The Sacrament of the Unity of the Church

Seventeen and a half centuries separate us from the time of the great pillar of the Church, Saint and Martyr Cyprian. The place of his episcopal service, the famous Carthage, is now a part of history, and only archaeological excavations and testimonies of contemporaries tell us about its former greatness. However, for an Orthodox Christian, the Hieromartyr Cyprian is always near and dear. Hieromartyr Cyprian is glorified by the aphorisms attributed to him: “To whom the Church is not a mother, God is not a father,” “Without the Church there is no salvation.” The Church values ​​the legacy of St. Cyprian and through the centuries turns to his teaching about the unity of the Church of Christ, finding in it confirmation for her life and struggle against the schisms and sects that arise again and again. “He can no longer have God as his Father who does not have the Church as his mother. Those outside the Church could be saved only if one of those outside Noah’s Ark were saved,” 1 wrote the Hieromartyr Cyprian. And the saint not only proved his filial love for God and His Church by his episcopal service, which was all spent in labors to preserve church peace and unity, but also testified by his martyrdom. The future saint was born at the very beginning of the 3rd century in the city of Carthage, in North Africa. Today, the ruins of Carthage, located on the outskirts of Tunisia, are open to tourists. In the 3rd century, Carthage was the main city of only a few Carthaginian Roman provinces in North Africa, served as the seat of the proconsul and was one of the greatest cities of the empire. However, the heyday of this famous city, which for centuries had been a worthy competitor to Rome itself, had long passed by the time of Bishop Cyprian’s life - in the middle of the second century, Carthage was completely destroyed and restored only in 44 BC. Fascius Caecius Cyprian (this is the full name of the holy martyr) came from a noble and wealthy pagan family. His origin allowed him to receive an excellent education and promised an enviable career - he taught rhetoric at the Carthaginian school and acted as a lawyer in court. About his life before receiving baptism, the Hieromartyr Cyprian writes with sharp condemnation: “I was in darkness and in deep blindness, when, filled with indecision and doubt, I rushed and wandered in this stormy sea.” Baptism restores him to a new life: “When the regenerating waters washed away the stains of my former life and heavenly light poured into my purified and justified heart, when, having received the Heavenly Spirit, I became a new man by my second birth, then doubts were miraculously resolved into confidence; secrets began to be revealed, darkness began to disappear; what previously seemed difficult has become convenient, the impossible has become possible” (letter 1). This probably happened around 245, when Cyprian had already reached a mature age. Even during his announcement, Cyprian, according to the life compiled by his contemporary, took a vow of celibacy, sold his estate, and distributed the proceeds to the poor. Having received holy baptism, Cyprian also began to serve the Church with his writing and apologetic gifts. It can be assumed that the works “On the Vanity of Idols” and “Three Books of Testimonies against the Jews” date back to the first years after his conversion. In a short treatise “On the Vanity of Idols,” Cyprian not only reveals the futility of idolatry, saying that all the gods worshiped by the pagans are simply deified people or the fruit of human imagination, but also speaks of the veneration of the true God, the Creator of the Universe, preached by the Old Testament prophets and clothed “in man to lead man to his heavenly Father” 2. The essay “Three Books of Evidence against the Jews” is a small but rich book of quotes from the Old and New Testaments. The first part, as the compiler himself writes in the preface, contains evidence that “the Jews, according to predictions, apostatized from God and lost the grace that was bestowed upon them before... and that their place was taken by Christians, pleasing the Lord by faith and coming from all nations and from all over the world.” The second part shows how the main Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The third part, which Cyprian composed probably later, based on the Holy Scriptures, briefly sets out the basic commandments of Christian morality. These written works tell us that in addition to his natural gift of speech and brilliant education, the newly baptized Cyprian also added a deep study of the Holy Scriptures and church