The Ecstasy of St. Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598–1680), Date: 1647–52, Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy
Bible connection
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. — Romans 13:8-10
All about Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Teresa of Avila (Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda Dávila y Ahumada, also called Teresa of Jesus) was a Spanish contemplative, mystic, and theologian.
This story from her childhood is often told to show what kind of person she was. Teresa learned as a small child that one had to die in order to see God. She wanted to see God. So being practical and courageous by temperament, she devised a scheme. She planned to go to the land of the Moors with her brother, Rodrigo. There they would surely be martyred and go to heaven. Very early one morning the two children slipped away from their home and crossed the bridge leading out of Avila. But the plan soon ran into trouble. An uncle who happened to be entering Avila at the time, met the children, heard their fantastic plan and shooed them back to their parents.
Later on in life, Teresa realized that one does not have to die to see God.
“We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon Him present within us.”
These words contain three essential steps for what she named ”mental prayer.” First, we must be searching for God. Second, we must be willing to be alone with Him. And third, we only need to look upon our Lord who is present within us.
“The important thing in mental prayer is not to think much but to love much.”
Mental prayer becomes fruitful when we realize the gift of God dwelling within us. Referring to her earlier years in the convent, Teresa wrote these regretful words,
“I think that if I had understood then as I do now that this great King really dwells within a little palace of my soul, I should not have left Him alone so often and never allowed his dwelling place to get so dirty.”
Mental prayer, one learns, is nothing but our side of friendship with God—our “yes” to God’s call and invitation.
“Beginners do well to form an appealing image of Christ in His Sacred Humanity. They should picture Him within themselves in some mystery of His life, for example, the Christ of the agony or the Risen Savior in His glorified Body. Once they are conscious of Our Lord’s presence within their souls they need only look upon Him and conversation will follow. This friendly conversation will not be much thinking but much loving, not a torrent of words, much less a strained prepared speech, but rather a relaxed conversation with moments of silence as there must be between friends.”
One of the profound things she is known to have said matches the Bible reading for today, “It is love alone that gives worth to all things.”
Teresa was active during the Counter Reformation (1545 to about 1648). She became the central figure of a movement of spiritual and monastic renewal, reforming the Carmelite Orders of both women and men. She was later joined in the movement by the younger Carmelite friar and mystic John of the Cross. He became her companion and together they established the Discalced (Barefoot) Carmelites.
Teresa was the first of only four women who have been named “doctor of the church” among Roman Catholics. Her ascetic doctrine and Carmelite reforms shaped Roman Catholic contemplative life, and her writings on the Christian soul’s journey to God are considered masterpieces.
Paul reminds us that love is the only thing we owe each other. It is a continuing debt. It is a debt that gives worth to our lives. We are compelled to love each other regardless of the circumstances. For some of us, that seems like a lot. But the fact remains that each one of us is loved and as loved ones in the world we have the capacity to love others. When we go ahead and make payments toward that debt, we fulfill God’s vision for the world.
Meditate on Teresa’s wisdom:
Christ has no body now but mine. He prays in me, works in me, looks through my eyes, speaks through my words, works through my hands, walks with my feet and loves with my heart.
We may speak of love and humility as the true flowers of spiritual growth; and they give off a wonderful scent, which benefits all those who come near.
Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” — Exodus 3:7-12
All about Simon Kimbangu (1887–1951)
The Portuguese explorer, Diogo Cao, was looking for a route to India when he sailed into the Congo River in 1482. Catholic missionaries arrived a decade later. They baptized kings and chieftains who imposed Christianity on their people, but their success was superficial. The gods of ancient ancestors continued to reign supreme. When Protestant missionaries began to arrive in the 1870s, they found a popular pagan piety lightly embellished with Christian touches, including a belief that crosses conveyed magical powers.
British Baptists came to Africa to save souls but are also known for their paternalistic and patronizing attitude toward the native people, viewing them as depraved children who needed the white man’s correctives. Simon Kimbangu was an infant when he received a blessing from a Baptist missionary. His aunt sent him to a school run by the Baptists when his parents died. He stayed for many years. He and his wife were baptized there in 1915. He became a lay preacher and evangelist there in 1918. It was at the mission that he began experiencing the visions that would change his life.
He was nearly 30 when he heard a call from God: “I am Christ. My servants are unfaithful. I have chosen you to bear witness before your brethren and to convert them. Tend my flock.” Like Moses, he argued, “I am not trained.” And like Jonah he fled his village to work in distant oil fields.
But the call hounded him. He finally returned home from the oil fields to preach the Word. The results were striking. Kimbangu became one of the African Apostles of the early 1900’s. Women gave up their pagan fetishes. Men gave up all but one of their wives. Then in 1921 the healings began. A sick woman got out of her bed and walked. A dead child was reportedly raised to life. And a blind man named Ngoma regained his sight after the prophet daubed his eyes with paste made of soil and saliva.
Soon thousands of people left their jobs and flocked to N’Kamba in Central Africa to see the Holy Spirit’s power and hear the prophet. Although his fame frightened white religious leaders and colonial government officials who suspected unorthodox theology, and feared competition, economic disruption and rebellion, Kimbangu’s message was generally both orthodox and apolitical. None of his sermons survive, but followers described him as a humble and sober man who taught submission to authorities and racial reconciliation.
