SAINT CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE

The first historically known bishop of Carthage around 230 was Agrippinus. The last bishop of Carthage, around 1076, was named Cyriacus. The birthplace of Tertullian and Augustine, the Church of Carthage has completely disappeared into sands of history. The martyr and bishop Cyprian remains forever the hero of faith if this great tradition.

1 The celebration in honor of Saint Cyprian of Carthage (200–258) in the Orthodox Church falls on the last day of summer according to the Julian calendar, on the eve of the ecclesiastical New Year, the “Year of Grace” as it is called in the Orthodox liturgy. Such a providential coincidence facilitates the remembering of the memory day of this great Father of the Church, whose theological legacy is extremely important. On September 14, 258, he was sentenced to death in Carthage. Saint Cyprian was a bishop; he suffered for his faith in Christ during the cruel persecution of the Roman emperor Valerian (253-260). In the terminology of the Roman Empire, Africa referred to the region of the present-day Maghreb, of which Carthage was the capital. In this sense, Saint Cyprian is the greatest African martyr of all time.

2 The original sentence pronounced against Cyprian by the pagan Roman court has been preserved. “Galerius Maximus, proconsul, addressing the council, said with a heavy heart: You have long lived in sacrilegious thoughts, gathered many impious people in conspiracy with you, and made yourself an enemy of the Roman gods and the sacred religion. Neither the pious and most holy governors Valerian, nor Augustus Gallienus, nor the most noble Caesar Galerius, have been able to bring you back to the number of the adherents of their religious ceremonies. Therefore, since you are recognized as the guilty party and the standard-bearer of the most vile crimes, you will become a warning to those whom you have led into your iniquity. May your blood serve to restore discipline.” Having said this, he read the sentence recorded: “Fascius Cyprian shall be put to death by the sword.” Bishop Cyprian said, “Glory to God!” Having said this, Cyprian paid the executioner’s fee, knelt down, and was executed. The Christians gathered up the clothes soaked with his blood to preserve them as great life-giving relics. Cyprian was always admired by the greatest theologian of the African Church, St. Augustine.

3 Saint Cyprian is one of the very few ancient Western Orthodox saints whose legacy is undoubtedly venerated in the Orthodox Church. He is credited with the great axiom of Christian antiquity: “Outside the Church, there is no salvation.” In the 20th century, in his polemic against the ecumenical movement, this motto of Cyprian was taken up by the Orthodox theologian Hilarion Troitsky (1886-1929), who ended his life as a bishop and new martyr of the Russian Church. But Cyprian was not fighting “ecumenism” at all. His maxim about the Church does not apply here. In the Church of his time, the desire for such a “divergent unity” was simply absent. The danger lay in mutual divisions

4 In the middle of the third century, Cyprian was confronted with the phenomenon of schism, which was dangerous for the unity of the Church at a time when paganism was still deeply rooted. St. Cyprian’s confession of faith, made before the proconsul who was judging him, has been preserved: “I am a Christian and a bishop. I know no other gods than the one true God, who created heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. We Christians serve this God, we pray to him day and night, for ourselves and for all men, including for the good of rulers.”

5 It is a very short creed with very intense content. It can serve as an example of reliable orthodox behavior in these uncertain times: be faithful to one’s calling in faith and in ministry or profession; reject all idolatry, both material and spiritual; believe in, trust, and followthe one God; and, finally, pray to the heavenly Father always, day and night, first for oneself, then for all people; thus, according to the commandment, “love God and your neighbor” (cf. Mt 22:39).

6 Information about Saint Cyprian has come down to us thanks to the Life written by his contemporary, the Carthaginian deacon Pontius; in the preserved proconsular acts of Cyprian’s trial; and also, very importantly, in his numerous works. St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) delivered a sermon on St. Cyprian of Carthage. In this work, he mistakenly identified the Carthaginian saint with another Cyprian, a former magician who converted to the faith of Christ and suffered for his confession together with a virgin dedicated to Christ named Justine, who converted him to Christianity. Unfortunately, and by a strange and dangerous coincidence, the name “Justine” became a code name for libertine works of the era of European atheism in the Modern Age. In modern Orthodox popular piety, Saint Cyprian and Saint Justine of Antioch are highly venerated. They intercede with God for those who have suffered from occult practices and magic.

7 There was nothing in common between Cyprian of Carthage and Cyprian of Antioch. But thanks to the fact that, through Gregory the Theologian, Cyprian of Antioch “lent” his biography before his conversion to Saint Cyprian of Carthage, the latter also became a saint venerated in Orthodoxy. Similarly, thanks to this humble and mysterious “brotherly love of the saints” in their heavenly and earthly communion, the Church Father, martyr, and theologian of Carthage saved Saints Cyprian and Justine from oblivion, and today they are highly venerated by Orthodox Christians and popular piety. This is an astonishing example of mutual “biographical hospitality” among the ancient saints!