A Light from The Past
Almost 1750 years ago in April, St. Cyprian of Carthage (Thaschus Caecilius Cyprianus), bishop and one of the prominent figures of the unitary Ecumenical Church, was martyred.
The third century was a time when the Christian church was forming its dogmas and hierarchy, setting up its organizational structure, and drafting the moral code for its faithful. Bishop Cyprian played an active part in these processes, commanding great respect from Christians all over the Roman Empire. He was revered for his steadfastness in faith, learning, and fundamental contribution to the development of religious doctrine. The common people loved him for his kindheartedness, fairness, and simple (now refered to as democratic) ways. Cyprian taught that “nothing should be done or decided in church affairs without the consent of presbyters and the faithful.” And that one cannot be a good bishop “without knowing and communicating with all members of his flock.”
Bishop Cyprian aspired that his works promote the making and observance of Christian virtues. The titles of some of his works bears witness to this: On Labor and Charity, On Patience, On Our Mortality, etc. Thanks to bishops like Cyprian, the Christians of those times were distinguished for leading elevated lives and righteous chastity: they were “the salt of the earth, the light of the world.” The church then became a true bearer of morality, cultivated respect for any kind of work, and thus leveled the literate and the illiterate, “the rich and the poor as brothers.”
Although Christian churches have just celebrated their two thousandth anniversary, they have not yet worked out a common view and a constitutional program of actions in many important matters. This concerns, among other things, the social policies of church. There are today, as there were in the past, many clergymen (especially Orthodox) who consider it unnecessary to address the material problems of their flock and heap scorn on such “mundane” considerations. The Russian Orthodox Church adopted its first social — rather declarative in nature — doctrine as late as in 2000. The Ukrainian Orthodox churches are only beginning to work on the basic provisions of social policy, which remain far removed from practical programs and firm ecclesiastical rules, let alone the clergy’s mentality.
In the distant third century St. Cyprian cared not only about saving the souls of the common people: he treated their woes and disadvantages as his own. This is what the bishop writes in one of his works, “Look: robbers dominate the roads, pirates have firm hold of the seas, with war and bloody horrors everywhere. The world is brimming with the blood shed without reason, while the murder of man is considered a crime only if it has been committed by a beggar. Lawbreaking is punished only if the offense is minor. On the other hand, the graver one’s guilt the easier it is for him to be acquitted. Things have gone so far that a new science has appeared, teaching how to commit the most serious crimes without punishment, with profit, and simply. Innocence cannot be proved even in courts, though this is precisely the place where innocence should triumph. For the laws are powerless.
“Who can protect us from arbitrary rule? A tribune (defender of the people)? He is but a professional traitor and liar. A judge? But he trades his sentences as if they were a commodity: one who is supposed to prevent crime has himself become a criminal. Nowhere is there fear of the law or the least respect for an investigator or judge. Discord is rages all around, there is no peace even among the Senators: you can hear continuous shouts of enmity at the Forum, with everybody hiding a sharp sword or even an instrument of torture under his toga.
“The rich and powerful are busy entertaining and expanding their manors in all directions by ousting the poor and seizing their lands. The rich possess fabulous wealth in the shape of money, gold, and silver, which they invest or bury. Others squander their riches by raising the sea bottom, leveling mountains, or building two or three palaces for themselves. Once they build another house they immediately begin to tear it down and erect a new one still more luxurious. They keep buying pictures, statues, vases, ornaments, and carpets, but they are unable to satisfy themselves.
“Yet, others lack even a place to live. They have poverty indoors and debts outdoors, a terrible reality and a still worse future with nothing but wretched existence. Shall we never shake off this nightmare?”
In 258 AD Roman Emperor Valerianus launched a new persecution of the “obscurant and wicked Christian sect.” His edict read, among other things, “Senators, highly-placed officials, and knights (Roman aristocracy) shall be deprived of dignity and property, and, if they still keep to the Christian faith thereafter, they shall be beheaded. Bishops, presbyters (priests), and deacons shall be taken into custody and summarily executed by sword.” St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, was one of those put to death under this edict.