Nevertheless, European missionaries resisted his efforts. One charged the prophet with unforgivable sins against Caucasian Christianity: “Kimbangu wants to found a religion which is in accord with the mentality of the African.”
Government officials acted on their fears. The first attempt to capture Kimbangu came on June 6, 1921, but the prophet escaped in a way his followers described as a miracle. Three months later, however, he voluntarily gave himself up. Charged with sedition and hostility to whites, he was sentenced to death. They punished the prophet with 120 lashes and packed him off to a solitary cell in a far-off prison, 1200 miles away in what is now Lubumbashi. They hoped that would take care of the “crackbrained” Simon Kimbangu and the gullible fanatics who followed him. But they were mistaken. Concerned Protestants had the sentence reduced to life in prison, and Kimbangu languished in the Elizabethville prison for decades, where he died.
Papa Salomon Dialungana Kiangani (1916-2001)
Solomon Dialungana, one of his three sons, said, “Just as the work of Jesus was carried on by the apostles after His death, the same was true of the prophet Simon Kimbangu.” His sons guided their father’s movement through heretical schisms and government persecution.
Officials clamped down on Kimbangu’s rapidly expanding following. They forbade them from holding public meetings, deported as many as 100,000 to distant areas of Africa, and killed as many as 150,000. “We have been forsaken by both Catholics and Protestants,” said one distraught follower. But the Kimbanguist movement kept growing. The forced deportations only spread the movement throughout the continent.
Persecuted followers poured their sorrow into hymns that were collected by the Belgian authorities: “Jesus was a prisoner,/ Jesus was smitten./ They are smiting us, too./ We, the blacks, are prisoners./ The whites are free.” Another hymn describing the armor of God was misinterpreted by colonial officials as a call for armed rebellion: “We who are carrying on our cause/ Let us be clothed and armed!/ Jesus will protect us./ Let us clothe and arm ourselves!”
Diangienda describes his father’s role in the booklet “The Beloved City”:
“Our fathers cried for a ‘chief,’ a saviour, but no saviour came, until they said in resignation that God did not know us black people. He only knew the whites. . . . The people hid from the missionaries and remained in the grasp of fetishism, of witchcraft, and of other evil practices. Then on 6 April 1921, the first miracle occurred. . . .
“Through Simon Kimbangu, who was obedient to God, the promises of Jesus have been fulfilled and the Name of the Father and the Son has been glorified. Through him the Congolese realized that God and Jesus had turned to us in mercy. The sorrow and suffering of our fathers had been heard by God the Father, and our tears were wiped away.”
Eventually, on Christmas Eve 1959, the Kimbanguist Church was recognized by the Belgian government, as equal to Catholic and Protestant and could then could conduct themselves freely. In 1969 Eglise de Jésus Christ sur la Terre par Son Envoyé Spécial Simon Kimbangu was included in the World Council of Churches.
A 2008 French news article on Kimbanguist worship:
Article: Is the Holy Spirit living in Africa? — BBC News.
MCC has a long relationship with partners in the Congo.
What do we do with this?
The followers of Simon Kimbangu learned that black lives matter in the middle of one of the most repressive colonial regime ever perpetrated on a people. He challenges us to have a voice.
In a pluralistic society like the United States, how do we work together all sorts of expressions into an indigenous whole? How do you unite instead of divide?
Pray for the Congo. The legacy of racism, slavery and colonialism have a long half-life.
Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. — Hebrews 13:3
All about Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845)
Elizabeth Fry was a pioneering campaigner for better conditions in prisons during the the long reign of Queen Victoria in England (the “Victorian Era”).
She was born Elizabeth Gurney in 1780, in Norwich, England to a prominent Quaker family. Her father was a partner in Gurney’s Bank, and her mother was a relative of the Barclay family, who founded Barclays Bank. After her mother died when she was 12, she took an active role in bringing up her other siblings. When Elizabeth was 18, she was influenced by the humanitarian message of William Savery, an American Quaker who spoke of the importance of tackling poverty and injustice. She was inspired to help local charities and a local Sunday School, which taught children to read. When she was 20, she married Joseph Fry, who was a tea merchant and a Quaker. They moved to London where they had eleven children.
Elizabeth was a strict observant; as a Quaker Minister she didn’t engage in activities like dancing and singing. However, she was well connected in London society and often met influential members of the upper-middle classes of London.
The infamous Newgate prison before demolition
Around 1812, she made her first visit to Newgate Prison, which housed both men and women prisoners, some of who were awaiting trial. Fry was shocked at the squalid and unsanitary conditions in which she found the prisoners. She saw how the environment fermented both bad health and violence. In 1813, she wrote:
“All I tell thee is a faint picture of reality; the filth, the closeness of the rooms, the furious manner and expressions of the women towards each other, and the abandoned wickedness, which everything bespoke are really indescribable.”
She spent the night in prison to get a better idea of what conditions were like. She sought to improve conditions by bringing in clean clothes and food. She also encouraged prisoners to look after themselves better; for example, she suggested rules that they could vote on themselves. She felt her mission was:
” … to form in them, as much as possible, those habits of sobriety, order, and industry, which may render them docile and peaceable while in prison, and respectable when they leave it.”
