From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   One Goal   
      
      We know we are traveling together. If our pace is slow, go on ahead   
   of us. We won't envy you but rather will seek to catch up with you.   
   However, if you consider us capable of a quicker pace, run along with   
   us.   
      There is only one goal, and we are all anxious to reach it—some at   
   a slow pace and others at a fast pace.   
   --St. Augustine-- Sermon on a New Canticle 4, 4   
      
   Prayer. Let everyone's sighs be uttered in longing for Christ. He   
   should be the object of our desire since he, he all-beautiful One,   
   loves repulsive people so that he might make them beautiful. Let us   
   run to him and cry out for him.   
   --St. Augustine-- Sermon on John 10, 13   
      
      
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   September 16th - Saint Cyprian   
   c.210-258   
      
   NOT all saints, as we know, spend their lives in seclusion.  Besides   
   the hermits, monks, and nuns who lead a contemplative Christian life,   
   there are many saints who were "men of action." Such a dynamic man was   
   Saint Cyprian.  Cyprian had a many-faceted personality.  As a bishop   
   he was perhaps the most illustrious figure of his age, and in the   
   field of Church affairs and that of Christian morality, no one had a   
   higher or more extensive influence than he.  As a writer, he dominated   
   the religious literature of his time and was one of the most read   
   Fathers of the Church throughout the Middle Ages.  As a man, he   
   commanded great personal prestige.  Cyprian was a public orator,   
   literary scholar, lawyer; and after his conversion a priest, a bishop,   
   and finally a martyr, the first martyr-bishop of Africa.   
      
    Born in Carthage about the year 210, Cyprian grew to manhood and   
   became active in the pagan life of that city.  But when he was about   
   35 years old, he became weary of the vain ideals of his pagan world   
   and disturbed at the uncertainties of its philosophy.  Then he made   
   friends with an old priest named Caecilian, who answered his queries   
   about Christianity and led him to the Church.  Not a man to do things   
   half-way, the orator, teacher, and lawyer was completely changed.  He   
   began his pursuit of Christianity by making a vow of chastity.   
   Selling his whole estate, he gave almost all he possessed for the   
   support of the poor.  He assigned himself the task of learning all he   
   could about God.   
      
    Cyprian's rise in Christian ranks was astoundingly swift.  He was   
   baptized, probably on the Vigil of Easter, in 246, and shortly after   
   this was ordained a priest.  So manifest was his virtue and authority   
   in Carthage that soon he was named bishop of that city.  His first   
   reactions were refusal and an effort to escape, but the people   
   surrounded his house. After a vain attempt to get out by a window,   
   Cyprian yielded and was consecrated bishop in the last months of 248   
   or early in 249.   
      
    All was peaceful for a short time, but when Emperor Decius ascended   
   the Roman throne he began his reign by persecuting Christians.  A   
   pagan mob stormed Carthage, capital of proconsular Africa, shouting   
   "Cyprian to the lions!" The bishop, however, had already retired to a   
   secret hiding place, from which he directed the clergy and laity.   
   Much adverse criticism was heaped upon him for leaving, but Cyprian   
   felt justified in his action. Remaining in Carthage would have been   
   sure death; his survival meant he could maintain discipline and repair   
   the persecution's damage to his flock.   
      
    The bishop continued to lead his flock, substituting letters for his   
   presence.  He exhorted Christians to pray without ceasing, urging   
   prayer not only for individual persons but also for the unity and   
   brotherhood of man.  The prayers were surely heard, for the   
   persecution slackened in 251.  Not a compromising man, Cyprian was   
   adamant when a matter of religion came into question.  As a result of   
   the great many apostasies that had taken place during the persecution,   
   a serious disagreement arose among his priests and people in regard to   
   the reconciliation of these lapsed Christians, many of whom had   
   repented and now wanted to be reinstated in the Christian community.   
   When Cyprian upheld the necessity of canonical penance and the   
   possible reconciliation of all, a group of his clergy defied him and   
   set up a schismatic community, and one of them even went to Rome and   
   joined an anti-papal campaign.  But the other African bishops upheld   
   Cyprian at a synod, and approved the excommunication of the schismatic   
   priests.   
      
    Only a year after the persecution, Carthage was afflicted with a   
   terrible plague. The poor and sick were ever under Cyprian's watchful   
   care, and the public affliction served to emphasize his kindness.   
      
    A controversy of the time in which Cyprian was concerned in the last   
   years of his life concerned the validity of baptism by heretics.  The   
   Church in Africa had a traditional distrust of such rites, based upon   
   a statement of Tertullian, and Cyprian reaffirmed this view.  In this   
   Cyprian and the other bishops of Africa were mistaken, and Pope Saint   
   Stephen sent a warning not to depart from the apostolic tradition,   
   which held that one who had been baptized, even if by a heretic, must   
   not be rebaptized.  Cyprian was unable to see the dogmatic   
   significance of this question and, concerned about the unity and   
   discipline of his own community, never did change his mind.   
   Nevertheless, the thing he always had at heart was the unity of the   
   Church.   
      
    Saint Cyprian was forewarned by God of the revival of persecution and   
   of his own approaching martyrdom.  In August 257, the first edict of   
   Valerian forbidding Christians to assemble for worship was   
   promulgated. The bishop of Carthage was tried and subsequently   
   banished. A second trial by the proconsul Galerius Maximus in 258   
   resulted in his condemnation; Cyprian was to be beheaded.  Texts of   
   the trials show Cyprian calm and resolute, and when sentence was   
   passed, he replied, "Thanks be to God."   
      
    A tumultuous throng of Christians surrounded Cyprian at his death.   
   Even then, he set an example for them: showing Christ-like   
   forgiveness, the saint asked a friend to give his executioner   
   twenty-five pieces of gold.  After the beheading, his body was set up   
   as an example or threat by the pagans.  When night came, a procession   
   of Christians carried their good bishop's body away, chanting prayers   
   and praises at his burial.  So ended the life of the versatile   
   Cyprian, but not his name and fame.   
      
      
   Saint Quotes:   
   "There is one God and one Christ and but one episcopal chair,   
   originally founded on Peter, by the Lord's authority. There cannot,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)