Seeker of eternal life St Michael converted (9)

I believe the answer is:
alchemist
'seeker of eternal life' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'st michael converted' is the wordplay.
'converted' indicates anagramming the letters.
'st'+'michael'='stmichael'
'stmichael' with letters rearranged gives 'ALCHEMIST'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alchemist that I've seen before include "His hope to discover elixir of life" , "One seeking to produce gold, elixirs etc" , "he sought a panacea" , "St Michael (anag)" , "Medieval experimenter" .)