She would put a better-educated prisoner in charge and encourage them to cooperate in keeping their cells cleaner and more hygienic. Fry felt one of the most important things was to give prisoners a sense of self-respect which would help them to reform, rather than fall into bad habits and become re-offenders.
She wrote a book Prisons in Scotland and the North of England (1819) and encouraged her fellow society friends to go and visit the prison to see conditions for themselves. She told her readers:
“It must indeed be acknowledged, that many of our own penal provisions, as they produce no other effect, appear to have no other end, than the punishment of the guilty.”
Elizabeth Fry reading to the prisoners in Newgate jail in 1816, accompanied by JJ Gurney, Dorcas Covetry, Thomas Fowell Buxton, and Samuel Gurney.
In 1817, she founded the Association for the Reformation of the Female Prisoners in Newgate; this later became the British Ladies’ Society for Promoting the Reformation of Female Prisoners. It was one of the first nationwide women’s organizations in Britain. The aims of the organization were:
“to provide for the clothing, the instruction, and the employment of these females, to introduce them to knowledge of the holy scriptures, and to form in them as much as lies in our power, those habits of order, sobriety, and industry which may render them docile and perceptible whilst in prison, and respectable when they leave it.”
In 1818, Fry became the first women to give evidence at a House of Commons committee, during an inquiry into British prisons. In 1825, she published an influential book: Observations of the Siting, Superintendence and Government of Female Prisoners. It gave details for improving penal reforms. Fry’s unique contribution was her willingness to bring up an unpopular topic others left untouched. She she also insisted on practical steps to improve prison conditions.
As well as campaigning for better prisons, Fry also established a night shelter for the homeless, after she encountered a young boy dead on the street. In 1824, she instituted the Brighton District Visiting Society, which arranged for volunteers to visit the homes of the poor to offer education and material aid. She also established a nursing school, which later inspired Florence Nightingale to take a team of nurses, trained in Fry’s school, to Crimea. She was supported in her work by her husband, but after he went bankrupt in 1828, her brother, a banker, stepped in to provide funds and support.
Fry became well known in society; she was granted a few audiences with Queen Victoria who was a strong supporter of her work. Another royal admirer was Frederick William IV of Prussia. In an unusual move for a visiting monarch, the king went to see Fry in Newgate prison and was deeply impressed by her work. The Home Office Minister Robert Peel was also an admirer. In 1823, he led in passing the Gaol Act which sought to legislate for minimum standards in prisons. This went some way to improve conditions in prison in London but was not enforced in debtors prisons or local gaols (jails) around the country.
At the time, it was unusual for a woman to have an active public profile and move out of the confines of the home. Particularly in the early years, Fry was criticized for neglecting her role as mother and housewife. Lord Sidmouth, the home secretary preceding Peel, rejected her criticisms of the prisons. In this regard, she can be seen as an important figure in giving women a higher profile in public affairs. She could be seen as an early feminist and forerunner of the later suffragists, who campaigned for women to be given the vote.
Conviction causes us to take risks. Maybe you don’t have the intelligence, imagination and courage of Elizabeth Fry, but what do you have? What is a need you can enter today? Who can you comfort? Who is in “jail” in some way and you can remember them and suffer with them?
St. Francis Renouncing his Worldly Goods by Giotto, c.1320, Basilica di Santa Croce, Florence, Italy
Bible connection
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life. (Matthew 6:25-7)
All about Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)
Francis of Assisi was born around 1181 and died in his forties on October 3, 1226 (but his feast day is Oct. 4 for various reasons). He was born as John Francis (son of) Bernard (Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone) to a wealthy cloth merchant. He enjoyed a luxurious and wordly lifestyle in his youth.
He fought as a soldier for Assisi. But while at war, he had the first of many experiences that called him to a life of poverty, community and restoration of the church. Shortly after he returned to Assisi after a battle, he began to give witness of his newfound Love in the streets. Soon a group of young men were travelling with him. His influence generated the Franciscan order, the Order of St. Clare and the Third Order Franciscans.
Francis impacted thousands of people during his relatively short ministry. He was seen as a beacon of light during a period of corruption and darkness in the Church. He is still highly regarded and still gathering followers today.
The oldest surviving depiction of Saint Francis is a fresco near the entrance of the Benedictine abbey of Subiaco, painted between March 1228 and March 1229.
Not long after his return to Assisi, whilst Francis was praying before an ancient crucifix in the forsaken wayside chapel of St. Damian’s below the town, he heard a voice saying: “Go, Francis, and repair my house, which as you see is falling into ruin.” Taking this behest literally, as referring to the ruinous church wherein he knelt, Francis went to his father’s shop, impulsively bundled together a load of coloured drapery, and mounting his horse hastened to Foligno, then a mart of some importance, and there sold both horse and stuff to procure the money needful for the restoration of St. Damian’s. When, however, the poor priest who officiated there refused to receive the gold thus gotten, Francis flung it from him disdainfully. The elder Bernardone, a most niggardly man, was incensed beyond measure at his son’s conduct, and Francis, to avert his father’s wrath, hid himself in a cave near St. Damian’s for a whole month. When he emerged from this place of concealment and returned to the town, emaciated with hunger and squalid with dirt, Francis was followed by a hooting rabble, pelted with mud and stones, and otherwise mocked as a madman. Finally, he was dragged home by his father, beaten, bound, and locked in a dark closet.
