The Presbyters Project

Epistula 6

Cyprianus Sergio et Rogatiano et ceteris confessoribus in Domino perpetuam s[alutem].

IV. Quam fidem nos quoque retinentes et die ac nocte meditantes toto corde ad deum prompti contemptu praesentium futura tantummodo cogitemus, fructum regni aeterni, conplexum et osculum domini, conspectum dei, ut sequamini in omnibus Rogatianum presbyterum gloriosum senem uiam uobis ad gloriam temporis nostri religiosa uirtute et diuina dignatione facientem, qui cum Felicissimo fratre nostro quieto semper et sobrio excipiens ferocientis populi impetum primum hospitium uobis in carcere praeparauit et metator quodammodo uester nunc quoque uos antecedit. [...]

(ed. Diercks 1994: 36-37)

Letter 6

Cyprian to Sergius and Rogatianus, and the rest of the confessors in the Lord, everlasting health.

IV. And you also, retaining this faith, and meditating day and night, with your whole heart prepared for God, think of the future only, with contempt for the present, that you may be able to come to the fruit of the eternal kingdom, and to the embrace and kiss, and the sight of the Lord, that you may follow in all things Rogatianus the presbyter, the glorious old man who, to the glory of our time, makes a way for you by his religious courage and divine condescension, who, with Felicissimus our brother, ever quiet and temperate, receiving the attack of a ferocious people, first prepared for you a dwelling in the prison, and, marking out the way for you in some measure, now also goes before you. [...]

(trans. R.E. Wallis, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050680.htm)

Discussion:

We are not sure whether the Rogatianus mentioned in the address of the letter is the same as the presbyter praised in the fourth chapter. However, if it is so, despite the troubling lack of the word “presbyter” in the address, we should consider Sergius also a presbyter, senior to Rogatianus; the normal hierarchical order would suggest this, although the name of Sergius is anyway missing in the part of the manuscripts (Deléani 2007: 130).

Place of event:

Region

Latin North Africa

City

Carthage

About the source:

Author: Cyprian
Title: Letters, Epistulae, Epistolae
Origin: Carthage (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Cyprian was born probably about AD 200. He converted to Christianity in about 245 and in 248 was elected Bishop of Carthage. Soon after, the Decian persecution began (in 249/250) and Cyprian went into hiding. In 251 he returned to the city. Under Valerian, he was exiled in 257 and executed in 258. The epistolary of Cyprian consists of 81 letters (16 of them by his correspondents, and 6 synodal or collective), the majority of them are from the period of 250-251, when they were the means of Cyprian`s communication with his clergy. They offer us a wide view on the organization of the Church in Carthage in the middle of the third century, her relation with the Church of Rome, on the development of the persecutions, and on the conflicts that they caused inside the Church.

Different numerations of Cyprian's letters exist, I follow the edition of Diercks in Corpus Christianorum.

Edition:

G.F. Diercks ed., Sancti Cypriani Episcopi Epistularium. Epistulae 1-57, Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 3B, Turnhout 1994.

Bibliography:

Saint Cyprien, Lettres 1-20, Introduction, texte, traduction et commentaire par S. Deléani, Paris 2007.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

PR574.

Administration of justice - Imprisonment

PR574.

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1078, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1078