doctrine. A year or more after baptism, Cyprian was ordained a presbyter. With his education and piety, Cyprian could not help but attract the attention of his fellow citizens, and two or three years after the start of his new Christian life, after the death of the Carthaginian Bishop Donatus, the people unanimously elected him head of the African See. His election probably followed around 249. Such rapid advancement of the neophyte arouses envy, which a few years later resulted in open opposition to Bishop Cyprian. Having become the primate of a vast diocese, he immediately began to fight many vices and abuses among his clergy and flock. From his letters of that time, one can trace how the Carthaginian saint denounces the selfishness of some bishops and the lack of chastity of virgins who have made a vow to God, reconciles the clergy and in other ways takes care of church deanery. In addition to letters devoted to various disciplinary issues, probably at the same time Bishop Cyprian wrote a treatise “On the Clothes of Virgins,” in which he instructs virgins who were ignorant of Christ so that they not only observe internal continence and chastity, but also maintain modesty and decency in their clothing. Soon the whole Church suffered a terrible test. In 249, Emperor Decius ascended the Roman throne. In an effort to elevate the importance of imperial power, he strictly regulates participation in the obligatory state cult of the emperor. In December 249 - January 250, an edict was issued obliging all inhabitants of the empire, under pain of torture and execution, to make the established sacrifices. Participation in these rituals was strictly recorded, and those who made sacrifices were given special certificates - libelli. The absence of these libelli put a person outside the law. A massive persecution of Christians unfolded throughout the empire. Thousands of believers endured terrible torment and death, but remained faithful to Christ and did not make sacrifices to idols. When the imperial edict reached Carthage, the pagan authorities decided to seize Bishop Cyprian as the head of the Christian community, thereby frightening the rest of the Christians and depriving them of their mentor and inspirer. In this regard, Bishop Cyprian decided to leave the city and hide from the persecutors. At the same time, the saint continued to manage church affairs with the help of his messages and faithful people. His contemporary, Deacon Pompius, who compiled the biography of the saint, notes that the forced removal of Bishop Cyprian served to the undoubted benefit of the Church: “Imagine that he, having then been awarded martyrdom, was taken away from us... who would teach the fallen repentance, heretics the truth, schismatics unity, the children of God peace and the law of evangelical prayer?” The persecutions raised by Decius differed significantly from those persecutions that worried the Church before. Firstly, they broke out after a long lull: for example, African Christians had already enjoyed peace for about forty years. When the faith of Christ was persecuted, a person, becoming a Christian, was ready to testify to his confession in the face of torture and death. During almost half a century of calm, many people were able to come to the Church, but not all of them were ready to shed blood for the faith. In addition, in the past Christians were persecuted and killed for their “name itself,” that is, being a Christian was considered a crime. The general goal of previous persecutions was to destroy Christianity as such, and not to force Christians to renounce their faith. The new persecution of Decius aimed to force all inhabitants of the empire to testify to their civic loyalty with a pagan ritual. The power of the state apparatus was used to force all the inhabitants of the empire to express their civil obedience in sacrifices, and many people who had previously professed themselves Christians succumbed to coercion. This is probably why it was during the persecution of Emperor Decius that a large number of “fallen” were discovered, that is, those who brought the sacrifice established by the emperor and thereby fell away from the Church of Christ. “Then a decree appeared... - Hieromartyr Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, recalls this period. “Many prominent people appeared at once: some out of fear, magistrates in obedience to their duties, some were dragged by loved ones. Those called by name approached the unclean victims, some pale and trembling, as if they were not the ones who were about to make a sacrifice, but they themselves were going as victims to the slaughter... Others