Freed by his mother during Bernardone’s absence, Francis returned at once to St. Damian’s, where he found a shelter with the officiating priest, but he was soon cited before the city consuls by his father. The latter, not content with having recovered the scattered gold from St. Damian’s, sought also to force his son to forego his inheritance. This Francis was only too eager to do; he declared, however, that since he had entered the service of God he was no longer under civil jurisdiction. Having therefore been taken before the bishop, Francis stripped himself of the very clothes he wore, and gave them to his father, saying: “Hitherto I have called you my father on earth; henceforth I desire to say only ‘Our Father who art in Heaven’.” Then and there, as Dante sings, were solemnized Francis’s nuptials with his beloved spouse, the Lady Poverty, under which name, in the mystical language afterwards so familiar to him, he comprehended the total surrender of all worldly goods, honours, and privileges. And now Francis wandered forth into the hills behind Assisi, improvising hymns of praise as he went. “I am the herald of the great King”, he declared in answer to some robbers, who thereupon despoiled him of all he had and threw him scornfully in a snow drift. Naked and half frozen, Francis crawled to a neighbouring monastery and there worked for a time as a scullion. At Gubbio, whither he went next, Francis obtained from a friend the cloak, girdle, and staff of a pilgrim as an alms. Returning to Assisi, he traversed the city begging stones for the restoration of St. Damian’s. These he carried to the old chapel, set in place himself, and so at length rebuilt it.
The Little Flowers of St. Francis sealed the image of Francis which was ultimately passed down. The order went through a predictable fracturing after he died. The original spirit was suppressed by the church and by members who wanted more conformity to established monastic practices. The Little Flowers, compiled at the end of the 1300’s, collects some tales that were stashed in attics or hidden from the authorities and included some new stories by a series of authors. Some of your favorite stories come from this book (free to read online) and from the Giotto paintings in the Basilica in Assisi.
More
Biography from the National Shrine in San Francisco. [link]
The movie: Brother Sun, Sister Moon trailer. [Buy or rent on Prime]. Francis is pictured as a representative of the spirit of the 70’s and the desire of young people for something greater than the corrupt institutions of church and state were offering.
The great conversion scene from the movie (careful, he gets naked):
Another movie: The Flowers of St. Francis, a 1950 film directed by Roberto Rossellini and co-written by Federico Fellini. This captures the spontaneous and joyful spirit that St Francis embodied. Here is another more recent Italian TV movie.
A fan mashed LeeAnn Womack with scenes from another movie Clare and Francis [or YouTube] to prove how his story is timeless. [link]
Hans Kung, the great Catholic theologian, writes a great post about the first pope to take the name Francis.
What do we do with this?
“Francis’ all-night prayer, ‘Who are you, O God, and who am I?’ is probably a perfect prayer, because it is the most honest prayer we can offer.”—Richard Rohr in Eager to Love
Francis has become so well known for relating to animals that most people think of him as a birdbath. But he was a wild and creative radical, deliberately unsuited for a garden. He took the way of monasticism, added joy to it, the restoration of loving relationships, and connection to the earth. Consider his example of simplicity, submission, community, and his mission of building the church. How can you and we find our own version of a radical restoration of a deteriorating church?
Mosaic of a lady with flowers — Bishapur Palace (ca. 260 CE)
Bible connection
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. — Matthew 5:10
All about Candida (ca. 280)
The Sassanian Empire lasted from 224-637, mainly in present-day Iraq and Iran. The ruins of Ctesiphon, its capital, are about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Its leaders generally championed Zoroastrianism. Nevertheless, Christianity steadily grew, partly due to deportation of several hundred thousand Christian inhabitants of Roman Syria, Cilicia and Cappadocia by Shapur I (240-270 AD), the king who famously captured the Roman Emperor Valerian in 260.
New cities and settlements were built in fertile but sparsely populated regions such as Khuzistan (east of the Tigris/Euphrates delta in Iran) and Meshan (the delta area in Iraq). Many Christians were employed in big construction projects. The city of Ahvaz (now an Iranian city of over a million people) soon became a significant cultural and educational center with its famous library and University of Gundishapur, home to scholars from all over the empire, including many Christians and Jews. The university is still operating — it is about a 3-hour drive east from Basra in Iraq. The area also became the center of silk production with many Christians involved in every aspect of production.
During the reign of Vahran II (276-293AD) persecution against Christians erupted. One of Vahran’s Christian concubines, Candida (also Qndyr’ or Qandira), was caught up in it. She became one of the first Persian Martyrs.
The persecutions were supported and even promoted by the powerful Zoroastrian high priest Kartir who in one inscription declared that Ahriman (the adversary of the main Zoroastrian deity, Ahura Mazda) suffered great blows:
“and the Yahud (Jews), Shaman (Buddhists), Brahman (Hindus), Nasara (Nazarenes), Kristiyan (Christians), Makdag (Baptists) and Zandik (Manicheans) were smashed in the empire, their idols destroyed, and the habitations of the idols annihilated and turned into abodes and seats of the gods.”
