Saints Justina and Cyprian
*I have seen Justina since childhood, when she was in the courtyard of her father's house, who was a priest of the gods. This courtyard was separated from the temple only by a street. In the presence of her nurse, she descended into a cistern, where she stood upon a stone surrounded by water. Underground entrances led to this place, where various species of serpents and other animals of horrible appearance were housed and fed. I saw Justina take a serpent in her hands without fear, as well as other smaller animals. She would catch them by the tail and rejoiced greatly when they stood straight up like candles and contorted their heads from side to side. They did not harm her and behaved familiarly and domestically. There were certain animals there that we call "large heads" (salamanders), about a foot long, which were used in the worship of idols.*
*I heard that Justina listened to preaching in a Christian church about original sin and redemption. She was deeply moved, had herself baptized, and also converted her mother. The mother told her husband, who was greatly distressed because of an apparition, and he was baptized along with Justina's mother. They later lived in retirement, with great piety. A specific portrait caught my attention. Justina had a graceful, oval face and beautiful blonde hair, shining like gold; she wore it gathered upon her head in soft, silk-like braids that fell in many curls over her shoulders. I saw that while she was at the table with her parents, she was eating small loaves of bread, and her father, looking at her hair, said to her: "I fear, my daughter, that things will not go well for you this way, but rather that, like Absalom, you will remain tied to the world." Justina became very pensive upon hearing these words; she had never noticed this danger. She walked away from there, and I do not know what she did with her hair, but she disfigured her eyebrows. They looked as if they had been scorched by fire. Thus defaced, she walked through the city and presented herself to her father, who barely recognized her. A young man who loved her wanted to abduct her by force, since he could not possess her by any other means. With other armed companions, he lay in wait for her, hidden behind the walls along a solitary path she used to pass. Once he had her in his power, she pushed him away with both hands and commanded him not to move. By a miracle, the young man was unable to follow her until the girl was out of danger.*
*I then saw this young man ask for help from the magician Cyprian, who, with great pride and confident in his power, promised it to him. I have seen Cyprian deeply involved in his magical and incantation arts, although he was a man of a noble and magnanimous soul. From childhood, he had been instructed in magic; he had traveled to remote countries to learn more and lived enjoying great fame in the city of Antioch, where Justina resided with her parents. He had reached such audacity in his arts that publicly, even in the Christian church, he would mock Jesus.*
*Using his magical arts, he would sometimes force people to leave the church. I saw how he invoked the demon. In his house, he had a sort of vault, half-buried in the earth, with an opening at the top to let light in. Around the walls, there were foul images of idols in the shape of serpents and other animals. In a corner, there was a statue, hollow inside, with wide-open jaws, the size of a man; it stood on the edge of a round altar upon which a brazier could be seen. When Cyprian evoked the devil, he wore a garment used especially for those occasions. He lit the fire on the altar; he read certain names from a volume; he climbed onto the altar and pronounced those names, shouting into the jaws of the idol. Very soon, the infernal spirit appeared beside him in human form, looking more or less like a servant. There is always something gloomy and restless—like the remorse of a conscience—in the features of these apparitions. I saw then that the evil one tempted Justina twice to incite her to evil, under the guise of a young man.*
*He crossed paths with her in the peristyle of her house. Justina rid herself of the enemy by making the sign of the cross, and she placed herself under the protection of that same cross, which she made in every corner of her room. I saw her in the secret room of her house, on her knees, praying. Within a niche in her house, there was a cross and a pure child; he seemed to be as if in a monstrance; the upper part was free, and the child had his little hands crossed. While she was kneeling, a young man with evil intentions advanced toward her. Then, emerging from the wall, a lady of great majesty appeared, and the young man fell to the ground even before Justina had seen him. The apparition vanished from sight immediately.*
*Later, I saw her destroy all her beauty with an ointment. I also saw Cyprian slipping along the walls of the house, throwing a liquid against them. This happened at a moment when Justina was not at prayer, far from suspecting any danger. She felt strongly agitated and began to wander from one point of her house to another; finally, she took refuge in her room, adjusted the crosses she had fixed in the corners of the room, and knelt down, praying, until the enchanter had to yield and withdraw.*
*When Cyprian made the third attempt, the tempter appeared in the form of a pious virgin who began to speak about purity and virginity with Justina. At first, Justina enjoyed the maiden's conversation, but when she began to reason about Adam and Eve and marriage, Justina recognized the tempter and took refuge beside her cross. When Cyprian learned what had happened to the evil spirit, I saw him determined to become a Christian. I have seen him with his face prostrated to the ground inside a church, letting himself be trampled by others who entered, as if he were a madman. He felt great repentance and burned all his magic books. Over the years, he became a bishop and chose Justina as a deaconess. She lived near the church and was occupied with making and embroidering sacred vestments. Later, I saw them both martyred. Cyprian and Justina were hanging by one hand from a forcibly bent tree, and it seemed to me they had been torn apart with sharp iron spikes.*
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> ** Note: The *Kirchenlexikon* presents the story of Justina and Cyprian according to the visions of Anna Catherine [Emmerich]. The story is utilized by Calderón de la Barca in *«El mágico prodigioso» (The Mighty Magician)* with some adjustments, while the historical background remains compliant with the Roman Martyrology and Saint Antoninus.