St. Cyprian of Carthage (200-253 A.D.)
The Fathers of the Church spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, defended the Church in apologetic writing and fought the many heresies of the first six centuries of Christianity. These men, also called Apostolic Fathers, gave special witness to the faith, some dying the death of a martyr. Like Jesus who referred to Abraham as a spiritual father (Luke 16: 24) and St. Paul, who referred to himself in the same terms (1 Corinthians 4: 15), the Fathers were zealous for the word of God. Their writings are a testimony to the faith of the early Church, yet many Christians are unfamiliar with the work of Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Justin the Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian of Carthage, Athanasius, Ephraim, Cyril of Jerusalem, Hilary of Poitiers or Gregory the Great to name of few of the early Fathers. Periodically we will provide biographical information and examples of the writing of these great men of faith. This page will focus on St. Cyprian of Carthage.
Caecilius Cyprianus Thascius, St. Cyprian of Carthage (200-253 A.D.) Cyprian was born in Carthage between 200 A.D. and 210 A.D. His parents were wealthy pagans and he did not convert until 246 AD., at which time he made a vow of chastity. St. Pontius says he was a dignified but cheerful man. He was a skilled administrator and a man of great energy and character. He became Bishop of Carthage in 249 A.D. After the martyrdom of Pope Fabian during the persecution of the Roman Emperor Decius in 250 A.D., he took refuge in the hills outside Carthage and wrote letters to his flock. He stood against heresies at the Council of Carthage in 251 A.D., but disagreed with Pope St. Stephen over the issue of rebaptism of converted heretics. Cyprian followed the African custom to consider invalid any baptism conferred by heretical groups. [The Catholic Church maintains, to the contrary, that if the baptism is made in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19) with the right intention and using water, that it is valid.] But the dispute was ended by a renewed Roman persecution, with Pope Stephen being martyred in 256 A.D. and Cyprian suffering the same fate in 258 A.D. The disputes of the second and third centuries show that the Church's magisterium is called upon to rely upon prayer and discernment in order to arrive at the solution to questions about the sacraments under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which Christ promised to the Church. Cyprian was the leading African bishop and the first to suffer a martyr's death.
The Lapsed ( 251 A.D.):
551 [ 15] "The Apostle likewise bears witness and says, "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be a communicant at the table of the Lord and of the table of devils" (1 Cor 10:21) And again he threatens the stubborn and perverse and denounces them, saying: "Whoever eats the Bread or drinks the Cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord" (1 Cor 11:27). [16] But they spurn and despise all these warnings; and before their sins are expiated, before they have made a confession of their crime, before their conscience has been purged in the ceremony and at the hand of the priest, before the offense against an angry and threatening Lord has been appeased, they do violence to His Body and Blood; and with their hands and mouth they sin against the Lord [by unworthy reception of the sacrament] more than when they denied Him."
553
[28]"God cannot be mocked or outwitted; nor can He be deceived by any clever cunning. Indeed, he but sins the more if, thinking that God is like man, he believes that he can escape the punishment of his crime by not openly admitting his crime. . . [29] I beseech you, bretheren, let everyone who has sinned confess his sin while he is still in this world, while his confession is still admissible, while satisfaction and remisssion made through the priests are pleasing before the Lord.
The Unity of the Catholic Church [251/256 A.D.]
555-556
[4]"The Lord says to Peter: 'I say to you,' He says, 'that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever things you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven'" (Matt 16: 18-19).
[There are two editions of what follows, the second of which tones down the first in view of Cyprian's argument with the papacy. Papal primacy is clear in the first edition written about 251 A.D., but merely implicit in the second effort written about 255 or 256 A.D.]
First Edition:"And again He says to him [Peter] after His resurrection: 'Feed my sheep' (John 21:17). On him He builds the Church, and to him He gives the command to feed the sheep; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles, yet He founded a single chair, and He established by His own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was; but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all our shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the Apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that his is in the Church?"