The following excerpt is from the translation of Candida’s martyr story by Sebastian P. Brock in “A Martyr at the Sasanid Court under Vahran II: Candida” — Analecta Bollandiana 96 (1978), 167-181. According to Brock, Candida’s dialogue with the king is embellished, but he does not doubt the basic historicity of the record. Regardless, the account is a reminder that Christian faithfulness often entails persecution. If we love Jesus there will be suffering.
Here are excerpts from The Martyrdom of Candida that give you the gist of her story:
Because of her astonishing beauty the king, on seeing [Candida], became enamored of her and gave orders that she should enter his bed-chamber; and he took her as a wife . . .
The blessed girl held on to her faith because she had been brought up by her parents as a Christian, and so she preserved her modesty and her faith intact. Even when she had the title of a king’s wife she demonstrated her true faith in God all the more, and she used to preach her Lord, our Lord Jesus Christ, openly to her companions and maids.
It was then that a pretext for her enemies was found, and they plotted to lay an accusation against her on the grounds of her faith, – for all her companions conformed to the king’s will and religion. And because they could find nothing else against her, apart from the pretext of her faith in God, they found an opening against her (in this), and spoke against her to the king, telling him: The one whom you love more than all the rest of us does not conform to your way of thinking but serves her own god and invokes him. Her companions accused her with these words, and when the king learnt this, he gave orders that she should enter his bed-chamber. Because of his love for her, he asked the believing girl in a wheedling way: What is your religion?
She told him: I learnt the truth and the faith from my parents; for I am a Christian, and I serve my Lord Jesus Christ, and I confess God his Father. I have nothing else beside his holy name. The king said to her in answer: You see how I love you above all my other wives, and you have honor in my kingdom, be obedient to me and abandon your religion in favor of mine; worship the Sun and the Fire, and honor the Water, so that my love for you may increase and I shall add to the honor you receive and make you chief queen in my realm.
The blessed girl…courageously and with joy told him: “Keep your honors, and give your position of authority to your wives who conform to your religion; for I believe in the true God, and I will not abandon Jesus Christ, or forsake his religion . . . I will not do your will in this, because the God whom I serve is the God of gods and Lord of lords who made heaven and earth and everything that is in them. In this I shall not be led astray, for all things created are guided by his decree.
Because the king’s love for Candida was so great, he was patient at her words, and kept on asking her many times in cases she might conform to his will. The more he used blandishments on her, the greater courage did she acquire, astonishing the king with the living words of the scriptures.
When he saw that all his blandishments were unsuccessful and that he could not turn her from her faith (in this way), he turned to terrible threats against her, hoping that she might abandon her firm position (or the truth), and swore by his gods that if she did not do his will he would destroy her in a horrible way.
On hearing these words from the king, she put on against him the armor of the strength of Christ and told the king: “Just as your blandishments were unable to bring me down from the truth of my faith, neither will your threats lessen my intent. Do with me whatever you like; don’t hold back, for I believe in my Lord Jesus Christ; he give me endurance against all your threats, and bring me to the kingdom of heaven.”
Then the wicked man gave orders that she be put in irons, and he had her hands and feet upon in fetters: a collar was put round her neck, and he gave orders that she should be given just enough bread and water to keep her alive, in case she might be frightened and do the king’s will . . . He learnt, however, that she was increasing all the more in her service of Christ and in the firmness of her faith, with the result that she was not even eating the food that was sent to her, but was serving (God) in prison in prayer and fasting.
When the king heard this . . . he said to her: “Aren’t you ashamed to prefer irons to gold, to seek ill-treatment in place of luxury, and to desire prison rather than the palace?” But the handmaid of Christ told the king in a loud voice: “These irons that you see me in are more desirable than a necklace of your pearls, because I have been thrown into them for the sake of Christ. Ill-treatment of (my) love for him is preferable to me than (all) your luxuries, and prison for his name’s sake is much better than your palace.”
With these words she inflamed the king’s anger. He gave orders that she be stretched out. They removed the irons and stripped the clothes from her body, and stood her stretched out naked in front of him, while four men flayed her. When they had struck her so many times that her blood ran, the king gave orders that she be put in the collar and taken around the city in chains, in case she might feel shame over the disgrace of her nakedness . . . When they had taken her around the city during the whole day, her courage increased all the more.
The king then ordered (one of) her breasts to be cut off . . . When they did this to her and made her go round the city streets, the blessed girl still gave thanks and praise to her Lord . . . When he saw her he said “Aren’t you ashamed at all this? Give in to me and I will give orders for you to be healed, and you shall have your (old) position of honor.” But the blessed girl told him: “You have no greater honor than this to give me, for you have already honored me with two different honors: first you have stripped me naked and flayed me, and secondly you have given me this gift from my own body into the palm of my hand.”
The king said to her: “If you rejoice in these gifts, I will give you another. At which he gave orders that her other breast be cut off . . . .
Here the manuscript begins to deteriorate
But the face of this disciple of Christ was radiant with joy, and her mouth was full of laughter and praise. She said with a loud voice: “I am going to (my) wedding feast [ ] sing for me with songs of thanksgiving [ ] and with hymns [ ] today, but in the world which does not pass away I have been betrothed . . .
