Cyprian
Cyprian was bishop of Carthage and the leading churchman of Latin Africa in the third century. A wealthy pagan orator, he converted in middle age, gave away much of his fortune, and within two or three years was made bishop. He guided his church through the Decian persecution and a terrible plague, wrote influentially on the unity of the Church and on the readmission of those who had lapsed under torture, and was himself beheaded under the emperor Valerian in 258 — the first bishop of Carthage to die a martyr.
“Let the continual protection of thy blessed Martyr Cyprian, O Lord, cherish us evermore: for thou wilt not fail favourably to regard those whom thou hast granted to be holpen by such aid.”
the Collect · Holy Cross Missal (1920)In the library
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