quickly and readily approached the altar, confirming with their swagger that they had never been Christians.”3 Saint Cyprian of Carthage paints the same sad picture: “They did not even wait to go, at least not until they were captured; deny when asked. Many were defeated before the battle, overthrown without a fight and did not even leave for themselves any visible pretext, as if they were sacrificing to idols under duress. They willingly run to the marketplace, voluntarily hasten to death - as if they were glad to see an opportunity that they had always looked forward to!” 4 Thus the Church was literally divided, on the one hand, into martyrs and confessors, and on the other, into those who made the required sacrifices to idols. Closely related to the latter were the so-called libellii, who did not formally perform the sacrifice, but bought libelli from officials for money. When the persecution began, some Christians followed their bishop and, by hiding, managed to avoid torture 5 . These cruel persecutions did not last long - less than a year. They ended with the death of Decius, who ruled for only two years - he died at the end of 250 in a battle with the Goths. During the persecution, the Primate of the Church of Rome, Pope Fabian, died a martyr. The Roman presbyters and deacons informed Saint Cyprian about this, but they also addressed another letter to the Carthaginian clergy, where in a sharply ironic form they accused Saint Cyprian of hiding during the persecution, exposing his act as a manifestation of cowardice and qualities unworthy of a true shepherd. In response, Bishop Cyprian addressed the Roman clergy with a letter in which he glorified the feat of their primate. In response to the letter in which Cyprian was reprimanded, the saint, wanting to shame his unjust accusers, wrote that he could not believe that it could have been written by Roman clergy, and asked them to somehow confirm its authenticity (letter 7). It seems that this conflict was soon settled. A much more serious ecclesiastical conflict is occurring at this time in the African Church itself. The oldest Carthaginian presbyter Novatus and several of his followers (they had already shown their dissatisfaction with this when Cyprian was elevated to the episcopate), taking advantage of the removal of the primate, openly rebelled against him. Without the knowledge of Cyprian, a certain Felicissimus was arbitrarily installed as a deacon, who also took an active part in the ripening schism. However, Novat’s personality itself turned out to be very odious. Saint Cyprian openly accused him of embezzling church money, deceiving widows and orphans, and cruelly treating his elderly father and pregnant wife (letter 42). Probably fearing church condemnation, Novat left for Rome, where he joined another schismatic teacher, Novatian, who opposed the legally elected Pope Cornelius. In addition to power-hungry ambitions, Novatus and Novatian also had their own view on the solution to one problem, which, after the short but severe persecution of Decius, worried the entire Church - how to deal with those who, having fallen away during the persecution, want to return to the Church of Christ. The point of view of the schismatics was simple and harsh - those who once fell away from the Church cannot be accepted into communion, even if they brought repentance. The Church did not recognize such a rigoristic approach. In the person of its best theologians, the Church asserted that there is no sin that could not be atoned for and redeemed by sincere repentance. However, a necessary condition for returning to the Church was confession of one’s crime to the bishop and a long period of penitential penance. Unfortunately, not all of the fallen realized the seriousness of their situation. According to established tradition, confessors who courageously confessed Christ and bore all the hardships of persecution, but for one reason or another did not accept martyrdom, had the right to give the fallen absolution of their sin and reunite them with the Church. Some confessors even gave letters to the apostates, which testified to the reunification of the apostate with the Church. Many people received such testimonies from confessors, ignoring church confession and bypassing the long penitential practice. During the persecution, Saint Cyprian tried to heal these church disorders with numerous messages, convincing confessors, showing mercy and condescension, not to violate church decorum, and for the fallen to bear worthy fruits of repentance. Saint Cyprian also expressed his pastoral concern for Christians who made sacrifices during