A pandemic causing immense suffering and death, a church persecuted intermittently and widely while also deeply divided internally. A pope navigating these difficult times, cultivating mercy and synodality but challenged by those disapproving of his approach. The church of 2022?
No, the description refers to the church of the mid-third century, and the pope in question is Saint Cornelius. He was buried in the catacombs of San Callisto in Rome, near Saint Cyprian, his friend and supporter. Though both saints’ bodies are thought to have been moved to other churches, a mosaic depicting them together remains there. Cornelius’ tomb’s inscription reads “Cornelius, Martyr.” He is also mentioned, with Saint Cyprian, in the First Eucharistic Prayer of the Church, perhaps one of the oldest parts of the Mass. Though they lived nearly 1800 years ago, looking at these two saints’ lives and the struggles they dealt with in the mid-third century can speak to us powerfully in strangely similar times.
The Plague of Cyprian was a pandemic of the mid-third century that spread throughout the Roman world, bringing suffering and death in several waves. Kyle Harper calls it “a transcontinental disease of rare magnitude” (137-138). It is called “The Plague of Cyprian” because the bishop of Carthage wrote a description of it in his De Mortalitate or On the Mortality or Plague. He describes a series of symptoms hard to pin down, though Harper feels it is likely to have been either a form of influenza or “viral hemorrhagic fever” (132).
The description by Cyprian is chilling, though he encourages Christians inflicted with the plague to persevere in faith and its consolations, despite it: “That now the bowels loosened into a flux exhaust the strength of the body, that a fever contracted in the very marrow of the bones breaks out into ulcers of the throat, that the intestines are shaken by continual vomiting, that the blood-shot eyes burn, that the feet of some or certain parts of their members are cut away by the infection of diseased putrefaction, that, by a weakness developing through the losses and injuries of the body, either the gait is en-feebled, or the hearing impaired, or the sight blinded, all this contributes to the proof of faith. What greatness of soul it is to fight with the powers of the mind unshaken against so many attacks of devastation and death, what sublimity to stand erect amidst the ruins of the human race and not to lie prostrate with those who have no hope in God, and to rejoice rather and embrace the gift of the occasion, which, while we are firmly expressing our faith, and having endured sufferings, are advancing to Christ by the narrow way of Christ, we should receive as the reward of His way and faith, He himself being our judge!” (Chapter 14, 210)
The pandemic devastated the Roman world of that time, and Cyprian encouraged Christians, even using the fact that the plague would spare them martyrdom as part of the encouragement. He also encouraged potential martyrs by saying that they would be spared diseases and other horrible forms of natural death if they die for the faith (Liber de Laude Martyrii, “On the Glory of Martyrdom, Section 8, 1032).
Underlying both arguments, Cyprian makes the distinction between Christians, who have hope in the next life, and those unbelievers who do not, which makes all the difference in facing suffering and death. Kyle Harper notes that there are Christian and pagan records from this period, and their respective takes on the pandemic are telling. While the believers in the Roman gods found their faith shaken by the suffering caused by the plague, Christians, as encouraged by Cyprian, drew strength from their faith and hoped for the life to come.
Harper recounts how in legends about Gregory the WonderWorker of the Neocaesarea in Pontus, for example, “the plague was a pivotal episode in the Christianization of the community” (156). Christians’ response to it, like their response to martyrdom, drew others to the faith.
Cornelius, unlike his prolific friend Cyprian, did not write about the plague. However, surely if it impacted the bringing in of converts, the pandemic would have led to an increased interest by the Roman government in suppressing the new faith, and that result would have a huge impact on his papacy and personal life. The persecution and how to deal with those who lapsed under its weight was crucial to Cornelius’ and Cyprian’s lives and, of course, ultimately their own deaths at the hands of the Roman government.
As is commonly known, the early church suffered waves of persecution, beginning with sporadic outbursts, but, beginning with Nero’s purge of Christians whom he scapegoated for the fire of Rome in 64 CE, there came wave after wave of general Roman persecution of Christians, though there were periods of respite in between. To clarify, Christians were not persecuted for worshipping Christ. The Roman empire was tolerant of a wide array of deities, both foreign and local; from the Roman perspective, one additional god among the many others was not a problem. However, it was the refusal of Christians to share in the state’s demands for emperor worship and/or sacrifice to the gods of Rome on behalf of the emperor that was seen by the Romans as treasonous.
