Cyprian — Writers

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

A 3rd-century bishop of Carthage whose Latin prose set the standard for Western Christian writing for over a century — until Jerome and Augustine arrived.

Biography

About

Born around 210 in North Africa, likely Carthage, Cyprian received a classical education before converting to Christianity and rising to bishop in 249. His tenure collided with crisis: the Novatianist controversy over how to treat Christians who had lapsed under persecution, and the plague he described so vividly it still bears his name. His pastoral strength and firm hand through both upheavals built his standing, but it was his martyrdom at Carthage on 14 September 258 that sealed his sanctity. His skilful Latin rhetoric made him the pre-eminent Christian writer in the West until the arrival…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Cyprian

Cyprian

saidundated

For the helmsman is recognized in the tempest; in the warfare the soldier is proved.

— Treatise VII - On the Mortality

Cyprian

saidundated

It is a persistent evil to persecute a man who belongs to the grace of God. It is a calamity without remedy to hate the happy.

— Treatise on Jealousy and Envy ch. ix

Cyprian

saidundated

Since we have Christ as our Advocate with the Father for our sins, when we pray on account of our faults, we use the very words of our Advocate.

— As quoted in Saint Thomas Aquinas, Five Qualities of a Prayer, in Catechetical Instructions

Cyprian

saidundated

Men imitate the gods whom they adore, and to such miserable beings their crimes become their religion.

— Letter 1 Letter to Donatus, viii

Cyprian

saidundated

Hence turn your looks to the abominations, not less to be deplored, of another kind of spectacle. In the theatres also you will behold what may well cause you grief and shame.

— Epistle 1 to Donatus, Section 8, translated by Robert Ernest Wallis, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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