On the Lapsed 2
Summary: Cyprian welcomes the confessors who resisted sacrifice, and praises equally those who stood firm by refusing to sacrifice even if they were not arrested.
Latin text · CSEL 3.1:237–238
Confessores praeconio boni nominis claros et uirtutis ac fidei laudibus gloriosos laetis conspectibus intuemur, sanctis osculis adhaerentes desideratos diuina et inexplebili cupiditate conplectimur. adest militum Christi cors candida, qui persecutionis urgentis ferociam turbulentam stabili congressione fregerunt, parati ad patientiam carceris, armati ad tolerantiam mortis. repugnastis fortiter saeculo, spectaculum gloriosum praebuistis Deo, secuturis fratribus fuistis exemplo. religiosa uox Christum locuta est, in quem se semel credidisse confessa est: inlustres manus quae non nisi diuinis operibus adsueuerant sacrificiis sacrilegis restiterunt: sanctificata ora caelestibus cibis post corpus et sanguinem Domini profana contagia et idolorum reliquias respuerunt: ab inpio sceleratoque uelamine quo illic uelabantur sacrificantium capita captiua caput uestrum liberum mansit: frons cum signo Dei pura diaboli coronam ferre non potuit, coronae se Domini reseruauit. quam uos laeto sinu excipit mater ecclesia de proelio reuertentes! quam beata, quam gaudens portas suas aperit, ut adunatis agminibus intretis de hoste prostrato tropaea referentes! cum triumphantibus uiris et feminae ueniunt quae cum saeculo sexum quoque uicerunt. ueniunt et geminata militiae suae gloria uirgines et pueri annos suos uirtutibus transeuntes. nec non et cetera stantium multitudo uestram gloriam sequitur, proximis et paene coniunctis laudis insignibus uestigia uestra comitatur. eadem et in illis sinceritas cordis, eadem fidei tenacis integritas. inconcussis praeceptorum caelestium radicibus nixos et euangelicis traditionibus roboratos non praescripta exsilia, non destinata tormenta, non rei familiaris et corporis supplicia terruerunt. explorandae fidei praefiniebantur dies: sed qui saeculo renuntiasse se meminit nullum saeculi diem nouit, nec tempora terrena iam conputat qui aeternitatem de Deo sperat.
English · Claude translation
We gaze with joyful eyes on the confessors, illustrious with the renown of a good name and glorious with the praises of courage and faith; clinging to them with holy kisses, we embrace those we have longed for with a divine and insatiable desire. Here is the white-robed cohort of Christ's soldiers, who broke the turbulent ferocity of the pressing persecution by their steadfast encounter, ready to endure prison, armed to bear death. You have fought bravely against the world; you have presented a glorious spectacle to God; you have been an example to the brothers who will follow. Your devout voice has spoken Christ, in whom it has confessed that it believed once for all. Your illustrious hands, which had been accustomed only to divine works, have resisted the sacrilegious sacrifices. Your mouths, sanctified by heavenly food after the body and blood of the Lord, have spat out profane contagion and the leavings of idols. Your heads have remained free of the impious and wicked veil with which the captive heads of those who sacrificed were veiled there. Your brow, pure with the sign of God, could not wear the devil's crown; it has kept itself for the Lord's crown. How gladly mother church receives you in her bosom as you return from battle! How blessed, how joyful she opens her gates, that you may enter in united ranks, bringing back trophies from the defeated enemy! With the triumphant men come women too, who have conquered their sex along with the world. Virgins come too, with the doubled glory of their warfare, and boys surpassing their years in courage. And the rest of the multitude of those who stood firm follows your glory, and accompanies your footsteps with marks of praise close to yours and almost joined with them. In them too there is the same sincerity of heart, the same soundness of tenacious faith. Resting on the unshaken roots of the heavenly precepts and strengthened by the gospel traditions, they were not terrified by the exiles prescribed, the tortures appointed, the penalties against property and body. Days were fixed in advance for testing faith; but he who remembers that he has renounced the world knows no day of the world, and he who hopes for eternity from God no longer counts earthly times.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- “The veil” refers to the Roman rite of sacrificing with covered head (capite velato); “the devil's crown” to the garlands worn at sacrifice. “Those who stood firm” (stantes) are Christians who neither sacrificed nor were tried. The body and blood of the Lord refer to the Eucharist. The spectacle presented to God echoes 1 Cor 4:9.
Cite this passage
Cyprian, Laps. 2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/2/).
Plain text
Cyprian, Laps. 2 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/cyprian-lapsis/2/).
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