Letters 76.1–81.1

Cyprian to Nemesianus, Felix, Lucius, another Felix, Litteus, Polianus, Victor, Iader, and Dativus, his fellow bishops, and also to the fellow presbyters and deacons and the other brothers in the mines, martyrs of God the Father almighty and of Jesus Christ our Lord and God our preserver, eternal greeting. Your glory indeed demanded, most blessed and beloved brothers, that I myself should come to see and embrace you, were it not that I too, banished for confessing the name, am held in by the limits of a prescribed place. But in the way I can, I present myself to you; and even if it is not granted me to come in body and on foot, I come in love and in spirit, expressing in a letter my heart, with which I exult for joy in your virtues and praises, counting myself your partner, if not in bodily suffering, then in the fellowship of love. Could I keep silent and stifle my voice when I learn so many glorious things about my dearest ones, with which divine favor has honored you: that part of you has already gone ahead by the consummation of martyrdom, to receive from the Lord the crown of their merits, and part still lingers in the confines of prisons or in the mines and in chains, by the very delays of their punishments giving greater proofs for strengthening and arming the brothers, and advancing, through the slowness of their torments, to fuller titles of merit, to have as many rewards in the heavenly prizes as you now count days in punishments? That these things have befallen you, bravest and most blessed brothers, in keeping with the merit of your religion and faith, I do not wonder, that the Lord has thus raised you to the lofty summit of glory by the honor of his glorification, you who have always flourished in his church in the steady keeping of the faith, firmly preserving the Lord's commands: innocence in simplicity, concord in love, modesty in humility, diligence in administration, vigilance in helping the suffering, mercy in cherishing the poor, constancy in defending the truth, strictness in the severity of discipline. And so that nothing might be lacking in you as an example of good deeds, now also by confessing with the voice and suffering in the body you rouse the minds of the brothers to divine martyrdom, showing yourselves leaders in virtue; so that, as the flock follows its shepherds and imitates what it sees done by its leaders, it may be crowned by the Lord with equal merits of obedience.

That you began the devout first stages of your confession by first being severely beaten with clubs and afflicted by punishments of this kind is not something for us to abhor. For a Christian body does not shudder at clubs, since all its hope is in wood. The servant of Christ has recognized the sacrament of his salvation: redeemed by wood for eternal life, he is advanced by wood to the crown. And what wonder if you, vessels of gold and silver, have been sent to the mine, that is, the home of gold and silver? Except that now the nature of mines is reversed, and places that used to give gold and silver have begun to receive them. They have also put fetters on your feet and bound your blessed limbs, the temples of God, with shameful chains, as if the spirit too were bound with the body, or your gold were stained by contact with iron. To people dedicated to God and bearing witness to their faith with devout courage, these are ornaments, not chains; they do not bind Christians' feet for disgrace but glorify them for the crown. O feet blessedly bound, which are loosed not by the smith but by the Lord! O feet blessedly bound, which are directed on the saving road to paradise! O feet bound for the present in the world, that they may be always free with God! O feet hesitant for a while with fetters and crossbars, but soon to run to Christ on a glorious road! However much envious cruelty or malignant … may hold you here in its bonds and chains, you will soon come from the earth and these punishments to the kingdom of heaven. In the mines the body is not comforted with bed and cushions, but it is comforted with the refreshment and solace of Christ. Your inward parts, weary with labor, lie on the ground; but it is no punishment to lie down with Christ. Your limbs are filthy without baths, disfigured with neglect and dirt; but what is soiled outwardly in the flesh is washed spiritually within. There the bread is scanty; but man does not live by bread alone but by the word of God. Clothing is lacking to the freezing; but one who has put on Christ is abundantly clothed and adorned. The hair of your half-shorn heads bristles; but since Christ is the head of the man, whatever that head is like, it must be becoming, since it is distinguished for the Lord's name. All this disfigurement, hateful and loathsome to the gentiles, with what splendor will it be repaid! This worldly and brief punishment, for what a reward of bright and eternal honor will it be exchanged, when, according to the blessed apostle's word, the Lord will transform the body of our lowliness, conformed to the body of his glory.