Second Edition: "It is on the one man that He builds the Church; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles after His resurrection, when He says, 'As the Father has sent me, so also do I send you; receive the Holy Spirit: If you forgive any man his sins, they shall be forgiven; and if you retain any man's sins, they shall be retained" (John 20: 21-23) Nevertheless, in order that unity might be clearly shown, He established by His own authority a source for that unity, which takes its beginning from one man alone. Indeed, the other Apostles were that also which Peter was, being endowed with an equal portion of dignity and power; but the origin is grounded in unity, so that it may be made clear that there is but one Church of Christ. Indeed this oneness of the Church is indicated in the Song of Songs, when the Holy Spirit, speaking in the Lord's name, says, 'One is my dove, my perfect one, to her mother the only one, the chosen of her that bore her." If someone does not hold fast to this unity of the Church, can he imagine that he holds the faith? If he resists and withstands the Church, can he still be confident that he is in the Church, when the blessed Apostle Paul teaches this very thing and displays the sacred sign of unity when he says: 'One body and one spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God' (Eph 4:4-6). [5] Let no one mislead the brotherhood with a lie, let no one corrupt the faith by a faithless perversion of the truth. The episcopate is one, of which each bishop holds his part within the undivided structure. The Church also is one, however widely she has spread among the multitude through her fruitful increase. . . . The Church is bathed in the light of the Lord , and pours her rays over the whole world; but it is one light that is spread everywhrere , and the unity of her structure is undivided."
Letter of Cyprian to His clergy (250 A.D.)
569
[16(9)2] "Although for lesser sins it is required that sinners do penance for a just time, after which, according to the rule of discipline, they may come to confession and, through the imposition of hands by the bishop and clergy, may receive the right of communication [communion or the eucharist] , now, in an unpropitious time and while the persecution continues, when peace is not yet restored to the Church itself, they are being admitted to communication [the Eucharist], and the offering is made in their name; and not yet having made a confession of sin, not yet having had hands imposed upon them by the bishop and clergy, the Eucharist is given to them, in spite of what is written: 'Whoever shall eat the Bread or drink the Cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord' (1 Cor 11:27)
Letter of Cyprian to a Certain Cecil [A.D. ?]
581
[63,4] "Also in the priest Melchizedek we see the Sacrament of the Sacrifice of the Lord prefigured, in accord with that to which the Divine Scriptures testify, where it says: ‘And Melchizedek, the King of Salem, brought out bread and wine, for he was a priest of the Most High God; and he blessed Abraham' (Gen 14:18-19). That Melchizedek is in fact a type of Christ is declared in the psalms by the Holy Spirit, saying to the Son, as it were from the Father: ‘Before the daystar I begot You. You are a Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek' (Psalm 109[110]: 3-4). The order certainly is that which comes form his sacrifice and which comes down from it: because Melchizedek was a priest of the Most High God; because he offered bread; and because he blessed Abraham. And who is more a priest of the Most High God than our Lord Jesus Christ, who when He offered sacrifice to God the Father, offered the very same which Melchizedek had offered, namely bread and wine, which is in fact His Body and Blood!
Letter of Cyprian to Puppianus (who had judged him unworthy of being a bishop):
"What an insolent sense of swollen self-importance, the high and the mighty presumption of it all! Fancy anyone issuing a summons to bishops, the appointed leaders [praepositos et sacerdotes] to attend his court of inquiry. And unless we are cleared before your bench and are acquitted by your verdict, the brethren will have no overseer [episcopum] these last six years, the people no leader [praepositum], the flock no shepherd [pastorem], the Church no helmsman [gubernatorem], Christ no priest [antisitem], and God no bishop [sacerdotem]. . . . Otherwise it could be thought that the great number of the faithful who have been called away to their rest [died] during our time may have departed without the hope of peace and salvation; it could be considered that a whole new flock of converts may have received through us no grace of baptism and the Holy Spirit; it could be judged that the reconciliation and restoration to communion which we have conferred [ through the sacrament of Confession], after examination, upon so many of the penitent lapsed may be rendered null and void by the authority of your verdict." (Quoted in From Apostles to Bishops: The Development of the Episcopate in the Early Church by Francis A. Sullivan, S.J., p.203-204).
