The Latin Martyrdom of Cyprian (bishop and martyr of Carthage, S00411), based on the minutes of his trial in Carthage (central North Africa) in 257-8, recounts the dialogue between Cyprian and his judge, and the martyr's death and burial. Written probably in Carthage, soon after 258.
E05168
Literary - Hagiographical - Accounts of martyrdom
The Martyrdom of Cyprian
[1. In August 257 Bishop Cyprian was brought before the proconsul Paternus in Carthage. Cyprian declined to acknowledge the Roman ceremonies and to denounce the presbyters of the city. He added that the Christian teaching prohibited anyone from giving themselves up voluntarily.]
2. Cyprian returned to Carthage from Curubis, where he had been sent into exile. On the Ides of September [13 September 258] two officers came and arrested him. The proconsul Galerius Maximus ordered Cyprian to be brought before him the next day. The faithful accompanied Cyprian to the estate outside the city, where he was being held.
3. On the eighteenth day before the Kalends of October [14 September] Cyprian was brought before the proconsul. The proconsul ordered Cyprian to perform the pagan rites. Cyprian refused, and rejected the proposition to reconsider. The proconsul said that Cyprian set himself up as an enemy to the sacred laws of the Roman gods, and that he was the instigator of such crimes. Therefore, his death was going to serve as an example to those he had gathered around him. Afterwards the proconsul sentenced Cyprian to death. Cyprian responded: “Thanks be to God [Deo gratias].”
[4. Post eius sententiam populus fratrum dicebat: “Et nos cum eo decollemur.” Propter hoc tumultus fratrum exortus est, et multa turba eum prosecuta est. Et ita idem Cyprianus in agrum Sexti perductus est; et ibi se lacernobyrrum expoliauit et, ubi genua poneret, in terra strauit; et ita se dalmaticam expoliauit et diaconibus tradidit, et in linea stetit; et coepit spiculatorem sustinere. Et cum uenisset spiculator, iussit suis et eidem spiculatori aureos uiginti quinque darent. Linteamina uero et manualia a fratribus ante eum mittebantur; et ita idem Cyprianus manu sua oculos sibi texit; qui cum lacinias manuales ligare sibi non posset, Iulianus presbyter et Iulianus subdiaconus ei ligauerunt. Et ita Cyprianus episcopus passus est, eiusque corpus propter gentilium curiositatem in proximo positum est. Per noctem autem corpus eius inde sublatum est ad cereos et scolaces in areas Macrobi Candidati procuratoris, quae sunt in uia Mappaliensi iuxta piscinas, cum uoto et triumpho magno. Post paucos autem dies Galerius Maximus proconsul decessit.
‘After his condemnation, the people of the brothers kept saying: “Let us too be beheaded with him.” On account of this, a loud cry rose up from the brothers and a great crowd accompanied him. And so the same Cyprian was led in a field on the estate of Sextus. And there he took off his cloak and set it on the ground, where he could kneel on it. And so he took off his tunic and handed it to the deacons and stood in his linen garment. And he began to await the executioner. And when the executioner had come, he bid his people to give that same executioner twenty-five gold coins. Linens and handkerchiefs were thrown at him by the brothers. And so the same Cyprian covered his eyes with his own hand, but since he could not fasten the ends of the handkerchief himself, the presbyter Julian and the subdeacon Julian tied them for him. And so the bishop Cyprian suffered his passion and his body was placed nearby because of the curiosity of the pagans. At night, however, his body was removed from there, and with candles and torches it was conducted among prayers and in a great triumph to the grounds of the procurator Macrobius Candidatus, which are on the Mappalian way near the pools. A few days later the proconsul Galerius Maximus died.]
The chapters in brackets are omitted in the shorter version.
Text: Bastiaensen 1987: 206-230
Translation: Rebillard 2017: 239-251
Summary: Stanisław Adamiak
Saint’s feast
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - unspecified
MiraclesPunishing miracle
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Officials
Source
There are two sources describing the martyrdom of the famous bishop of Carthage during the persecutions of Valerian: The Life of Cyprian, Vita Cypriani (BHL 2041; E00916), written possibly by his deacon Pontius and the much better known Martyrdom of Cyprian, Passio Cypriani, discussed here. The relation between these two texts cannot be definitely established, but it is usually accepted that the Life draws from the Martyrdom.There are three versions of the Martyrdom:
1. The long account (BHL 2037a)
2. The short version (BHL 2039)
3. The short version (BHL 2039d), published by Maier and Tilley as the “Donatist Passion of Cyprian”. This identification of the text as Donatist was made mainly because of the expression “Deo laudes” (praise to God), put into the mouth of Cyprian, and because this version was preserved in the unique manuscript with other supposedly Donatist writings. As Dearn (2016:73-77) convincingly argues, these reasons are not sufficient (for example “Deo laudes” cannot be considered as a certain proof of Donatism) and therefore the identification of the text as a Donatised version is very uncertain.
The relation between the long and short version is unclear, but it is usually assumed that the shorter version is the older one (Rebillard 2017: 198). Four textual nuclei seem to present themselves in the long version:
1. The court protocol of 257
2. The narrative of the second arrest of Cyprian
3. The court protocol of 258
4. The account of the execution and the burial of Cyprian.
Therefore, at least some parts of the text are contemporary to the events they describe, and the rest was probably written shortly afterwards. A definitive terminus ante quem of the whole text is provided by Augustine, who refers to it in several sermons.
The Martyrdom is often presented as Acta Proconsularia Cypriani, but this title does not appear in any manuscript, and the court minutes are only a part of the text.
Discussion
No miraculous elements appear in the text. Opposition to voluntary martyrdom is stressed in the first chapter. There is not a total opposition to the Roman empire, the sacrifice to gods is shown as the only contested issue. The death of the proconsul is left without any comment, so it remains unsure whether it was put in just as a matter of fact, or with the intention of showing the vindication of the martyr by God.Bastiaensen (1987, 489) considers the throwing of linens and handkerchiefs at Cyprian as early evidence of people seeking relics (by collecting the martyr’s blood), but Rebillard (2017, 245) considers these rather to be offered to Cyprian so that he could cover his eyes.
Bibliography
Editions and translations with commentaries:Reitzenstein, R., “Bemerkungen zur Märtyrerliteratur. II. Nachträge zu den Akten Cyprians,” Nachrichten von der köninlichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Philologisch-historische Klasse (1919), 177-219.
Maier, J.L., Le dossier du donatisme. I. Des origines à la mort de Constance II (303-361) (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Altchristlichen Literatur 134; Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1987), 122-126.
Bastiaensen, A.A.R. et alii (ed.), Atti e passioni dei martiri (Roma–Milano: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla–Mondadori, 1987), 195-231.
Tilley, M.A., Donatist Martyr Stories: The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa (Translated Texts for Historians 24; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996), 1-6.
Rebillard, E., Greek and Latin Narratives About the Ancient Martyrs (Oxford Early Christian Texts; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017), 238-151.
Further reading:
Bass, A., "The Passion of Cyprian in the So-Called 'Donatist Dossier' of Würzburg M. p. th. f. 33,” in: K. Steinhauser & S. Dermer (eds.), (Text and Meaning: Textual Criticism and Theological Interpretation, Lewiston, 2012), 209–232.
Brent, A., Cyprian and Roman Carthage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Patout Burns, J., Cyprian the Bishop (Routledge Early Church Monographs; London, New York: Routledge, 2002).
Stanisław Adamiak
03/08/2021
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00411 | Cyprian, bishop and martyr of Carthage | Cyprianus | Certain |
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