Jews, being monotheists like Christians, had been granted a long-standing exemption from such polytheistic rituals, but as Christians became less identified with their Jewish roots, such exemptions did not apply to them. This left them vulnerable to the sporadic persecutions that grew intense under emperors like Decian, who came to power in 249 CE.
Perhaps a reader might question how this situation relates to the church in the 21st century. However, as Pope Francis said in a sermon in August of 2020: "The age of martyrs is not yet over, even today we can say, in truth, that the Church has more martyrs now than during the first centuries. The Church has many men and women who are maligned through calumny, who are persecuted, who are killed in hatred of Jesus, in hatred of the faith: some are killed because they teach the catechism, others are killed because they wear the cross ... Today, in many countries, they are maligned, they are persecuted ... they are our brothers and sisters who are suffering today, in this age of the martyrs” (“Pope Francis invites prayers for people persecuted for their religion,” Vatican News, 22 August 2020, 14:10). He has spoken about this issue more than once. The Pew Research Center confirms this point: “Indeed, the latest data shows that 52 governments – including some in very populous countries like China, Indonesia and Russia – impose either ‘high’ or ‘very high’ levels of restrictions on religion, up from 40 in 2007. And the number of countries where people are experiencing the highest levels of social hostilities involving religion has risen from 39 to 56 over the course of the study.” Of course, this data does not involve only Christians, but they represent a substantial part in these figures. The parallels between our time and the third century include a connection in the area of persecution.
The Decian persecution came after a relatively peaceful time for Christians, in which they had enjoyed little, if any, Roman persecution for several years. However, it descended on the Christian communities with a vengeance, and the first (or one of the first) victims was the Bishop of Rome, Fabian, martyred early in 250. Because the persecution was ongoing, a successor was not named until about a year later – Cornelius, who became Bishop of Rome relatively early in 251. To be Pope at this time was a very dangerous job, as attested to by the Crypt of the Popes in the Catacombs of Callixtus in Rome, where some nine popes were buried (Cornelius being entombed nearby the crypt, not in it, nearby Cyprian). Many of these tombs were marked “Epi.Mpt”, the Greek abbreviation for “Bishop and Martyr” as most of the early popes died a martyr’s death. Cornelius himself died such a death in 253 as the persecution of Christian continued, though Decius himself had died.
During the Decian persecution, many Christians suffered martyrdom. However, some Christians succumbed to the intense threats of torture and death to which they were subjected and either denied the faith by sacrificing or, as a kind of compromise, purchased a certificate (called a libellus) stating falsely that they had sacrificed when they had not. When the persecution temporarily let up, the church, led by Cornelius, had to deal with these lapsed believers, “the lapsi”, as they were called in Latin, when they wanted to return to the church. Could they be readmitted after confession and a period of repentance? Or were the lapsed guilty of such a serious sin (apostasy) that they were forever cut off from the church and could not be readmitted? The question became so contentious that it polarised the church, and the new Pope, Cornelius, had to grapple with this painful issue.
What Cornelius promulgated was mercy. The lapsed believers could be readmitted to the community of the church, the ecclesia, after confession and repentance. Cyprian, who supported the position of Cornelius, wrote a lengthy essay, De Lapsi (on the Lapsed) in which he explains both the seriousness of renouncing the faith (a sin not to be taken lightly by lapsed believers wanting to return) but also the mercy of the church that could and would receive them if they repented and did penance. The last lines of this text explain how a lapsed believer can be readmitted after serious penance: “He who has made such satisfaction to God, he who by his repentance and shame for his sin, draws from the bitterness of his fall a fresh fund of valour and loyalty, shall by the help he has won from the Lord, rejoice the heart of the Church, whom he has so lately pained; he will earn not merely God’s forgiveness, but His crown” (42). A synod of African bishops held in Carthage confirmed the ability of the Church to extend forgiveness to repentant lapsi through the sacrament of penance, and before the death of Cornelius, the position of the church was confirmed in terms of mercy and forgiveness.