persecution in his treatise “On the Fallen.” When the persecution ceased in May 251, Saint Cyprian convened a Church Council, which resolved the issue of the fallen. The Council of Carthage condemned both those who argued that repentance was impossible for apostates and those who tried to reunite with the Church without sincere penitential labors and without the will of the bishop. The Council decided that those who had fallen away during persecution could return to the Church by performing church repentance and undergoing penance. The same Council excommunicated the schismatic teachers Novatus and Felicissimus from church communion, who by this time themselves, having disagreed about their attitude towards the fallen, broke off relations with each other. Not limiting himself to banning schismatics and wanting to protect his flock from a disastrous schism, Saint Cyprian wrote his famous treatise “On the Unity of the Church.” According to the teaching of Saint Cyprian, only by arriving in the Church, maintaining grace-filled unity with it, can one be saved. “We are born from her, we feed on her milk, we are animated by her spirit. The Bride of Christ cannot be corrupted: she is pure and uncorrupted, knows one house and chastely preserves the holiness of one bed. She watches over us for God, preparing us for the kingdom of those born by her.” Christians are called to preserve the unity of the Church. “This sacrament of unity, this union of indissoluble consent is indicated in the Gospel story about the tunic of the Lord Jesus Christ. The tunic was not divided and torn, but went entirely to one who fell by lot, and came into possession unspoiled and undivided. With the mysterious sign of His clothing, the Lord foreshadowed the unity of the Church. Who is so wicked and treacherous, who is so infected with a passion for discord, that he considers it possible or dares to tear apart the unity of God, the garment of the Lord, the Church of Christ? The saving unity of the Church of Christ is created by the unity with the bishop of all members of the Church. Saint Cyprian writes about the unity of the Church in other treatises of this time, as well as in his letters. This teaching of St. Cyprian about the Church lays a solid foundation for all Christian ecclesiology. Meanwhile, during the reign of the new emperor Gallus, persecution of Christians resumed again. In addition, in 253, an epidemic began in many areas of the empire, including Africa, during which Saint Cyprian organized help for the suffering, not only Christians, but all those in need, without distinction of religion, which earned him the respect of many pagans. To encourage his flock in these difficult circumstances, he writes the work “On Mortality.” The persecution of Gall ended with his death in 253 (he was killed by his own soldiers), and Gall's successor, Emperor Valerian, did not resume the persecution during the first years of his reign. This short, calm period for the Church gave Cyprian the opportunity to pay due attention to some issues of internal church life. From 254 to 256, he held a series of church councils in Carthage, at which the issue of baptism performed in heretical and schismatic societies was decided. The teaching of Saint Cyprian about the Church also determined his attitude towards the sacraments of the heretics. “I don’t know by what prejudice some of our comrades are guided, who think that those who have been immersed by heretics should not be baptized when they come to us, because, as they say, there is only one baptism. It is one because the Church is one and outside the Church baptism is impossible” (letter 58). With the active participation of St. Cyprian, the Councils decide to consider baptism performed by heretics to be completely devoid of grace-filled power and to perform the Sacrament of baptism on all who come to Orthodoxy. However, this view, officially proclaimed at the three Councils of Carthage, came into conflict with the Roman tradition and caused disapproval from Pope Stephen I. The Pope, defending the established practice, categorically argued that heretics who come to Orthodoxy cannot be baptized, but must be accepted through the laying on of hands, but at the same time he showed a certain theological inconsistency. In addition, he considered effective even the baptism of the most extreme heretics, for example the Marcionites, who reject the Holy Trinity and the Divinity of the Son. Saint Cyprian of Carthage, having received from the pope a condemnation of the conciliar decisions, addressed him with a letter; in it he argued that heretics who have neither the Church nor the grace of