Nor, most beloved brothers, can any loss of religion or faith be felt in the fact that the priests of God there are not now given the opportunity to offer and celebrate the divine sacrifices. On the contrary, you celebrate and offer to God a sacrifice both precious and glorious, which will greatly profit you for the repayment of heavenly rewards, since divine Scripture speaks and says: “A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit; a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise.” This sacrifice you offer to God; this sacrifice you celebrate without ceasing day and night, made offerings to God and presenting yourselves as holy and spotless victims, as the apostle exhorts and says: “I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed in the renewal of your mind, to prove what is the will of God, good and pleasing and perfect.”

For this is what especially pleases God; this is where our works advance with greater merits to win the will of God; this is the only thing by which the services of our faith and devotion repay the Lord for his great and saving benefits, as the Holy Spirit proclaims and testifies in the Psalms: “What shall I render,” he says, “to the Lord for all that he has rendered to me? I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his righteous ones.” Who would not gladly and readily take the cup of salvation? Who would not seek, rejoicing and glad, that in which he too may repay something to his Lord? Who would not bravely and steadfastly accept a death precious in the sight of God, to please his eyes who, looking down from above on us in the contest for his name, approves the willing, helps the fighters, crowns the victors, rewarding in us, with the repayment of fatherly goodness and kindness, whatever he himself has supplied, and honoring what he himself has perfected?

For that it is his doing that we conquer, and that, the adversary subdued, we reach the palm of the greatest contest, the Lord declares and teaches in his gospel, saying: “But when they hand you over, do not think how or what you will speak. For what you are to speak will be given you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” And again: “Settle it in your hearts not to prepare beforehand to make your defense. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which your adversaries will not be able to resist.” In this lies both the great confidence of believers and the gravest guilt of the faithless: not to believe him who promises that he will give his help to those who confess, nor again to fear the same one who threatens eternal punishment to those who deny.

All these things you have instilled in our brothers, bravest and most faithful soldiers of Christ, fulfilling in deeds what you taught before in words, and you will be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, as the Lord promises and says: “Whoever does and so teaches will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Indeed, following your example, a large part of the people has confessed together with you and been crowned together with you, joined to you by the bond of the strongest love and not separated from their leaders by prison or mines. Nor are virgins lacking from their number, to whose sixtyfold fruit a hundredfold has been added, and whom a double glory has carried to the heavenly crown. In boys too a courage greater than their age has surpassed their years with the praise of confession, so that every sex and age adorns the blessed flock of your martyrdom.

What vigor of a victorious conscience is now yours, most beloved brothers, what loftiness of soul, what exultation of mind, what triumph in the heart, that each of you stands awaiting the reward God has promised, is secure about the day of judgment, walks in the mine with a captive body but a reigning heart, knows that Christ is present with him, rejoicing in the endurance of his servants as they advance in his footsteps and ways to the eternal kingdom! You await each day with joy the saving day of your departure, and, about to withdraw from the world at any moment, you hasten to the rewards and divine dwellings of the martyrs, to see after this world's darkness the most radiant light and to receive a glory greater than all your sufferings and struggles, as the apostle testifies and says: “The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, which will be revealed in us.” Since your word is now more effective in prayers, and prayer in affliction more readily obtains what it asks, ask and entreat more earnestly that divine favor may complete the confession of all of us; that God may set us too free, with you, whole and glorious, from this darkness and these snares of the world; so that we who have stood together here, joined in the bond of love and peace, against the wrongs of heretics and the pressures of the gentiles, may rejoice together in the heavenly kingdom. I pray, most blessed and bravest brothers, that you may be well in the Lord and always and everywhere remember us. Farewell.

