Season 3, Episode 3
The Sorcerous Saint
How Saint Cyprian of Antioch became a patron of American magicians
November 26th, 2024
St. Cyprian of Antioch was a lesser-known Catholic saint with a fascinating folk history in the Iberian peninsula, Scandinavia, and Brazil. But around 2010, this folk saint of sorcery and magic immigrated to the United States and went pop in some communities of magical practitioners and found a new home in America.
Featuring Jesse Hathaway Diaz, José Leitão, and Katarina Pejovic.
FEATURING
Practitioner, Folklorist, Artist, Performer and Independent Scholar
Jesse Hathaway Diaz has a Masters in Performance Studies from NYU. With initiations in several forms of witchcraft from Europe and the Americas, he is also a lifelong student of Mexican curanderismo, an initiated priest of Obatalá in the Lucumí Orisha tradition, and a Tatá Quimbanda. He co-hosts an occult-themed podcast called ‘Radio Free Golgotha’, and edits the ‘Folk Necromancy in Transmission’ imprint through Revelore Press. For the better part of two decades, he has been involved with Theatre Group Dzieci, a New York based experimental theatre ensemble which explores theatre and ritual as a way, blending service with self-exploration and performance. Dividing his time between the Bronx and a farm in the Hudson Valley, his artistic and written work navigate the world-as-magic through exploring orality and transmission, decolonialism, ritual theory and praxis, herbalism and healing modalities through private study, apprenticeship, and community involvement.
Historian and researcher with the Center for the History of Society and Culture at the University of Coimbra in Portugal
José Leitão is a former experimental physicist currently researching magic in the records of the Portuguese Inquisition and associated with the Center for the History of Society and Culture at the University of Coimbra. José holds two PhDs, one Physics and a second in Modern History, defended on Halloween 2024. His current lines of research focus on the mapping of both learned and folk Magic in Portugal using the records of the Portuguese Inquisition, as well as other expressions of esoteric practice and thinking in that country. This includes the search for autochthonous magic and esoteric texts in Portuguese and Iberian archives, and the understanding of the local circulation of European texts and Grimoires. Among these, José is particularly interested in expressions of folk magic and religion focusing on the figure of St. Cyprian of Antioch.
Doctoral candidate in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto
Katarina Pejovic is a Doctoral Candidate at the Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto. Her SSHRC-funded research centers around St. Cyprian of Antioch, an enigmatic saint traversing through myriad worlds of meaning, bound in a discordance of tensions, affects, and identities. She is interested in pursuing questions related to the way the character of the “saint of sorcerers” is deployed, codified, and positioned as both a voice of ancestral authority on magical traditions, and as a conduit for the cultural transmission of diverse magical technologies.
CREDITS
Host: Heather Freeman; Producer: Amber Walker; Editor: Lucy Perkins; Associate Producer: Noor Gill; Sound Design: Jennie Cataldo; Fact Checker: Dania Suleman; Executive Producer for PRX Productions: Jocelyn Gonzales; Music: APM Music and Epidemic Sound; Project Managers: Edwin Ochoa; Advisors: Helen Berger, Danielle Boaz, Yvonne Chireau, Chas Clifton, Abel Gomez, Daniel Harms, Corey Hutcheson, Sean McLeod, Sabina Magliocco, Thorn Mooney, and Meg Whalen; Guests: Jesse Hathaway Diaz, José Leitão, and Katarina Pejovic; Additional Thanks: Sam Block and Dr. Alexander Cummins; Funding and Support: The National Endowment for the Humanities and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
TRANSCRIPT
LEARN MORE
What Magic is this? podcast interview with José Leitão — This webpage includes a vast list of resources as well!
Davies, O. (2009). Grimoires : a history of magic books. Oxford University Press.
Leitão, J. (2014). The Book of St. Cyprian : the Sorcerer’s treasure ; O grande livro de S. Cypriano, ou, Thesouro do feiticeiro. Hadean Press.
Leitão, J. (2017). The immaterial book of St. Cyprian : folk concepts & views on the book as a cultural item through the reading of folk narratives. (2017). Revelore Press.