But this resolution did not occur before a very serious schism occurred in the church. A Roman priest, Novatian, felt Cornelius and other sympathetic bishops were being too lax with the lapsed believers seeking to return to the church. He and other like-minded clergy and other Christians, including some Confessors (i.e. those who had suffered for the faith, without renouncing it, but had not been killed) rose up against the duly elected Pope Cornelius. Novatian went so far as to set himself up as a rival Pope, and some followers supported him. Cornelius called a synod in Rome, which excommunicated Novatian, and he also wrote to Cyprian for support. Cyprian not only wrote back to Cornelius, but wrote a very important treatise entitled The Unity of the Catholic Church.
It is a powerful statement on the synodality of the early church, the unity of bishops in harmony with the Bishop of Rome and ultimately Cornelius was supported by the consensus of the church, including the African bishops (more than 150, at this time, Letters, Introduction, x). Cyprian, referring to those, like Novatian, who were breaking with the church universal and its duly elected Pope, Cornelius, over an inflated sense of rigorous enforcement of what they believed was church teaching, warns that they are guilty of a sin worse than those they would condemn by breaking the unity of the church.
He says: “This crime is a greater one than that which the lapsed, no doubt, have committed; but these, becoming penitents for their crime, are at least calling upon God’s mercy by making satisfaction for it to the full. In their case the Church is being sought and appealed to, in the other the Church is repudiated; in the first there may have been a yielding to pressure, in the second the will persists in its guilt.” (Chapter 19, p. 17) The schismatics, Cyprian argued, were guilty of a much greater sin than those they were so harshly judging, a sin which they were unable to see in their pride and self-righteousness.
Cyprian exhorts the believers to return to the fervent love of the earliest Christians, the apostolic church, in its generosity as well as its unity. He says: “This common mind prevailed once, in the time of the Apostles; this was the spirit in which the new community of the believers obeyed Our Lord’s commands and maintained charity with one another…. But amongst us, that unity of mind has weakened in proportion as the generosity of our charity has crumbled away. In those days, they would sell their houses and estates and lay up to themselves treasure in heaven by giving the money to the Apostles for distribution to those in need. But now, we do not even give tithes on our patrimony, and whereas Our Lord tells us to sell, we buy instead and accumulate. To such an extent our active faith has withered among us…” (chapter 26, p. 67)
The call to unity and to mercy is rooted in a oneness enflamed by charity and devotion to the poor. Above all, it is rooted in a deep connection with Christ. If the church of the third century needed to heed Cyprian’s words, how much more needful are his words to the church today?
At that time, Cyprian, other bishops, and the consensus of the church overall confirmed Cornelius, the rightful Pope and the emblematic spokesperson for the mercy extended, not frivolously or cavalierly, but sincerely and lovingly, to the lapsed. Novatian and his followers were condemned (i.e. formally excommunicated by a synod in Rome, called by Cornelius) and their position about not receiving the repentant lapsed rejected by a synod held in Carthage (Cyprian, Letters, 44, note 7, and Introduction xvii – xviii). The church came down on the side of mercy and forgiveness, despite the enormous challenges of those times. As we look at the mosaic of Cornelius and Cyprian from the Catacombs of Callixtus, and as we hear their names mentioned, one right after the other, in the First Eucharistic Prayer whenever it is said, we should try to remember these two saints, asking them to join us in prayer for our own Holy Father and our church, for the unity and mercy foundational to being a follower of Christ, and so badly needed in these troubled times, as it was in theirs.
References
Cyprian, The Lapsed and The Unity of the Catholic Church. Trans. and Annotated by Maurice Bevenot, S. J. The Newman Press and Longmans, Green and Co., 1957.
….... Letters (1-81). Trans. Sister Rose Bernard Donna, C. S. J. The Fathers of the Church. Catholic University Press, 1964.
……. The Letters of St. Cyprian, Vol. 1. Letters 1-27. Trans. and Annotated by G. W. Clarke. Ancient Christian Writers. Newman Press, NY/Ramsey, NJ, 1984.
……. Liber de Laude Martyrii, On the Glory of Martyrdom. Trans. Phillip Schaff. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.html
Harper, Kyle. The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire. Princeton University Press, 2017.
The Pew Research Center. “A Closer Look at How Religious Restrictions Have Risen Around the World.” July 15, 2019.
Reis, Sr. Bernadette. “Pope Francis invites prayers for people persecuted for their religion.” Vatican News, 22 August 2020, 14:10.
Saint Cyprian, and Roy J. Deferrari. Trans. Mortality in Treatises. Catholic University of America Press, 1958.
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