Thascius Caecilianus Cyprianus

Thascius Caecilianus Cyprianus (died 258) is known as St. Cyprian. As bishop of Carthage, he was the most prominent leader of Western, or Latin, Christianity in his time. He contributed to the development of thought on the nature and unity of the Church.

Born to a high-ranking pagan family in Roman Africa probably during 200-210, Cyprian was converted to Christianity about 246. He was bishop of Carthage no more than 3 years later. Within months of his becoming bishop, the Roman imperial government inaugurated its first empirewide persecution of the Church. Cyprian retreated to an unknown spot in the country and directed Church affairs by letter and messenger.

During his exile and in the years following his return in 251, Cyprian faced a serious pastoral problem. Under torture and threat of death many Christians had either performed the required pagan sacrifices or so far complied with the government as to acquire papers certifying that they had performed them. These "lapsed" Christians penitently wished, however, to be readmitted to communion in the Church. Breaking with the traditional rigorism of the Church, Cyprian gradually moved to the position that all lapsed Christians could be fully readmitted after clear evidence of penitence. He differed crucially from dissident elements in Carthage and Rome, however, in his insistence that only the duly appointed bishop had authority to adjudicate the matter.

In arriving at his solution to this problem, Cyprian developed his constitutional theory of the Church. He believed that the "episcopate" was a single, divinely appointed, governing office shared by the many bishops, each of whom possessed the full authority of the office in his own locale. Christ's Apostles were the first bishops, and their plenary authority had continued in the duly elected and consecrated bishops who were their successors. To act apart from the bishop was to place oneself outside the Church and to lose the hope of salvation. Cyprian expressed these concepts in the treatise De unitate ecclesiae.

The last 3 years of Cyprian's life were marked by controversy with Stephen, the bishop of Rome. Disagreements among Christians over the problem of the lapsed had resulted in the emergence of dissident sects in Rome and Carthage. The question then arose whether persons baptized in a sect should be "rebaptized" if and when they decided to enter the Catholic Church. Cyprian, consistent with his principles, taught that baptism outside the Catholic Church was no Christian baptism at all; but Stephen, whose position ultimately prevailed in the Western Church, defended the traditional Roman policy of recognizing sectarian baptism and requiring that persons coming to Catholicism from the sects receive only the laying on of the bishop's hand.

When persecution of the Church was renewed, Cyprian went calmly and with dignity to his death as a martyr on Sept. 14, 258.

Further Reading

The classic study of St. Cyprian is Edward White Benson, Cyprian (1897), which is still of great value as a comprehensive account of the man's life and times. See also G. S. Walker, The Churchmanship of St. Cyprian (1969).

Additional Sources

Cyprian, Saint, Bishop of Carthage, The letters of St. Cyprian of Carthage, New York, N.Y.: Newman Press, 1984.

Born to new life, New Rochelle, N.Y.: New City Press, 1992. □

Saint Cyprian , 200?–258, Father of the Church, bishop of Carthage (c.248), and perhaps a disciple of Tertullian. Converted in his middle age, he rose quickly to become the most powerful bishop in Africa. His vigorous championing of Pope St. Cornelius against the attacks of Novatian averted a dangerous schism. Many Christians had apostasized under the persecution of the Roman emperor Decius. Novatian and his sect maintained these could not be received back into the church. Cyprian concurred with Pope Cornelius (and Calixtus I before him), calling for strictness but ultimate forgiveness for the truly contrite. The schism occasioned his important treatise, De unitate catholicae ecclesiae, in which he argues for the authority of the bishop as ground for the church's unity. He recognized the preeminence of the Church of Rome, but fell into sharp dispute with Pope Stephen I on the validity of baptism conferred by heretics or schismatics; Cyprian believed persons so baptized had to be rebaptized upon entering the church. The question was settled in favor of the Roman teaching, after Cyprian's martyrdom in the persecution of Valerian. He is mentioned in the canon of the Mass. Feast: Sept. 16.

Bibliography: See De unitate (tr. M. Bévenot, 1937) and The Letters of Cyprian of Carthage (tr. G. W. Clarke, 1984); G. S. Walker, The Churchmanship of Saint Cyprian (1969).

Cyprian, St (d. 258), Bp. of Carthage, N. Africa. Thascius Caecilianus Cyprianus was a pagan rhetorician converted to Christianity c.246. Within two years he was elected Bp. of Carthage. When the Decian persecution began (249) he was forced to flee; he returned in 251. He was opposed to the easy reconciliation of Christians who had lapsed from their faith or become libellatici; two councils (251 and 252) decided that they should be reconciled only after suitable penance and delay. Meanwhile the Novatian schism gave rise to the controversy over rebaptism. Cyprian demanded the rebaptism of schismatics on the ground that no one outside the Church could administer her Sacraments. The Church at Rome held that both schismatics and heretics could validly administer Baptism. The ensuing correspondence between Cyprian and Pope Stephen I was significant for later controversy on Papal claims. Persecution cut short the dispute.

Some of Cyprian's writings are of theological importance, especially those dealing with the Church, the ministry, and the Sacraments. His De Catholicae Ecclesiae Unitate, on the nature of true unity in the Church in its relation to the episcopate, is held in special esteem. He is commemorated in the BCP calendar on 26 Sept. (through confusion with another Cyprian); in CW on 15 Sept., and in the RC Church on 16 Sept.

Cyprian, St (d. 258). Bishop of Carthage and martyr. He was elected bishop only two years after his conversion to Christianity c.246. During the persecution of Decius (249–51) he ruled his church from exile. After his return he pursued the policy of reconciling the ‘lapsed’ (i.e. those who had apostatized during the persecution), not easily, but after appropriate penance and delay. The subsequent schism of Novatian gave rise to the question whether schismatics returning to the Church needed rebaptism. Cyprian's writings in Latin include a number of short theological works, among them On the Unity of the Catholic Church (251), and letters. Feast days variously 16 and 26 Sept., 2 Oct.

Cyprian, St (c.300), a converted magician of Antioch. According to a probably worthless legend, he was converted while using his magic arts to ensnare a Christian virgin. He became a bishop and was beheaded in the Diocletianic persecution. Feast day in the E., 2 Oct.; in the W., 26 Sept., dropped in the RC Church in 1969.

Cyprian, St (d. 258), Carthaginian bishop and martyr. The author of a work on the nature of true unity in the Church in its relation to the episcopate, he was martyred in the reign of the Roman emperor Valerian. His feast day is 16 September.