Martyrdom of Cyprian of Carthage, 258

Martyrdom of Cyprian of Carthage

During Valerian’s persecution the proconsul Galerius Maximus condemned Cyprian, bishop of Carthage and the leading Latin churchman of his day, for refusing to sacrifice; he was beheaded outside the city before a great crowd — by his biographer’s account, the first bishop in Africa to die a martyr.

Date

14 September 258exact dateDate in the Julian calendar

Place

Carthagetoday: Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia · Africa

Participants

Cyprian of Carthage, Valerian, Roman Empire

Threads

Africa (1st–5th c.)

Also known as

Passion of Saint Cyprian; Acta proconsularia Cypriani; Священномученик Киприан; Тасций Цецилий Киприан

Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, a wealthy and educated Carthaginian, was baptised around 246 and about two years later chosen bishop. When Decius ordered all the inhabitants of the empire to sacrifice to the gods in 250, Cyprian went into hiding and led his church by letter; afterwards he took a middle course on the readmission of the lapsed — those who had sacrificed or bought certificates saying they had — and in On the Unity of the Catholic Church he insisted that “no one can have God for his Father who does not have the Church for his mother”. He also clashed with Bishop Stephen of Rome over whether those baptised by heretics had to be baptised again.

In 257 Valerian ordered the clergy to honour the Roman gods, and the proconsul Aspasius Paternus exiled Cyprian to Curubis on the coast. In 258 a second edict ordered the execution of Christian leaders. Brought before the new proconsul, Galerius Maximus, Cyprian again refused to sacrifice. The official record of the trial, the Acta proconsularia, preserves the sentence — “Thascius Cyprianus is to be executed with the sword” — and the bishop’s answer: “Thanks be to God.” He was beheaded the same day, 14 September 258, on an open field outside the city. His deacon Pontius, who had shared his exile, wrote his Life, and Cyprian’s letters and treatises made him the foremost Latin Christian writer before Jerome and Augustine.

Connections

Related events

Scillitan Martyrs17 July 180 · Africaby Tertullian’s account, the first governor to put Christians of Africa to death was the proconsul who condemned the Scillitan Martyrs at Carthage in 180

Decian persecutionJanuary 250 – 251 · Western and Central EuropeCyprian fled the Decian persecution in 250 and argued over the lapsed

Plague of Cyprianc. 249 – between 262 and 270 · AfricaCyprian led the church of Carthage through the epidemic that bears his name

Battle of Edessa and the capture of Valerian260 · Middle East and Egypttwo years later the persecuting emperor Valerian was captured by Shapur I — a fate Christian writers read as divine punishment

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Martyrdom of Cyprian of Carthage

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