the Holy Spirit (and this the pope recognized) cannot have effective baptism. “One should not prescribe on the basis of custom where it should be proven by reasoning,” the saint wrote, and in active correspondence with his like-minded people, in particular with Firmilian, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, he provided new evidence in favor of his position 6 . The debate about baptism was interrupted by renewed persecution. In 257, Emperor Valerian issued an edict ordering the exile of clergy and prohibiting Christian gatherings. In the following year, 258, the persecution unfolded with all its cruelty, and Pope Stephen was awarded the crown of hieromartyr for his courageous confession of Christ. Even during the first stage of the persecution, when the imperial edict reached Africa, Saint Cyprian was the first to be presented to the proconsul for questioning. We know about the circumstances of this interrogation from the surviving proconsular acts, as well as from the ancient life compiled by the saint’s close associate, Deacon Pontius. During interrogation, Saint Cyprian courageously confessed the one true God, expressed his readiness to follow his confession into prison, and refused to hand over any of his fellow servants to the authorities. After interrogation, Saint Cyprian was sent into exile to the village of Kurubis. The saint not only bravely endured exile and exile, but also continued to nourish and encourage his flock. Some time later, when the emperor issued a new edict, ordering the deprivation of rights and confiscation of property from all Christian bishops and presbyters, and those who continued to remain faithful to Christ, put to death. Then the newly appointed proconsul of Africa named Galerius Maximus first ordered the exiled Saint Cyprian to be brought to him. The saint stood courageously during the interrogation, inspiring the Carthaginian Christians who gathered in large numbers upon learning that their shepherd had been brought to trial by the example of his bold testimony about Christ. Seeing the inflexibility of Saint Cyprian, the proconsul sentenced him to beheading by the sword. Hearing the verdict, the saint thanked the Lord, and the people, who saw everything that was happening, exclaimed: “And we want to die with him!” Thus Saint Cyprian accepted martyrdom on September 14, 258. On it, the words that he himself once wrote about the martyrdom came true: “The warriors of God and Christ are not killed, but crowned” (epistle 66). Church veneration of the Hieromartyr Cyprian of Carthage began soon after his death. His memory in the Western Church is celebrated on September 16, together with the memory of Pope Cornelius, and in the Orthodox Church on August 31 (Art. Art.). In the 9th century, Charlemagne petitioned Harun Al-Rashid for permission to transfer the relics of St. Cyprian from Carthage to the French city of Arles. Then the relics were transferred to Lyon, and under Charles the Bald to Compiegne (now a suburb of Paris), where they now rest in the monastery of St. Cornelius. The venerable head of St. Cyprian is also kept in the monastery of St. Cornelius, but in the city of Aachen. The Church honors the Hieromartyr Cyprian not only as a sufferer for Christ and a wise hierarch, but especially as a theologian who expressed his theological experience both in treatises and in letters written by him during his episcopal service to various individuals. 66 of his messages have reached us. Often, along with the epistles of St. Cyprian, 16 epistles of various authors addressed to the saint himself are published. In this edition, the 66 epistles of St. Cyprian are placed in possible chronological order. If we judge the time of writing each letter by its content and by the problems and issues that are resolved in each letter, then the letters are arranged in the following order: 1. Letter to Donatus about the grace of God. 2. Letter to Eucrates about the comedian. 3. Letter to Pomponius about virgins. 4. Letter to Rogatsian about a deacon who insulted a bishop. 5. Letter to the clergy and people of Furnitan about Victor, who appointed the presbyter Favstinus as guardian. 6. Letter to elders and deacons. 7. Letter to the elders and deacons of Rome. 8. Letter to the martyrs and confessors. 9. Letter to the clergy about some elders who recklessly granted peace to the fallen before the end of the persecution and without the consent of the bishops. 10. Letter to the martyrs and confessors who asked to grant peace to the fallen. 11. Letter to the people. 12. Letter to the clergy about the fallen and catechumens, in order to resolve them at death. 