There are at least two saints named Lucian, and they are both overshadowed by a Roman satirist. Today's Lucian, apparently martyred with a saint named Marcian around AD 250, is the one about whom I can find the least information.
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| A little demon-conjuring as Halloween approaches |
Lucian was a sorcerer. He conjured demons to do his bidding. He thought he was a big shot, big-head sorcerer, that's what he thought. Then one day he was casting a spell against some poor woman. We could be trite and say that she was young, beautiful, and virtuous -- she rejected his amorous overtures. We could be slightly less trite and say that she was a wealthy old widow who would not surrender her fortune to the sorcerer, but instead bravely denounced him for the demon-master he was. Or maybe we could be unpredictable and say that she was middle-aged, middle-sized, and middle-class, a woman of unexceptional life in all ways except for the one day when she accidentally sneezed near Lucian while he was having lunch, detonating his increasingly explosive wrath. Whatever the case, the curse was cast.
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Our unnamed heroine made the sign of the cross. The curse dissipated. He conjured a demon, which promptly and vigorously assailed the woman. She continued to make the sign of the cross, which kept her invulnerable to its attacks. Briefly, it turned, shrugged at its master, and fled forthwith to its infernal abode.
Stunned, the mighty sorcerer sat down on a park bench and contemplated this strange new power. He studied this unfamiliar faith, Christianity, and at last embraced it. With the all-too-familiar zeal of the recently converted, Lucian threw himself into evangelism. This of course made him easy to spot when the next persecution came around, and it was the beasts in the arena for him.
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