Wisdom of Saints: St Cyprian of Carthage

The Feast of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, Martyr, 258

ALMIGHTY God, by whose grace and power thy Martyr Cyprian was enabled to witness to the truth and to be faithful unto death: Grant that we, who now remember him before thee, may likewise so bear witness unto thee in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 St Cyprian of Carthage was a bishop and martyr of the early and mid-third century, and an important early Church Father whose many writings continue to exist today. St Cyprian was born sometime around 200 AD in North Africa to pagan parents. He received a good education and became a lawyer and teacher of rhetoric. He was successful and well-known throughout Carthage, having become wealthy due to his legal and teaching success.

He converted to Christianity in the 240s and was likely baptised during the Easter Vigil of 246. He embraced asceticism and engaged in chastity and poverty during his catechesis and early years. He gave his income to the poor and sold his properties in Carthage for further revenues for the poor, and became chaste.

He was made Bishop of Carthage only two years later in 248, at the demand of the people despite his initial reluctance to take up the charge. Shortly after his consecration as Bishop of Carthage, Decius became Emperor and initiated a persecution of Christians in an effort to restore Roman paganism and, in his mind, the fortunes of the Roman Empire.

During the previous thirty-eight years of tolerance, the Church had become relatively prosperous with many bishops falling into worldliness and scandal. Many of them were, during the Decian persecution, put to death, while priests and lay Christians forced to recant their faith. Due to the deaths of so many bishops and the need to maintain the governance of the Church, rather than face death, St Cyprian want into hiding, recognizing that it would be impossible to elect and appoint new bishops during the ongoing persecution.

Many Christians apostatized rather than face rape, torture and death. They would go to the Pagan temples and offer sacrifice to receive their libelli, certificates that proved they had sacrificed to the pagan gods and were thus not Christians (though some Christians sought to buy forged libelli in order to avoid both persecution and needing to sacrifice to pagan gods).

By 251 the Decian persecution began to wane as political challenges to Emperor Decius turned his attention elsewhere. A Council was called in Carthage to address some of the issues that had arisen during the persecution, but Cyprian himself was challenged by some of the priests who had opposed his election, who schemed to keep him from participating in the Council. He famously composed a letter against one of them and also around this time published a number of works extolling the virtues of Christian unity and seeking to address some of the controversies that were dividing the Christians of the day.

He wrote several other famous works in this time, and his works were widely regarded.

In 258 a major plague broke out in Carthage, and while many of the government officials fled to avoid infection, St Cyprian remained and co-ordinated relief efforts for the city, including medical care for the sick who were being abandoned by family and friends. Despite this care for the dying, Christians were blamed for the plague by pagan Romans who felt it was the punishment of the Gods for the spread of Christianity and abandonment of Roman pagan religion. The Emperor Valerian began a persecution of Christians. This time, St Cyprian did not flee into hiding but stayed in Carthage. He was arrested, tried and beheaded on the 14th of September 258. A record of his trial and martyrdom exists along with many of his writings, the most famous of which concern the unity of the Church and the sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist.

St Cyprian has extensive writings on the power and use of the Holy Eucharist, something he referred to many times in his collected epistles. In his Epistle 54, he wrote, “We may not arouse and exhort those to battle unarmed and naked, but may fortify them with the protection of Christ’s Body and Blood. The Eucharist is designate for this very purpose, that it may be a safeguard to those who receive it.” He continues in Epistle 63, outlining more of his high doctrine of the Eucharist and the role of the priest in ministering it:

If Christ Jesus, our Lord and God, is himself the high priest of God the Father; and if he offered himself as a sacrifice to the Father; and if he commanded that this be done in commemoration of himself, then certainly the priest, who imitates that which Christ did, truly functions in place of Christ.

Writing on Unity, St Cyprian addressed the issue of doctrinal disagreements and they way they should be resolved. In his 53rd Epistle he writes:

When truth is missing from practice and tradition, this is rather indicative of the longevity of falsehood. There is a very safe method for spiritual souls to discern between truth and falsehood: it suffices to return to the beginning of the divine teaching, there where the human falsehood ends. Let us return there, to the evangelical beginning, the original teaching given by our Lord; and to the apostolic tradi­tion, there where the word of our thoughts and actions emanates.

Here is a simple truth. When there is a doctrinal disagreement, first turn to the Evangelical witness, the primacy of Scripture. That is not enough, however, because there can be disagreements on the interpretation of Holy Scripture, so there he says to turn to the Apostolic Witness, the teachings of the Church Fathers, Christ’s Apostle’s and their successors to hear their interpretations of the Scriptures. Their viewpoints are not infallible, however they speak with some authority, particularly where they speak in unity, and what has traditionally been rejected by the Fathers can also speak to the limits of acceptable interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.

St Cyprian, one of the earliest writers, provides us with a wealth of writing on the understanding and early developments of Christian doctrine, reminding us that even from the earliest days the Church held a great reverence for the grace and value of the Holy Eucharist and also placed great importance on the unity of the Church and the role of priests and bishops in maintaining that unity and doctrinal orthodoxy, under the authority of Holy Scripture.