CIGARETTE PAPERS

Southland Times, Issue 21821, 26 September 1932, Page 8

CIGARETTE PAPERS

ST. CYPRIAN THE MAGICIAN. This is the day of one who should surely be the patron saint of modern magicians, though it was his conversion from magic which brought him to martyrdom. In the latter part of the third century, Cyprian practised Black Magic and a young pagan nobleman applied to him for aid in his wooing of Justina, a young Syrian lady who was a Christian. Justina opposed the devices of the magician so successfully that he became convinced of the weakness. of the infernal spirits. His inquiries about the Christian faith led him to a young priest Eusebius, who finally converted him, Cyprian burning all his books on magic and giving all his estate to the poor. When the persecution of the Christians broke out under Diocletian, Cyprian was arrested and brought before the Roman governor of Tyre. At the same time Justina, who had been primarily responsible for Cyprian’s change of life, was also taken before this judge and was bitterly scourged, while Cyprian was torn with hooks. Suffering cruelly the pair were then despatched to Nicomedia to be brought before the Emperor Diocletian, who commanded that their heads should be struck off. Their martyrdom is dated 304 and this is the day set apart for them in the calendar. The history of St. Cyprian and St. Justina was recorded in a poem by the Empress Eudocia, the wife of Theodosius the Younger, but this work, which was in Greek, was lost and is known only through contemporary references. —CRITICUS.