To their brother Cyprian, Nemesianus, Dativus, Felix, and Victor, eternal greeting in the Lord. You have always spoken in your letters with great thoughts suited to the circumstances of the time, most beloved Cyprian; by reading them constantly the wayward are corrected and people of good faith are strengthened. For since you do not cease to lay bare hidden mysteries in your treatises, you thus make us grow in faith and people from the world come to belief. For whatever good things you have set out in your many books, you have unknowingly portrayed yourself to us. For you are greater than all in treatise, more eloquent in speech, wiser in counsel, simpler in wisdom, more generous in works, holier in abstinence, humbler in obedience, and more innocent in good action. You know yourself, dearest one, that it is our desired wish to see you, our teacher and lover, attain the crown of a great confession.

For like a good and true teacher you were the first to declare in the proceedings before the proconsul what we your disciples, following you, ought to say before the governor; and sounding the trumpet you roused God's soldiers, equipped with heavenly arms, to the battle of the contest; and in the front line you slew the devil with the spiritual sword; and you drew up the ranks of the brothers on this side and that with your words, so that snares were set for the enemy on every side and the corpses and severed sinews of the public enemy himself were trampled. Believe us, dearest one, your innocent soul is not less than the hundredfold reward, since it neither feared the world's first attacks nor refused to go into exile nor hesitated to leave the city nor shrank from staying in a desert place; and since it gave many an example of confession, it has itself led the way in martyrdom. For how many has it roused by its example to accomplish martyrdom! And it has begun not only to be joined to the martyrs already departing from the world, but has also bound itself in heavenly friendship with those to come.

So, dearest Cyprian, those condemned with us give you the greatest thanks before God, because by your letter you have refreshed our laboring hearts, healed limbs wounded by clubs, loosed feet bound with fetters, evened out the hair of half-shorn heads, lit up the darkness of the prison, leveled the mountains of the mine into plains, even set fragrant flowers to our nostrils and dispelled the foul smell of smoke. And your ministry, and that of our most beloved Quirinus, which you sent to be distributed through Herennianus the subdeacon and Lucanus, Maximus, and Amantius the acolytes, has done its work and provided whatever was lacking for the needs of our bodies. Let us then be helpers of one another in our prayers, and let us ask, as you commanded, that we may have God and Christ and the angels as supporters in all our actions. We pray, lord brother, that you may always be well and remember us. Greet all who are with you. All of ours who are with us love you and greet you and long to see you.

To Cyprian, his brother and colleague, Lucius and all the brothers who are with him, greeting in God. While we were exulting and rejoicing in God that he had both armed us for the contest and by his favor made us victors in the battle, your letter arrived, dearest brother, which you sent us through Herennianus the subdeacon and Lucanus, Maximus, and Amantius the acolytes. Reading it, we received relief in our chains, comfort in our affliction, and help in our need; we were roused and more strongly encouraged, even if there should be any further punishments. For before our suffering we were called by you to glory, you who were the first to give us the lead to the confession of Christ's name. We, following the footsteps of your confession, hope for equal grace with you. For he who is first in the race is first also to the prize; and you, who took it first, have shared with us from what you have received, showing, namely, the undivided love with which you have always loved us: so that for those who had one spirit in the bond of peace there might be both the grace of your prayers and one crown of confession.

To the crown of confession, dearest brother, has been added for you the repayment of your works, an abundant measure which you will receive from the Lord on the day of reward; you who have also made yourself present to us by your letter, showing that pure and blessed heart of yours which we have always known, and, according to its breadth, you spoke praises to God with us, not as much as we deserve to hear, but as much as you are able to say. For by your words you have adorned what was less furnished in us and strengthened us to bear these very sufferings that we undergo, secure of the heavenly reward, of the crown of martyrdom, and of the kingdom of God, according to the prophecy you pledged in your letter, full of the Holy Spirit. All this will happen, most beloved, if you keep us in mind in your prayers, which I trust you do, as we surely do too.

So, most longed-for brother, we accept what you sent from Quirinus and from yourself as a sacrifice of every pure work. As Noah too offered to God, and God was delighted with the pleasing odor and regarded his sacrifice, so he also regards yours and is delighted to repay you the reward of so good a work. I ask that you have the letter we wrote to Quirinus sent on. I pray, dearest and most longed-for brother, that you may always be well and remember us. Greet all who are with you. Farewell.

