Confessing Evangelical

An entertaining (and indeed moving) story of conversion under unpropitious circumstances, from Henry Chadwick's Early Church History (p.172):

In 441 the city prefect in Constantinople was a pagan poet from Panopolis in Egypt named Cyrus, who ... was exceedingly popular in the city and incurred the envy of the court eunuch Chrysaphius who engineered his downfall.

Cyrus saved himself by becoming a Christian, whereupon Chrysaphius had him despatched to be bishop of a delinquent Phrygian town where the excitable and rowdy populace had lynched four successive incumbents of the see.

Tough crowd, but Cyrus proved equal to the challenge:

Cyrus' sermons there were so brief (his first Christmas sermon consisted of one sentence) that he won the hearts of his turbulent flock.

Strangely, the experience produced a genuine faith. In 451, after Chrysaphius' fall, Cyrus abandoned his orders and resumed secular rank at Constantinople, where he became famed for his generosity to the poor and for his intimate friendship with the nearby pillar saint, Daniel the Stylite, who became his spiritual director.