Saint Cyprian of Carthage

Dan Fefferman

Saint Cyprian (Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus)
Saint Cyprian
Born	3rd century in North Africa
Died	September 14 258 in Carthage
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Lutheran Church
Feast	September 16

This page is about Cyprian, bishop of Carthage. For other Cyprians, see Cyprian (disambiguation).

Saint Cyprian (Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus) (died September 14, 258) was bishop of Carthage and an important early Christian writer. He was probably born at the beginning of the 3rd century in North Africa, perhaps at Carthage, where he received an excellent classical (pagan) education. After converting to Christianity, he became a bishop (249) and eventually died a martyr at Carthage.

Early life

Cyprian was of a wealthy and distinguished pagan background, from Carthage, the most important Roman city on the African continent and the site of a thriving, if contentious Christian culture. The site of his eventual martyrdom would be his own villa. The date of his conversion is unknown, but after his baptism about 245-248 he gave away a portion of his wealth to the poor of Carthage, as befitted a man of his rank. He was either of Punic stock or, as is sometimes claimed, a Berber.

His original name was Thascius; he took the additional name Caecilius in memory of the presbyter to whom he owed his conversion. He later became a teacher of rhetoric. In the early days of his conversion he wrote an Epistola ad Donatum de gratia Dei ("Letter to Donatus concerning God's grace"), and three books of Testimoniorum adversus Judæos that adhere closely to the models of the earlier Carthaginian Church Father Tertullian, who influenced his style and thinking, and are largely interesting as a document in the history of Christian anti-semitism.

His contested election as bishop of Carthage

Not long after his baptism Cyprian was ordained a deacon, and soon afterward presbyter. Some time between July 248 and April 249 he was chosen bishop of Carthage, a popular choice among the poor who remembered his patronage, while a portion of the presbytery opposed it, for all Cyprian's wealth and learning and diplomacy and literary talents. Moreover, the opposition within the church community at Carthage did not dissolve during his tenure.

Christians in North Africa had not suffered persecution for many years. Soon, however, the entire community was put to a severe test. Early in 250 the Emperor Decius issued the edict for the suppression of Christianity, and the "Decian persecution" began. Measures were first taken demanding that the bishops and officers of the church sacrifice to the Emperor, an oath of allegiance that was taken by Christians as profoundly offensive. The proconsul on circuit and five commissioners for each town administered the edict; but when the proconsul reached Carthage, Cyprian had fled.

The Christian community was divided on this occasion between those who stood firm in civil disobedience at any price, and those who favored submitting either in word or in deed to the order of sacrifice and receiving a receipt called a libellus ("booklet"). Cyprian's secret departure from Carthage was interpreted by his enemies as cowardice and infidelity, and they hastened to accuse him at Rome. The Roman clergy wrote to Cyprian in disapproving terms, but he answered that he fled in accordance with visions and the divine command. From his place of refuge he ruled his flock with earnestness and zeal, using a faithful deacon as his intermediary.

Controversy over the lapsed

The persecution was especially severe at Carthage. Many Christians fell away, and were thereafter referred to as "lapsed" (lapsi), but afterward asked to be received again into the church. Their requests were at first granted with little regard for the demand of Cyprian, who insisted upon earnest repentance. Cyprian now censured all laxity toward the lapsed, refused absolution to them except in case of mortal sickness, and sought to postpone the question of their readmission to the Church to more quiet times. A schism broke out in Carthage with the deacon Felicissimus opposed to Cyprian's strict policy. Cyprian deposed and excommunicated him and his supporter Augendius. Felicissimus was upheld by the presbyter Novatus and four other presbyters, and a determined opposition was thus organized.

Meanwhile, after a 14-months absence, Cyprian returned to his diocese, and defended leaving his post and the tract De lapsis ("On those who fall away") and in letters to the other North African bishops. He called a council of North African bishops at Carthage to consider the treatment of the lapsed and to deal with the apparent schism of Felicissimus. The majority of the council reportedly sided with Cyprian and condemned Felicissimus, though no Acts of this council survive. Christians who had made or signed the written statements that they had obeyed the behest of the emperor were to be restored at upon sincere repentance; but those who had taken part in heathen sacrifices could be received back into the church only when on the point of death. The latter policy was soon liberalized, however. On the other hand, clerics who had fallen were to be deposed and could not be restored to their functions.

The followers of Felicissimus then elected Fortunatus as their bishop in opposition to Cyprian. Meanwhile in Rome, the followers of the Roman presbyter Novatian refused all absolution to all the lapsed. They elected their man as bishop of Rome, in opposition to Cornelius. The Novatian party secured the election of a rival bishop of their own at Carthage, Maximus by name.

These extremes strengthened the firm but moderating influence exhibited by Cyprian, and the following of his opponents grew less and less. He rose still higher in the favor of the people when they witnessed his self-denying devotion during the time of a great plague and famine.

He comforted his brethren by writing his De mortalitate, and in his De eleomosynis and exhorted them to active charity towards the poor, while he strove to set the best pattern by his own life. He defended Christianity and the Christians in the apologia Ad Demetrianum, directed against the charge of the heathens that Christians were the cause of the public calamities.