Candida’s story was preserved in Nicomedia (an area in Turkey east of what is now Istanbul), a central area for the early development of the church. In that part of Syria, Christians emphasized reverence for martyrs. The Martyrdom of Candida is part of a manuscript with two other Nicomedian martyr accounts. The Chronicle of Seert (ninth century) preserves the only other record of her story. Given how scarce surviving records are, hers must have been considered an important story to remember.
The story of Candida follows the the general structure of the new genre of martyrdom stories developing in Nicomedia. 1) the Christian is brought to the attention of the authorities. 2) They are tempted to abandon their faith. 3) They are charged, often because they refuse to worship the empire’s deity. In the case of women, their refusal to marry is often the crime (as a threat to the economy and family, and to the subjugation of women). 4) The interrogation results in vehement refusal to comply. 5) The martyr is tortured and eventually killed. The narrative is sprinkled with miracles.
Candida does not have a saints day in the church, nor do we know her death day, so we placed her on Zoroastrian Jashan of Mihr (Celebration of Mithra), also known as Mehregan, October 2. This celebration was observed by the 4th century AD and a form of it continues today. In a predominantly Muslim Iran, it is one of several pre-Islamic festivals that continue to be celebrated by the public at large. Mithra was Roman Emperor Constantine’s (272-337) god until he added on Christianity.
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Present-day lovers of Iran map out the legend of the Sassanian Empire:
Let your mind wander to Iraq and Iran. The territory where the two nations meet has always been a battle ground. Rome, then Europe, then the U.S. have been successive invaders from the “west.” In the middle of the turmoil, Christianity took root and survives. One of the reasons it became attractive was because women of faith, like Candida, violated oppressive societal norms from the highest status to the lowest. Their innate freedom to be their true selves inspired faith in the Savior who freed them.
Consider how you look at the Middle East. Are all your thoughts clouded by the politics of empire or seeded with the inspiration of faith?
As with all the martyrs who are part of our transhistorical body, Candida’s death begs the question, “How do I resist the worship of the domination system’s gods?”
In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
All about William J. Seymour (1870-1922)
William Seymour died of a heart attack on September 28, 1922. He is widely considered the Father of Pentecostalism. He followed the Holy Spirit and developed a belief in the ecstatic spiritual gifts (entire sanctification which manifests in prophesy, speaking in tongues, and other expressions), even before he was gifted. When he was gifted, he needed to preach what he experienced.
He was first locked out of the California building to which he had been invited to speak. He eventually found another place to minister and soon developed a following that outgrew that building after a remarkable evening of God’s presence. He proceeded to find a larger place to preach and worship in Los Angeles. It was on the dirt floor in what became the famous building on Azusa St. that the Pentecostal revival began.
In a short time God began to manifest His power and soon the building could not contain the people. Now the meetings continue all day and into the night and the fire is kindling all over the city and surrounding towns. Proud, well-dressed preachers come in to “investigate.” Soon their high looks are replaced with wonder, then conviction comes, and very often you will find them in a short time wallowing on the dirty floor, asking God to forgive them and make them as little children. ― William Seymour, The Azusa Papers
To Seymour, tongues was not the only message of Azusa Street: “Don’t go out of here talking about tongues: talk about Jesus,” he admonished.
The greater expression of barrier breaking, Acts 2 tongues might be how blacks and whites were in one church. Seymour rejected racial barriers that plagued the Church at that time. Blacks and whites worked together in apparent harmony under the direction of a black pastor, a marvel in the days of Jim Crow segregation. One commentator said: “At Azusa Street, the color line was washed away in the Blood.”
What’s more, Seymour installed women as leaders (notably Lucy Farrow, a formerly enslaved woman and the niece of Frederick Douglass), which was almost universally opposed at the time. Seymour dreamed that Azusa Street was creating a new kind of church, one where a common experience in the Holy Spirit tore down old walls of racial, ethnic, and denominational differences.
Seymour quotes
I can say, through the power of the Spirit that wherever God can get a people that will come together in one accord and one mind in the Word of God, the baptism of the Holy Ghost will fall upon them, like as at Cornelius’ house.
So many today are worshiping in the mountains, big churches, stone and frame buildings. But Jesus teaches that salvation is not in these stone structures–not in the mountains—not in the hills, but in God.
The Pentecostal power, when you sum it all up, is just more of God’s love. If it does not bring more love, it is simply a counterfeit.
Many people today are sanctified, cleansed from all sin and perfectly consecrated to God, but they have never obeyed the Lord according to Acts 1, 4, 5, 8 and Luke 24: 39, for their real personal Pentecost, the enduement of power for service and work and for sealing unto the day of redemption. The baptism with the Holy Ghost is a free gift without repentance upon the sanctified, cleansed vessel. “Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Cor. 1: 21-22). I praise our God for the sealing of the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption
A great theater note on the Gospel at Colonus enlightens us about ecstatic spiritual gifts. [link]
What do we do with this?
Seymour would probably simply ask us to consider his observation: “Many people today are sanctified, cleansed from all sin and perfectly consecrated to God, but they have never obeyed the Lord according to Acts 1, 4, 5, 8 and Luke 24: 39, for their real personal Pentecost, the enduement of power for service and work and for sealing unto the day of redemption.” What would you say about yourself?
