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.

Wisdom of Saints: St Cyprian of Carthage

Feast of Cyprian, Doctor, 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.

Like many of the early Christian saints, there are few details of St Cyprian’s childhood and early life prior to his conversion to Christianity, despite the fact that many of his written works remain. St Cyprian of Carthage was born around 200 AD to a wealthy pagan family in Carthage. He received a classical education at the school of Carthage which allowed him to become a lawyer and rhetor, a profession at which he excelled and would greatly aid him as a priest later in life.

Around 245 AD he was converted to Christianity under the influence of a local priest, and was baptised. Prior to his baptism, he donated half of his family’s wealth to the poor In his epistle To Donatus, he describes his baptism writing:

While I was still lying in darkness and gloomy night, wavering hither and thither, tossed about on the foam of this boastful age, and uncertain of my wandering steps, knowing nothing of my real life, and remote from truth and light, I used to regard it as a difficult matter, and especially as difficult in respect of my character at that time, that a man should be capable of being born again—a truth which the divine mercy had announced for my salvation,—and that a man quickened to a new life in the laver of saving water should be able to put off what he had previously been; and, although retaining all his bodily structure, should be himself changed in heart and soul.

His writings show how he quickly began to apply his keen mind towards the learning of Christian doctrine and theology, and was soon after ordained as a priest. He was greatly influenced by the writings of Tertullian. When Bishop Donatus of Carthage died in 248, St Cyprian was selected to replace him as bishop.

St Cyprian lived prior to the legalization of Christianity, and indeed became Bishop just prior to the start of the Decian persecution in January of 250, in which Christians were effectively forced to renounce Christ or be killed. It was during this same persecution that St Cyprian’s contemporary Origen was tortured, and died a few years after the persecution ended due to injuries suffered in his incarceration. St Cyprian himself avoided capture during the persecution by fleeing the city of Carthage, a decision which evoked some controversy. The Decian persecution did not last long, as persecutions ordered by Roman emperors ended upon their death, and Emperor Decius died in June of 251.

In the aftermath of the persecution there was great controversy. Emperor Decius had required everyone to sacrifice to him as a god or face torture. In doing so, the person would receive what was called a libellus to prove their sacrifice. Some Christians, out of fear or after torture, would sacrifice to the Emperor and received theirs. Others bribed officials in order to receive a libellus without making sacrifice. St Cyprian determined that such Christians who had lapsed during the persecution could be re-admitted to the Church, but only after performing penance, and in so doing recognizing their error, and with the permission of the bishop.

The controversy that arose over opposition to his rules led him to pen one of his most celebrated works, his treatise On the Unity of the Church. He addressed in this case the specific issue of priests and others rebelling against him, but provides sound advice for the necessity of unity of all Christians by first referring to unity of the Church in Holy Scripture and then writes:

Does he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the faith? Does he who strives against and resists the Church trust that he is in the Church, when moreover the blessed Apostle Paul teaches the same thing, and sets forth the sacrament of unity, saying, “There is one body and one spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God?”
The Church also is one, which is spread abroad far and wide into a multitude by an increase of fruitfulness. As there are many rays of the sun, but one light; and many branches of a tree, but one strength based in its tenacious root; and since from one spring flow many streams, although the multiplicity seems diffused in the liberality of an overflowing abundance, yet the unity is still preserved in the source.  Separate a ray of the sun from its body of light, its unity does not allow a division of light; break a branch from a tree,—when broken, it will not be able to bud; cut off the stream from its fountain, and that which is cut off dries up. Thus also the Church, shone over with the light of the Lord, sheds forth her rays over the whole world, yet it is one light which is everywhere diffused, nor is the unity of the body separated. Her fruitful abundance spreads her branches over the whole world. She broadly expands her rivers, liberally flowing, yet her head is one, her source one; and she is one mother, plentiful in the results of fruitfulness: from her womb we are born, by her milk we are nourished, by her spirit we are animated.

This emphasis on the unity of the Church, throughout Scripture and through the traditions of the Church speaks to his status as an exegete and echoes a message through the centuries which remains ever relevant today in the age of countless schisms.

St Cyprian lived through the various plagues that hit Carthage, before Emperor Valerian came to the throne. Understanding that a new persecution was about to begin, he wrote his Exhortation to Martyrdom which was meant to encourage Christians to stand firm in their faith. Again he emphasizes Holy Scripture in his writing, and writes from multiple perspectives and arguments on the virtues and benefits of holding firm in our faith. He concludes in the thirteenth chapter discussing suffering and the rewards for it, recalling St Paul’s statements on suffering before concluding:

Who, then, does not with all his powers labour to attain to such a glory that he may become the friend of God, that he may at once rejoice with Christ, that after earthly tortures and punishments he may receive divine rewards? If to soldiers of this world it is glorious to return in triumph to their country when the foe is vanquished, how much more excellent and greater is the glory, when the devil is overcome, to return in triumph to paradise, and to bring back victorious trophies to that place whence Adam was ejected as a sinner, after casting down him who formerly had cast him down; to offer to God the most acceptable gift—an uncorrupted faith, and an unyielding virtue of mind, an illustrious praise of devotion; to accompany Him when He shall come to receive vengeance from His enemies, to stand at His side when He shall sit to judge, to become co-heir of Christ, to be made equal to the angels; with the patriarchs, with the apostles, with the prophets, to rejoice in the possession of the heavenly kingdom!

In 257, Emperor Valerian began a new persecution ordering all Christian clergy to sacrifice to nobility or face exile. St Cyprian refused and was exiled from Carthage. In 258 the persecution was extended to all Christian nobility as well as clergy. Clergy faced execution while the nobility faced loss of titles, property and freedom. St Cyprian voluntarily returned to Carthage to confess his faith and face martyrdom. He was sentenced to death and beheaded in 258.

NB. The Feast of Cyprian is commemorated on 13 September, but as that fell on Sunday, the feast is transferred to a ferial day.