Their story
Lucian and Marcian practised magic at Nicomedia. They were converted when their charms failed against a Christian virgin. They burned their books, gave their goods to the poor and lived in solitude, then went out to preach.
Under the edicts of Decius they were brought before the proconsul Sabinus, racked, and burned alive, singing hymns as they died. Butler gives 250; Baring-Gould, the text on this page, gives 251. The sources differ.
