Saints Cyprian and Cornelius

Cornelius and Cyprian are celebrated together because together they fought the same battle, one in Rome and one in Carthage. The issue was the *lapsi*: the Christians who had given in during the persecution of Decius, sacrificing to the gods to save their lives, and who then asked to come back into the Church. There were two positions, and the clash between them was bitter. The rigorists said that anyone who had denied the faith was out forever. The others said a return was possible, after penance. Cornelius was elected pope in March 251, fourteen months after the killing of his predecessor Fabian — that’s how impossible it had been to meet any sooner. He took the milder position, and an antipope, Novatian, was elected against him and led the rigorists. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, backed him, and his support was decisive. He was a former rhetorician who had converted as an adult, and he is one of the great Latin Christian writers: his treatise on the unity of the Church is still one of the most quoted texts today. Cornelius was exiled to Civitavecchia and died there in 253. Cyprian was beheaded in Carthage on September 14, 258; the records of his trial survive, and they are among the very few authentic court transcripts we have. To the sentence he replied: “Deo gratias.” If your name is Cornelius or Cyprian, today is your name day.