SAINTS CYPRIAN AND JUSTINA

In the Orthodox liturgy saint Gregory the Theologian is referred to as “Archbishop of Constantinople”. However, in his time, Constantinople was a simple diocese under the authority of the neighboring metropolitan, not an archdiocese. Moreover, Gregory was never bishop of Constantinople but simply preached there “unauthorized” for some time. As if prophetically reflecting this detail, which was so fateful for the entire history of the Church, he once completely confused two great saints with the same name in a sermon.

1 Saint Gregory of Nazianzus preached in Constantinople from 379 to 381. On this day, October 15 (then October 2), he delivered a sermon in honor of the holy martyr Cyprian of Carthage (+258). Gregory was motivated by his sorrow that believers had forgotten about Cyprian. Gregory decided to remind them of him and call for his veneration. He delivered this speech in October on the day of remembrance of Saint Cyprian, a former magician who, despite his enormous powers and incredible, really devilish efforts, was unable to seduce a Christian virgin named Justina.

2 This is not the Cyprian that Gregory wanted to remind us of, but Gregory himself did not know this. Cyprian of Carthage was a theologian and thinker; he wrote many important works and went down in history as the greatest martyr and hero of the Carthaginian Church. Cyprian and Justina suffered for Christ in Antioch; they were originally from Syria. It turns out that Gregory “judged” his flock for “forgetting the saints,” but he himself fell into involuntary forgetfulness because he literally confused the memories of two of them. Thanks to Gregory’s mistake, the name of Cyprian of Carthage has indeed been preserved in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and his memory is honored, as it should be, in September, on the day of his martyrdom.

3 By the authority of his words, Gregory also preserved for the memory of the Church another Cyprian - Cyprian of Antioch. Cyprian and Justina suffered for Christ during the Great Persecution of Diocletian at the beginning of the fourth century. They are highly revered in popular piety. And, as a sorcerer who converted to Christ, renounced his wickedness, and suffered for his faith, Cyprian, and Justina, which, with its firmness, converted him to faith are invoked with a request for protection from magic and evil forces. “Evil has no boundaries,” the band Slayer once sang in one of their daring songs. But that’s not true. According to the word of the Apocalypse about the martyrs, “who follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Revelation 14:4), Saints Cyprian and Justina pray to God for us day and night.