Heretical baptism

But Cyprian had yet to fight another battle, which broke to the surface in 255, in which his opponent was none other than the bishop of Rome, Pope Stephen I. The matter in dispute was the efficacy of baptism when it was administered by heretics.

Stephen declared baptism by heretics valid if administered according to the institution either in the name of Christ or of the holy Trinity. This was the mainstream view of the Church. Cyprian, on the other hand, believing that outside the Church there was no true baptism, regarded baptism by heretics to be null and void. He therefore re-baptized, as if for the first time, those who, think they were Christians, had been baptized by clergy with heretical views.

The majority of the North African bishops sided with Cyprian. In the Eastern Roman Empire he had a powerful ally in Firmilian, bishop of Caesarea. But the position of Stephen in Rome came to find general acceptance. Stephen also claimed of superiority of the Roman See over all bishoprics of the Church, one of the first major tests of Roman primacy. To this claim Cyprian answered that the authority of the Roman bishop, though higher in honor, was equal to—not superior to—his own. Stephen broke off communion with Cyprian and Carthage, though not going as far as a formal excommunication of Cyprian.

The 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia article on Cyprian claims that at the time the issue was seen only as a matter of discipline and not of doctrine. The modern Catholic church holds dogmatically that baptism by heretics and even by atheists or other non-Christians is valid if intentionally done according to the manner that the Church prescribes and that the person doing the Baptizing be Baptised themselves. The doctrinal basis for this was articulated by St. Augustine in his conflict with the Donatists, who claimed the authority of Cyprian for their own position.

Persecution under Valerian

At the end of 256 a new persecution of the Christians under Valerian broke out, and both Stephen and his successor, Xystus (Sixtus) II, suffered martyrdom at Rome.

In Africa Cyprian courageously prepared his people for the expected edict of persecution by his De exhortatione martyrii, and himself set an example when he was brought before the Roman proconsul Aspasius Paternus (August 30, 257). He refused to sacrifice to the pagan deities and firmly professed Christ.

The consul banished him to the desolate Churubis, whence he comforted to the best of his ability his flock and his banished clergy. In a vision he saw his approaching fate. When a year had passed he was recalled and kept practically a prisoner on his own villa, in expectation of severer measures after a new and more stringent imperial edict arrived which demanded the execution of all Christian clerics, according to reports of it by Christian writers.

On September 13, 258, he was imprisoned at the behest of the new proconsul, Galerius Maximus. The day following he was examined for the last time and sentenced to die by the sword. His only answer was "Thanks be to God!" The execution was carried out at once in an open place near the city. A vast multitude followed Cyprian on his last journey. He removed his garments without assistance, knelt down, and prayed. Two of his clergy blindfolded him. He ordered twenty-five gold pieces to be given to the executioner, who with a trembling hand administered the death-blow.

The body was interred by Christian hands near the place of execution, and over it, as well as on the actual scene of his death, churches were afterward erected, which, however, were destroyed by the Vandals. Charlemagne is said to have had the bones transferred to France; and Lyons, Arles, Venice, Compiegne, and Roenay in Flanders boast the possession of the martyr's relics.

Writings

Besides a number of epistles, which are partly collected with the answers of those to whom they were written, Cyprian wrote a number of treatises, some of which have also the character of pastoral letters.

His most important work is his De unitate ecclesiae. In it, it states: "He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother; . . . he who gathereth elsewhere than in the Church scatters the Church of Christ" (vi.); "nor is there any other home to believers but the one Church" (ix.).

The following works are of doubtful authenticity: De spectaculis ("On public games"); De bono pudicitiae ("The virtue of modesty"); De idolorum vanitate ("On the vanity of images," which may perhaps be by Novatian); De laude martyrii ("In praise of martyrs"); Adversua aleatores ; De montibus Sina et Sion; and the Cena Cypriani ("Cyprian's Banquet," which enjoyed wide circulation in the Middle Ages). The treatise entitled De duplici martyrio ad Fortunatum was not only published for the first and only time by Erasmus, but was probably also composed by him and fathered upon Cyprian.

Posterity has had less difficulty in reaching a universally accepted view of Cyprian's personality than his contemporaries. He combined loftiness of thought with an ever-present consciousness of the dignity of his office; his earnest life, his self-denial and fidelity, moderation and greatness of soul have been increasingly acknowledged and admired. He was the type of a prince of the Church. The glory of his courageous and edifying martyrdom can not be extinguished by the earlier charges of cowardice. As a writer, however, he was in general by no means original or especially deep.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

Brent, Allen, editor and translator, 2007. "St Cyprian of Carthage: Selected Treatises" (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press) ISBN 0881413127
Brent, Allen, editor and translator, 2007. "St Cyprian of Carthage: Selected Letters" (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press) ISBN 0881413135
Daniel, Robin, 1993.This Holy Seed: Faith, Hope and Love in the Early Churches of North Africa (Tamarisk Publications) ISBN 0-9520435-0-5
Cyprian texts (in the Christian Classics Ethereal Library)

St Cyrprian's first writing starts out as a speech he made to his friends. It is called, Ad Donatum. It speaks out against the Roman Government and gladiator shows. He says that the only refuge from these evils is the prayerful life of a Christian. His style of writing is said to be unequaled among the Fathers of the Church.

External links

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