Caecilius Cyprianus Thascius, St. Cyprian of Carthage (200-253 A.D.) Cyprian was born in Carthage between 200 A.D. and 210 A.D. His parents were wealthy pagans and he did not convert until 246 AD., at which time he made a vow of chastity. St. Pontius says he was a dignified but cheerful man. He was a skilled administrator and a man of great energy and character. He became Bishop of Carthage in 249 A.D. After the martyrdom of Pope Fabian during the persecution of the Roman Emperor Decius in 250 A.D., he took refuge in the hills outside Carthage and wrote letters to his flock. He stood against heresies at the Council of Carthage in 251 A.D., but disagreed with Pope St. Stephen over the issue of rebaptism of converted heretics. Cyprian followed the African custom to consider invalid any baptism conferred by heretical groups. [The Catholic Church maintains, to the contrary, that if the baptism is made in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19) with the right intention and using water, that it is valid.] But the dispute was ended by a renewed Roman persecution, with Pope Stephen being martyred in 256 A.D. and Cyprian suffering the same fate in 258 A.D. The disputes of the second and third centuries show that the Church's magisterium is called upon to rely upon prayer and discernment in order to arrive at the solution to questions about the sacraments under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which Christ promised to the Church. Cyprian was the leading African bishop and the first to suffer a martyr's death.
The Lapsed ( 251 A.D.):
551 [ 15] "The Apostle likewise bears witness and says, "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot be a communicant at the table of the Lord and of the table of devils" (1 Cor 10:21) And again he threatens the stubborn and perverse and denounces them, saying: "Whoever eats the Bread or drinks the Cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord" (1 Cor 11:27). [16] But they spurn and despise all these warnings; and before their sins are expiated, before they have made a confession of their crime, before their conscience has been purged in the ceremony and at the hand of the priest, before the offense against an angry and threatening Lord has been appeased, they do violence to His Body and Blood; and with their hands and mouth they sin against the Lord [by unworthy reception of the sacrament] more than when they denied Him."
553
[28]"God cannot be mocked or outwitted; nor can He be deceived by any clever cunning. Indeed, he but sins the more if, thinking that God is like man, he believes that he can escape the punishment of his crime by not openly admitting his crime. . . [29] I beseech you, bretheren, let everyone who has sinned confess his sin while he is still in this world, while his confession is still admissible, while satisfaction and remisssion made through the priests are pleasing before the Lord.
The Unity of the Catholic Church [251/256 A.D.]
555-556
[4]"The Lord says to Peter: 'I say to you,' He says, 'that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatever things you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven'" (Matt 16: 18-19).
[There are two editions of what follows, the second of which tones down the first in view of Cyprian's argument with the papacy. Papal primacy is clear in the first edition written about 251 A.D., but merely implicit in the second effort written about 255 or 256 A.D.]
First Edition:"And again He says to him [Peter] after His resurrection: 'Feed my sheep' (John 21:17). On him He builds the Church, and to him He gives the command to feed the sheep; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles, yet He founded a single chair, and He established by His own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were that also which Peter was; but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all our shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the Apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that his is in the Church?"
