From Sorcerer to Saint: The Arcane Life and Magickal Times of Saint Cyprian
Of all the saints of the Christian church, one of the most anomalous must surely be St Cyprian who, after his martyrdom in the early 4th century AD, became known as the patron saint of sorcerers. Even more curious is the fact that some 1,700 years after his death, the name of St Cyprian is still invoked in rituals by some practitioners of black magick. How did this strange state of affairs evolve?
Saints Cyprian and Justina (honored in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy as Christians of Antioch Pisidia who in 304, during the persecution of Diocletian, suffered martyrdom at Nicomedia (modern day İzmit, Turkey) on September 26, the date of their feast). (Biso/ CC BY-SA 3.0)
St Cyprian, the bishop of Antioch, should not to be confused with St Cyprian of Carthage, another early Christian bishop who was martyred about 50 years before this article’s St Cyprian.
