The Legend of Ss Cyprian and Justina

September 26th is the traditional western date for the feast of two martyrs called Cyprian and Justina, who are said to have died at Antioch during the persecution of Diocletian, at the beginning of the 4th century. In the Byzantine Rite, today is the primary feast of St John the Evangelist, and these martyrs are therefore moved forward to October 2nd. Cyprian may be referred to as “of Antioch” to distinguish him from his much more important namesake of Carthage, but, as will be explained below, this very necessary distinction was blurred very early on.

Their legend tells that Cyprian was a magician, highly practiced in the very blackest of black arts (in ways which I would not even think to describe here), which he had learned by traveling all over the East, even as far as India, and eventually settling in Antioch. Justina was an Antiochene convert to Christianity, whom a pagan named Aglaides fell in love with, and being unable to win her over, turned to the magician to bring her around by his art. (In some versions of the story, Cyprian himself also falls in love with her.) But Justina nullifies his every attempt against her by making the sign of the Cross, including a magic potion given to Cyprian by the devil himself. (This detail is included in Jacopo de Voragine’s Golden Legend, but omitted by the Roman Breviary of 1529.)

An illustration of the story of Ss Cyprian and Justina from a 14th century French translation of the Golden Legend. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)

The devil then admits to Cyprian that he is powerless before the sign of the Cross, at which the latter converts to Christianity. (Aglaides, whose name becomes “Agladius” or “Acladius” in the Latin versions, falls victim to Chuck Cunningham syndrome, but in the Golden Legend, not before he turns into a sparrow by magic and flies up to Justina’s window.) Cyprian is baptized, and becomes such an exemplary Christian, not only in his teaching and living, but also by performing many miracles, that he is chosen to succeed Anthimus, the bishop of Antioch who received him into the Church. The devil then seeks revenge by stirring up persecution against the Christians; Cyprian and Justina are both put to various torments, and eventually beheaded, after which their bodies are brought to Rome. The Golden Legend adds that their bodies were further translated to the Italian city of Piacenza in the Emilia Romagna (about 44 miles south-east of Milan.) This may, however, result from a confusion between this Justina and another martyr of the same name from the city of Padua.

The cathedral of Piacenza, Italy. (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Mongolo1984, CC BY-SA 4.0) 

The historical difficulties in this account abound, and do not primarily lie in its miraculous aspects. The biggest difficulty is rather that Antioch is a patriarchate, and its line of episcopal succession is extremely well documented; there was never any patriarch of Antioch called Anthimus or Cyprian, nor any bishop with either of those names in any of the various other Antiochs in Asia Minor. By the 370s, St Gregory of Nazianzus had somehow managed to confuse this Cyprian with his namesake of Carthage, whose life is far too well-documented to have anything to do with any part of this legend. He is followed in this impossible mistake by the poet Prudentius, who writes of him before his conversion thus in his book On the Crowns of the Martyrs XIII: “He was pre-eminent among young men for skill in perverse arts, would violate modesty by a trick, count nothing holy, and often practice a magic spell amid the tombs to raise passion in a wife and break the law of wedlock.” (From the Loeb Classical Library translation by HJ Thompson.)

The aforementioned pre-Tridentine edition of the Roman breviary had already simplified the story considerably; it has nine lessons at Matins, but they are not very long. The breviary of St Pius V reduces these even further to two, cutting out any reference to Cyprian being ordained at all. Inexplicably, the chapel which holds the putative relics of these Saints at the baptistry of the Lateran basilica in Rome has an inscription which calls him a deacon instead.

The inscription above the apse of the chapel reads, “DD (i.e. ‘divis’) Cypriano diac(ono) et Justinae virgini MM (i.e. ‘martyribus’), quorum corpora ara condit. – To Saints Cyprian the deacon and Justina the virgin, martyrs, whose bodies the altar preserves.” (Image from Wikimedia Commons by Dguendel, CC BY 3.0)