13. Letter to the clergy about those who are in a hurry to receive peace. 14. Letter to the elders and deacons of Rome. 15. Letter to Kaldonius. 16. Letter to the clergy. 17. Letter to the fallen. 18. Letter to elders and deacons. 19. Letter to the elders and deacons of Rome. 20. Letter to Moses, Maximus and other confessors. 21. Letter to the Carthaginian clergy. 22. Letter to the elders and deacons of Rome. 23. Letter to the Carthaginian clergy about letters sent to Rome and letters received from there. 24. Letter to the clergy about help for confessors. 25. Letter to the clergy about prayers to God. 26. Letter to Rogatsian the presbyter and other confessors. 27. Letter to elders and deacons. 28. Letter to the clergy about helping the poor and strange. 29. Letter to Moses, Maximus and other confessors. 30. Letter to the Carthaginian clergy and people about the dedication of Aurelius as a reader. 31. Letter to the clergy and people about the initiation of Celerin as a reader. 32. Letter to the clergy and people about the inclusion of Numidik in the Carthaginian clergy. 33. Letter to Caldonius, Herculanus and others about the excommunication of Felicissimo. 34. Letter to the people about the five presbyters who accosted Felicissimo. 35. Letter to Cornelius about the non-recognition of Novatian as a bishop. 36. Letter to Cornelius about his recognition as a bishop and about Felicissimo. 37. Letter to Cornelius about a letter to Roman confessors infatuated with Novatian. 38. Letter to the Roman confessors exhorting them to return to unity. 39. Letter to Cornelius about Polycarp of Adrumete. 40. Letter to Cornelius congratulating him on the conversion of the confessors. 41. Letter to the confessors congratulating them on their conversion from the schism. 42. Letter to Cornelius about the atrocities of Novatus. 43. Letter to Antonian about Cornelius and Novatian. 44. Letter to Fortunatus and other comrades about those who could not stand the torment. 45. Letter to Epictetus and the Assuritan people about Fortunatian, his former bishop. 46. ​​Letter to Fid about infant baptism. 47. Letter to Cornelius about Fortunatus and Felicissima, or against heretics. 48. Letter to the Thebarites with an exhortation to martyrdom. 49. Letter to Cornelius about the granting of peace to the fallen. 50. Letter to Cornelius in captivity about his confession. 51. Letter to Lucius, Pope of Rome, upon his return from imprisonment. 52. Letter to Sergius, Rogatian and other confessors imprisoned. 53. Letter to the bishops of Numedia about the ransom of prisoners. 54. Letter to Florence Pupianus about slanderers. 55. Letter to Stephen about Marcian of Arelat, who pestered Novatian. 56. Letter to the clergy and people of Spain about Basilides and Martial. 57. Letter to Januarius and other Numidian bishops about the baptism of heretics. 58. Letter to Quintus on the baptism of heretics. 59. Letter to Pope Stephen about the council. 60. Letter to Yubayan about the baptism of heretics. 61. Letter to Pompey against Stephen's letter on the baptism of heretics. 62. Letter to Magnus about the baptism of the Novatians and those who received baptism while sick. 63. Letter to Caecilius about the Sacrament of the Lord's Cup. 64. Letter to Nemezan and others exiled to the mines. 65. Letter to Success about the return of ambassadors from Rome with news of persecution. 66. Letter to the clergy and people about his temporary withdrawal before suffering. Book about the unity of the Church / Sschmch. Cyprian of Carthage. Creations. – M.: Pilgrim, 1999. P. 236. About the vanity of idols / Sschmch. Cyprian of Carthage. Creations. P. 86. Eusebius Pamphilus. Church history. – M.: PSTBI Publishing House, 2001. P. 290. About the fallen / Sschmch. Cyprian of Carthage. Creations. P. 213. Similar to schmch. Cyprian of Carthage, from the persecution of Decius, bishops of other Churches also took refuge with their flock, for example, the Church. Dio Nisius of Alexandria and Gregory of Neocaesarea. The question of the baptism of those coming to Orthodoxy from heresies and schisms was then raised at the Ecumenical and Local Councils, which decided to accept through repentance and anointing with holy myrrh those converts from those groups where faith in the Holy Trinity and triple immersion at baptism were preserved. At the same time, at different times the holy fathers determined in different ways which groups to apply this rite. See: 8th rule of the First Ecumenical Council; 7th rule of the Second Ecumenical Council; 95th rule of the Sixth Ecumenical Council; 7th and 8th rules of the Council of Laodicea; 1st and 47th rules of St. Basil the Great.