly incomplete list of saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, which, however, includes five saints called Cyprian and two called Justina.
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[edit] Legend
The outline of the legend or allegory which is found, with diffuse descriptions and dialogues, in the Symeon Metaphrastes, and was made the subject of a poem by Empress Aelia Eudocia goes thus :
Cyprian was a pagan magician of Antioch who had dealing with demons. By their aid he sought to bring St. Justina, a Christian virgin, to ruin; but she foiled the threefold attacks of the devils by the sign of the cross. Brought to despair, Cyprian made the sign of the cross himself and in this way was freed from the toils of Satan. He was received into the Church, was made pre-eminent by miraculous gifts, and became in succession deacon, priest, and finally bishop, while Justina became the head of a convent.
During the Diocletian persecution both were seized and taken to Damascus where they were shockingly tortured. As their faith never wavered they were brought before Diocletian at Nicomedia, where at his command they were beheaded on the bank of the river Gallus. The same fate befell a Christian, Theoctistus, who had come to Cyprian and had embraced him.
After the bodies of the saints had lain unburied for six days they were taken by Christian sailors to Rome where they were interred on the estate of a noble lady named Rufina and later were entombed in Constantine's basilica.
[edit] Origin
The story, however, must have arisen as early as the fourth century, as it is mentioned both by St. Gregory Nazianzen and Prudentius; both, nevertheless, have confounded Cyprian with St. Cyprian of Carthage, a mistake often repeated. It is certain that no Bishop of Antioch bore the name of Cyprian.
The attempt has been made to find in Cyprian a mystical prototype of the Faust legend: Pedro Calderón de la Barca took the story as the basis of a drama: El mágico prodigioso.
The legend is given in Greek and Latin in Acta SS. September, VII. Ancient Syriac and Ethiopic versions of it have been published.
There is even a book, The Great Book of Saint Cyprian, full of prayers and spells, which is widely sold in the Portuguese and Spanish speaking world.
[edit] References
- ^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 140
[edit] External links
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
