By John Sanidopoulos
Throughout the history of
Christianity, many magicians are recorded to have abandoned their
ancient art and accepted the Christian faith, not because magic was
found to be "fake" or "debunked", but because they came to believe
through the eternal light of the truth of the Triune God that what they
thought had spiritual power was in fact darkness, evil, selfish and a
demonic lie.
Among the
first magicians to abandon their craft after having witnessed the
greater power of Christ were certain Ephesians in the middle of the
first century after being visited by the Apostle Paul. Acts 19:11-20
records this astonishing event:
Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.
And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”
Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.
Many other magicians converted
during the early centuries of Christianity, when paganism prevailed and
Christians were persecuted by the pagans. Among them were St. Gargalos
(Sept. 29) who was a pagan priest under King Sapor of Persia and was
martyred with Sts. Dada and Gobdelaas in the fourth century, St.
Athanasius (Apr. 23) who was a magician under Emperor Diocletian and was
martyred in 303 A.D. after witnessing the sufferings of St. George, and
St. Marus (May 31) who was a magician and martyr under the Procunsel of
Comana Sebastian in the second century and converted after failing to
be able to poison St. Hermias the Great Martyr.
The most famous magician of the
early Church to have converted to Christianity is the Holy Hieromartyr
Cyprian (Oct. 2). Cyprian was a pagan magician of Antioch who was
dealing with demons. By their aid he sought to bring St. Justina, a
Christian virgin, to ruin; but she foiled the threefold attacks of the
devils by the sign of the cross. Brought to despair, Cyprian made the
sign of the Cross and in this way was freed from the grip of Satan. The
story of St. Cyprian became especially popular among Christians during
the reign of Julian the Apostate, who in the middle of the fourth
century tried to revive paganism in the Roman Empire, and his tale
strengthened Christians to not sacrifice to the pagan gods, whose power
was nothing before the Cross of Christ. Sts. Cyprian and Justina are
even today invoked as patrons of those who have become influenced by
demons and magic.
Even in our modern times there
are examples of those who practiced the dark arts and converted to
Christianity. Vladimir Bykov was a well-known Spiritualist in Russia who
abandoned his craft after meeting with the holy spiritual fathers of
Optina Monastery. He wrote a book titled Calm Havens for the Respite of a Suffering Soul.
He would come to say: "Spiritism is demonic! Orthodox Christianity is
your answer." Vladimir eventually became an Orthodox Christian priest
and in 1924 or 1925 was martyred for his Orthodox faith by the atheist
communists.
More recently in Greece a former
magician, Evangelos Koutroubelis, became an Orthodox Christian, and
wrote a book against magic and the dark arts, titled The Deceiver of People (published by "Astir" in 1994).
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