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
All about Henri Nouwen (1932-1996)
On this day in 1996, Father Henri Nouwen died at age 64. Born in the Netherlands, he taught in universities in Europe and at Yale, Harvard and Notre Dame in the U.S. The last decade of his life, he spent in the L’Arche community of Toronto, sharing his life with community members with severe disabilities. Henri’s transparency, intelligence and faith brought him many readers. He has led many of us to deeply value solitude and contemplative practices.
In this excerpt from The Way of the HeartHenri reflects on the call to solitude that led the Desert Fathers and Mothers (and us, still today) to understand their gifts by fleeing the shipwreck of the society of their day:
Our society is not a community radiant with the love of Christ, but a dangerous network of domination and manipulation in which we can easily get entangled and lose our soul. The basic question is whether we ministers of Jesus Christ have not already been so deeply molded by the seductive powers of our dark world that we have become blind to our own and other people’s fatal state and have lost the power and motivation to swim for our lives.
Other Nouwen quotes:
“As soon as we are alone…inner chaos opens up in us. This chaos can be so disturbing and so confusing that we can hardly wait to get busy again. Entering a private room and shutting the door, therefore, does not mean that we immediately shut out all our inner doubts, anxieties, fears, bad memories, unresolved conflicts, angry feelings and impulsive desires. On the contrary, when we have removed our outer distraction, we often find that our inner distraction manifest themselves to us in full force. We often use the outer distractions to shield ourselves from the interior noises. This makes the discipline of solitude all the more important.” ― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Making All Things New and Other Classics
“Aren’t you, like me, hoping that some person, thing, or event will come along to give you that final feeling of inner well-being you desire? Don’t you often hope: ‘May this book, idea, course, trip, job, country or relationship fulfill my deepest desire.’ But as long as you are waiting for that mysterious moment you will go on running helter-skelter, always anxious and restless, always lustful and angry, never fully satisfied. You know that this is the compulsiveness that keeps us going and busy, but at the same time makes us wonder whether we are getting anywhere in the long run. This is the way to spiritual exhaustion and burn-out. This is the way to spiritual death.” ― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World
“Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.” ― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
“For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God. I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life—pray always, work for others, read the Scriptures—and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself. I have failed many times but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.
Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by him?” The question is not “How am I to know God?” but “How am I to let myself be known by God?” And, finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but “How am I to let myself be loved by God?” God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.” ― Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
More
The Henri Nouwen Society can tell you everything: [link]
On Nouwen’s struggles with celibacy and orientation: [link]
What do we do with this?
Nouwen is famous for encouraging self-reliant and denial-ridden Christians to accept their neediness and self-delusion. He taught that healers are wounded, like Jesus.
Are you avoiding solitude because your outer distractions are helping you avoid your inner turmoil and the struggle of spiritual development? Probably. We hope your church is devoted to going deep with God. If so, they’ll be dealing with many people who are determined to stay shallow. Let God pull you under. Be receptive to being loved. Don’t get stuck avoiding the dreadful thought that you don’t love enough or are not loved well enough.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. — Ephesians 3:20-21
All about George MacDonald (1824-1905)
In very truth, a wise imagination, which is the presence of the spirit of God, is the best guide that man or woman can have; for it is not the things we see the most clearly that influence us the most powerfully; undefined, yet vivid visions of something beyond, something which eye has not seen nor ear heard, have far more influence than any logical sequences whereby the same things may be demonstrated to the intellect. It is the nature of the thing, not the clearness of its outline, that determines its operation. We live by faith, and not by sight. — George MacDonald, A Dish of Orts
George MacDonald, who died on September 18, 1905, spent his life putting this quote into practice. He was a prolific writer, constantly trying to light up the imagination and the hearts of his readers, to open up their spiritual sight. He consistently created scenarios in his fiction in which God’s love and the New Creation could be encountered from a new angle. He asked “What if?” and followed it far beyond the conventional wisdom of his day. He banked on what could not be described and for that many consider him a mystic.
He loved exploring the character of God’s Fool.He created countless characters and circumstances that helped us to see ordinary things with new eyes. In many novels and stories he imagines a person who knows the foolishness of Christ so intuitively and completely that they just can’t fit into the norms of various British societies (often his home, Scotland). They are misunderstood almost to the point of absurdity, which delivers many plot twists and much inspiration for those of us wishing to be invasive separatists in our own time and place. Examples of this fool include, Sir Gibbe in the book by the same name, who is really the quintessential example; also Donal Grant’s mother in Donal Grant;David Elginbrod, the title character of his first novel; Ruby in The Back of the North Wind; and Dawtie in The Elect Lady.
The spiritual adventurer is the main character of his most well known fantasies, Phantastes and Lilith. There is a sequence at the end of Lilith which imagines heaven in such a beautiful, extended way it seems impossible. The protagonist wakes from his vision, reflects on his journey through the land of the dead to this beautiful heaven and wonders, “Was it a dream or a real journey and does that matter?”
MacDonald cites imagination as a source for faith. Believing our dreams to be given by God we can touch the truest nature of things that often lies beyond the perceptible.
In moments of doubt I cry,
“Could God Himself create such lovely things as I dreamed?”
“Whence then came thy dream?” answers Hope.
“Out of my dark self, into the light of my consciousness.”
“But whence first into thy dark self?” rejoins Hope.
“My brain was its mother, and the fever in my blood its father.”