To Cyprian, dearest and most beloved, Felix, Iader, and Polianus, together with the presbyters and all who are staying with us at the mine of Sigus, eternal greeting in God. We return your greeting, dearest brother, through Herennianus the subdeacon and Lucanus and Maximus, our brothers, who are strong and safe, helped by your prayers. From them we received a sum by way of an offering, together with the letter you sent, in which you deigned to comfort us with heavenly words as sons. And we have given and give thanks to God the Father almighty through his Christ that we have been so comforted and strengthened by your address, asking the kindness of your heart that you deign to keep us in mind in your constant prayers, so that the Lord may complete your confession and ours, which he has deigned to bestow on us. Greet all who are staying with you. We pray, dearest brother, that you may be well in the Lord. Iader signed. Polianus read. I greet my lord Eutychianus.

Cyprian to his brother Successus, greeting. The reason I did not write to you at once, dearest brother, was that all the clergy, placed under the stroke of the contest, could not leave here at all, all being ready, in the devotion of their souls, for divine and heavenly glory. Know that those have come whom I had sent to the city for this purpose, to bring us the ascertained truth of whatever had been decreed about us. For many various and uncertain things are bandied about in rumors. But the truth of the matter is this: that Valerian has sent a rescript to the senate that bishops and presbyters and deacons be punished forthwith; that senators and men of rank and Roman knights lose their dignity and also be deprived of their property, and if, when their means have been taken away, they persevere as Christians, be also punished with death; that matrons have their property taken and be banished into exile; and that members of Caesar's household, whoever had confessed before or confess now, have their property confiscated and be sent in chains, registered, to Caesar's estates. The emperor Valerian also appended to his speech a copy of the letter he has written about us to the governors of the provinces; we expect this letter to arrive any day, standing in the firmness of faith ready to endure suffering, and awaiting from the Lord's help and indulgence the crown of eternal life. Know that Xystus was put to death in the cemetery on the eighth day before the Ides of August, and with him four deacons. And the prefects in the city are pressing this persecution daily, so that any who are brought before them are punished and their property claimed for the treasury.

I ask that through you these things be made known to our other colleagues too, so that everywhere the brotherhood may be strengthened by their exhortation and prepared for the spiritual contest; so that each of us may think not so much of death as of immortality, and, dedicated to the Lord with full faith and all courage, may rejoice rather than fear in this confession, in which they know that the soldiers of God and Christ are not slain but crowned. I pray, dearest brother, that you may always be well in the Lord.

Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons and the whole people, greeting. When it was reported to us, dearest brothers, that officers had been sent to bring me to Utica, and I had been persuaded by the counsel of my dearest ones to withdraw from our gardens for a while, I consented, for a just reason intervening: that it is fitting for a bishop to confess the Lord in the city in which he presides over the Lord's church, and to glorify the whole people by the confession of their leader in their presence. For whatever a confessor bishop says at the very moment of confession, he says, by God's inspiration, with the mouth of all. Moreover, the honor of our so glorious church would be maimed if I, a bishop placed over another church, received sentence for my confession at Utica and went from there to the Lord as a martyr, since I pray with continual prayers, and long with every wish, and ought, to confess among you both for myself and for you, and to suffer there and go from there to the Lord. So we are waiting here in a hidden retreat for the arrival of the proconsul returning to Carthage, to hear from him what the emperors have ordered concerning Christian laymen and bishops, and to say what the Lord wills to be said at that hour. But you, dearest brothers, in accordance with the discipline you have always received from me out of the Lord's commands, and as you have very often learned from my teaching, keep quiet and calm, and let none of you stir up any disturbance for the brothers or offer himself of his own accord to the gentiles. For one who is arrested and handed over ought to speak, since God placed in us speaks in that hour, who willed us rather to confess than to profess. What else it is fitting for us to observe before the proconsul passes sentence on me for confessing the name of God, we will arrange in person, the Lord instructing us. May the Lord Jesus make you remain safe in his church, dearest brothers, and deign to preserve you.