Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 1227
Celerinus, a Christian from Rome, asks Lucian, a confessor at Carthage, for intercession for his sisters, who lapsed during the persecutions. Letter 21 in the epistolary of Cyprian of Carthage, AD 250.
Epistula 21
 
III,1. Audiui enim te floridiorum ministerium percepisse. O te felicem! Suscipe uota tua quae semper desiderasti uel in terra dormiens. Optasti pro nomen illius in carcerem mitti, quod nunc tibi contingit, sicut scriptum est: “det tibi Dominus secundum cor tuum”. Et nunc super ipsos factus antistes es Dei, recognoui, id est minister.
 
2. [...] Quarum iam causa audita praeceperunt eas praepositi tantisper sic esse, donec episcopus constituatur [...]
 
(ed. Diercks 1994: 113-114)
Letter 21
 
III,1. I have heard that you have received the ministry of the more blooming ones. O, how happy you are! Accept what you always wished for, even if you have to sleep on ground! You wanted to be put in prison for his name, and it reached you, as it is written: “The Lord grant thee according to thine own heart” [Ps 21(20):3]. And now you have been made priest (antistes) of God, that is minister, over them, as I understand.
 
2. Their case had been already heard, and the leaders ordered them to be as they are in the meantime until the bishop is established.
 
(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

Lucian is called "antistes" and "minister" by Celerinus; however, he responds by Letter 22, nothing in which suggests him being a cleric. Even more explicitly, Letter 23 is signed by Lucian “in the presence of the members of the clergy: an exorcist and a lector” (“Praesente de clero et exorcista et lectore Lucianus scripsit”; ed. Diercks 1994: 120). Nevertheless, Celerinus clearly believes that Lucius gained some priestly powers, especially that of reconciliation, by the virtue of his confession.

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 200 AD. 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:
A. Brent, "Cyprian and the question of ordinatio per confessionem”, in: Studia Patristca 36 , Leuven 2001, 332-337.
Saint Cyprien, Lettres 1-20, Introduction, texte, traduction et commentaire par S. Deléani, Paris 2007.
 

Categories:

Ritual activity - Reconciliation/Administering penance
    Public law - Ecclesiastical
      Described by a title - Minister/λειτουργός/ὑπηρέτης
        Described by a title - Antistes
          Ecclesiastical administration
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1227, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1227