CYPRIAN, SAINT (Caecilius Cyprianus, called THAscIus) (c. 200-258), the illustrious bishop of Carthage, was born of a wealthy patrician family at Carthage, where he became a teacher of rhetoric. About 246 he was converted by the priest Caecilianus. His enthusiasm and ability, together with his de votion of his wealth to the relief of the poor and other pious uses, led to his being made head of the church in Carthage c. 248. During the persecution of Decius (25o), Cyprian had to seek safety in retreat, but he returned when it relaxed under Gallus, the successor of Decius. Several councils were held to discuss such questions as heretical dissensions from the belief in the divine authorship of the episcopal order and the unity of Christen dom, baptism by heretics and the readmission into the church of those who had lapsed during persecution. Though tolerant towards the lapsed, Cyprian was strict in the matter of baptism, and only escaped conflict with the Roman bishop Stephen through the new persecution under the Emperor Valerian. Stephen was martyred in Aug. 257, and Cyprian was banished to Curubis. He was recalled and beheaded on Sept. 14, 258, the first African bishop to obtain the martyr's crown.
Cyprian's works, written in a smooth, persuasive style reflect ing his practical mind, are concerned, like Tertullian's, and often in imitation of them, with apologetic, dogmatic and pastoral themes. The best known is the De Unitate Catholicae Ecclesiae called forth in A.D. 251 by the schism at Carthage and the Novatian schism at Rome. It proclaims the doctrine of one church founded upon Peter, whose "tangible bond is her one united episcopate, an apostleship universal yet only one—the authority of every bishop perfect in itself and independent, yet not forming with all the others a mere agglomeration of powers, but being a tenure upon a totality like that of a shareholder in some joint property." The Ad Donatum (De Gratia Dei) contrasts the regenerated life with the moral degradation of the heathen; the De Opere et eleemosynis presents the Tertullian conception of merit and satis faction ; and the Letters, only 66 of the present collection being genuine, are important for church history and ecclesiastical law. Cyprian, who "set his seal on Episcopalianism" and stressed infant baptism and penance as means of grace, was of unparalleled authority in the West, especially for Augustine.
The best edition of his works is that by W. von Hartel in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum (Eng. trans. in the Oxford Library of the Fathers). See also E. W. Benson, Cyprian, his life, his times, his works (1897) ; A. Harnack, Hist. of Dogma ii. and v.; O. Barden hewer, Gesch. der Altkirchl. Lit. II.