Second Edition: "It is on the one man that He builds the Church; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles after His resurrection, when He says, 'As the Father has sent me, so also do I send you; receive the Holy Spirit: If you forgive any man his sins, they shall be forgiven; and if you retain any man's sins, they shall be retained" (John 20: 21-23) Nevertheless, in order that unity might be clearly shown, He established by His own authority a source for that unity, which takes its beginning from one man alone. Indeed, the other Apostles were that also which Peter was, being endowed with an equal portion of dignity and power; but the origin is grounded in unity, so that it may be made clear that there is but one Church of Christ. Indeed this oneness of the Church is indicated in the Song of Songs, when the Holy Spirit, speaking in the Lord's name, says, 'One is my dove, my perfect one, to her mother the only one, the chosen of her that bore her." If someone does not hold fast to this unity of the Church, can he imagine that he holds the faith? If he resists and withstands the Church, can he still be confident that he is in the Church, when the blessed Apostle Paul teaches this very thing and displays the sacred sign of unity when he says: 'One body and one spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God' (Eph 4:4-6). [5] Let no one mislead the brotherhood with a lie, let no one corrupt the faith by a faithless perversion of the truth. The episcopate is one, of which each bishop holds his part within the undivided structure. The Church also is one, however widely she has spread among the multitude through her fruitful increase. . . . The Church is bathed in the light of the Lord , and pours her rays over the whole world; but it is one light that is spread everywhrere , and the unity of her structure is undivided."
Letter of Cyprian to His clergy (250 A.D.)
569
[16(9)2] "Although for lesser sins it is required that sinners do penance for a just time, after which, according to the rule of discipline, they may come to confession and, through the imposition of hands by the bishop and clergy, may receive the right of communication [communion or the eucharist] , now, in an unpropitious time and while the persecution continues, when peace is not yet restored to the Church itself, they are being admitted to communication [the Eucharist], and the offering is made in their name; and not yet having made a confession of sin, not yet having had hands imposed upon them by the bishop and clergy, the Eucharist is given to them, in spite of what is written: 'Whoever shall eat the Bread or drink the Cup of the Lord unworthily, will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord' (1 Cor 11:27)
Letter of Cyprian to a Certain Cecil [A.D. ?]
581
[63,4] "Also in the priest Melchizedek we see the Sacrament of the Sacrifice of the Lord prefigured, in accord with that to which the Divine Scriptures testify, where it says: ‘And Melchizedek, the King of Salem, brought out bread and wine, for he was a priest of the Most High God; and he blessed Abraham' (Gen 14:18-19). That Melchizedek is in fact a type of Christ is declared in the psalms by the Holy Spirit, saying to the Son, as it were from the Father: ‘Before the daystar I begot You. You are a Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek' (Psalm 109[110]: 3-4). The order certainly is that which comes form his sacrifice and which comes down from it: because Melchizedek was a priest of the Most High God; because he offered bread; and because he blessed Abraham. And who is more a priest of the Most High God than our Lord Jesus Christ, who when He offered sacrifice to God the Father, offered the very same which Melchizedek had offered, namely bread and wine, which is in fact His Body and Blood!
Letter of Cyprian to Puppianus (who had judged him unworthy of being a bishop):
"What an insolent sense of swollen self-importance, the high and the mighty presumption of it all! Fancy anyone issuing a summons to bishops, the appointed leaders [praepositos et sacerdotes] to attend his court of inquiry. And unless we are cleared before your bench and are acquitted by your verdict, the brethren will have no overseer [episcopum] these last six years, the people no leader [praepositum], the flock no shepherd [pastorem], the Church no helmsman [gubernatorem], Christ no priest [antisitem], and God no bishop [sacerdotem]. . . . Otherwise it could be thought that the great number of the faithful who have been called away to their rest [died] during our time may have departed without the hope of peace and salvation; it could be considered that a whole new flock of converts may have received through us no grace of baptism and the Holy Spirit; it could be judged that the reconciliation and restoration to communion which we have conferred [ through the sacrament of Confession], after examination, upon so many of the penitent lapsed may be rendered null and void by the authority of your verdict." (Quoted in From Apostles to Bishops: The Development of the Episcopate in the Early Church by Francis A. Sullivan, S.J., p.203-204).