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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > C > Sts. Cyprian and Justina


STS. CYPRIAN AND JUSTINA

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Christians of Antioch who suffered martyrdom during the persecution of
Diocletian at Nicomedia, 26 September, 304, the date in September being
afterwards made the day of their feast. Cyprian was a heathen 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. This is the outline of the legend
or allegory which is found, adorned with diffuse descriptions and dialogues, in
the unreliable "Symeon Metaphrastes", and was made the subject of a poem by the
Empress Eudocia II. The story, however, must have arisen as early as the fourth
century, for it is mentioned both by St. Gregory Nazianzen and Prudentius; both,
nevertheless, have confounded our 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: Calderon took the story as the basis of a drama: "El magico
prodigioso". The legend is given in Greek and Latin in Acta SS. September, VII.
Ancient Syriac and Ethiopic versions of it have been published within the last
few years.


SOURCES

KAULES in Kirchenlex., s.v.; ZAHN, Cyprian von Antiochien und die deutsche
Faustsage (Erlange, 1882); RYSSEL, Urtext d. Cyprianschen Legende in Archiv f.
neuere Sprachen u. Litt. (1903), XX, 273-311; Bibl. hagiog. lat., 308; see also
BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 25 September; and (ibid.) BARING-GOULD, Lives of
the Saints.


ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Meier, G. (1908). Sts. Cyprian and Justina. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04583a.htm

MLA citation. Meier, Gabriel. "Sts. Cyprian and Justina." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04583a.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael T.
Barrett. Dedicated to JoAnn Smull.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John
M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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