Ante-Nicene Fathers (Volume 5) - XIX - Epistles of Cyprian XXX to XL

Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Vol 5) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Epistles XXX to XL.

My summary
Today we read letters from:
(i) Roman clergy to Cyprian;
(ii) Cyprian to the Carthaginian clergy and congregation;
(iii) Cyprian to Caldonius, Herculanus, Rogatianus, Numidicus and their colleagues;
(iv) Caldonius, Herculanus, Victor, Rogatianus, Numidicus and their colleagues to Cyprian.

The subject of the letters today are concerned with:
(i) the lapsed;
(ii) the confessors, including those still in prison;
(iii) the martyrs;
(iv) the ordination of Aurelius, Celerinus, Numidicus;
(v) the care of the poor, sick and strangers;
(vi) the excommunication of Felicissimus.

What grabbed me
I enjoyed reading Cyprian's testimony about Celerinus in relation to his ordination as a reader: 'This man was the first in the struggle of our days; he was the leader among Christ's soldiers; he, in the midst of the burning beginnings of the persecution, engaged with the very chief and author of the disturbance, in conquering with invincible firmness the adversary of his own conflict. He made a way for others to conquer; a victor with no small amount of wounds, but triumphant by a miracle, with the long-abiding and permanent penalties of a tedious conflict. For nineteen days, shut up in the close guard of a dungeon, he was racked and in irons; but although his body was laid in chains, his spirit remained free and at liberty. His flesh wasted away by the long endurance of hunger and thirst; but God fed his soul, that lived in faith and virtue, with spiritual nourishments. He lay in punishments, the stronger for his punishments; imprisoned, greater than those that imprisoned him; lying prostrate, but loftier than those who stood; as bound, and firmer than the links which bound him; judged, and more sublime than those who judged him; and although his feet were bound on the rack, yet the serpent was trodden on and ground down and vanquished. In his glorious body shine the bright evidences of his wounds; their manifest traces show forth, and appear on the man's sinews and limbs, worn out with tedious wasting away. Great things are they—marvellous things are they—which the brotherhood may hear of his virtues and of his praises. And should any one appear like Thomas, who has little faith in what he hears, the faith of the eyes is not wanting, so that what one hears he may also see. In the servant of God, the glory of the wounds made the victory; the memory of the scars preserves that glory.'

Celerinus' wounds qualify him for the office!

Next week's reading
Read Epistles XLI to LI.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.