“Say rather,” suggests Hope, “thy brain was the violin whence it issued, and the fever in thy blood the bow that drew it forth.—But who made the violin? and who guided the bow across its strings? Say rather, again—who set the song birds each on its bough in the tree of life, and startled each in its order from its perch? Whence came the fantasia? and whence the life that danced thereto? Didst THOU say, in the dark of thy own unconscious self, ‘Let beauty be; let truth seem!’ and straightway beauty was, and truth but seemed?”
Man dreams and desires; God broods and wills and quickens.
When a man dreams his own dream, he is the sport of his dream; when Another gives it him, that Other is able to fulfill it.
Princesses, witches, goblins and fairies abound in his fairy tales, for which he is probably most well known.
MacDonald says “For my part, I do not write for children, but for the childlike, whether of five, or fifty, or seventy-five.” His stories provide us with courage and loyalty for our own impossible tasks. The allegories between the fantastic world he paints and the spiritual world he perceives are thick and rich enough to walk on barefooted beyond the edge of your familiar spiritual paths. The tenderness of his language, though old fashioned and often even in the Scotch language (did you know there was a distinct Scotch dialect?) are difficult enough to be all consuming, intellectually and spiritually. They are worth the effort.
A less-known element of MacDonald’s life but one of his major occupations for 12 years was traveling with his family as itinerant performers of Dramatic Illustrations. His wife, Louisa saw these performances as her calling. During their first tour in 1877 he played Greatheart in their recasting of Bunyan’s famous Pilgrims Progress focused on the second part in which Christiana and her family follow her husband, Christian. He wrote to her that Fall in the spirit of their acting, “I have once of twice been tempted to feel abandoned ——in this messy and struggling house——-But it is only a touch of the Valley of Humiliation—-of the Hill of difficulty rather. ” [Christian History]
More
All of MacDonald’s works are in the public domain and can be read for free at Project Gutenberg. Also, LibriVox has recorded dozens of his works in audio format, many of which you can find in your podcast app.
Check out this great video that eloquently introduces his mysticism and his impact:
This entry emphasized MacDonald’s imaginative works but hisUnspoken Sermons is among the best of the gold mine of really good theology he wrote in several collections of sermons. [Another collection with an introduction]
What do we do with this?
Put a novel on your reading list, even if MacDonald is not your cup of tea.
Where does your imagination find a home? What goodness can you dream? What did you actually dream last night while you were sleeping? All of these are sometimes neglected, or underappreciated sources of revelation. Practice trusting beyond the intellect.
Perhaps you can grasp at revelation with your own art—language or otherwise. Share that feeling that is hard to describe. Attempt to illustrate God’s glory.
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows.And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say,or because of these surpassingly great revelations. — 2 Corinthians 12:2-7
All about Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)
Hildegard of Bingen lived from September 16, 1098 to September 17, 1179. She has been called by her admirers “one of the most important figures in the history of the Middle Ages,” and “the greatest woman of her time.” Her time was the century of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Peter Abelard and Bernard of Clairvaux, the time of the rise of the great universities and the building of Chartres cathedral.
At a time when few women wrote, Hildegard produced major works of theology and visionary writings. When few women were accorded respect, she was consulted by and advised bishops, popes, and kings. She used the curative powers of natural objects for healing, and wrote treatises about natural history and medicinal uses of plants, animals, trees and stones. She is the first composer of music whose biography is known. She founded a vibrant convent, where her musical plays were performed.
Revival of interest in this extraordinary woman of the middle ages has recently been initiated by musicologists and historians of science and religion. Her music also attracts “new age” followers. Now students of medieval history and culture are also likely to give her a proper place in their studies.
Hildegard was the daughter of a knight. When she was eight years old she went to the Benedictine monastery at Mount St. Disibode to be educated. The monastery was in the Celtic tradition, and housed both men and women (in separate quarters). When Hildegard was eighteen, she became a nun. Twenty years later, she was made the head of the female community at the monastery. Within the next four years, she had a series of visions, and devoted the ten years from 1140 to 1150 to writing them down, describing them (including pictures of what she had seen, as on this page), and commenting on their interpretation and significance. During this period, Pope Eugenius III sent a commission to inquire into her work. The commission found her teaching orthodox and her insights authentic, and reported so to the Pope, who sent her a letter of approval (or her legacy might have been different since people in her own time thought her visions might come from the devil). She wrote back urging the Pope to work harder for reform of the Church.
Hildegard’s mandela-like vision of choruses of angels surrounding God, who is depicted as a white space, signifying that the divine cannot be captured by an image
The community of nuns at Mount St. Disibode was growing rapidly, and they did not have adequate room. Hildegard accordingly moved her nuns to a location near Bingen, and founded a monastery for them completely independent of the double monastery they had left. She oversaw its construction, which included such features (not routine in her day) as water pumped in through pipes. The abbot they had left opposed their departure, and the resulting tensions took a long time to heal.
Hildegard traveled throughout southern Germany and into Switzerland and as far as Paris, preaching. Her sermons deeply moved the hearers, and she was asked to provide written copies. In the last year of her life, she was briefly in trouble because she provided Christian burial for a young man who had been excommunicated. Her defense was that he had repented on his deathbed, and received the sacraments. Her convent was subjected to an interdict which meant communion could not be served on their site, but she protested eloquently, and the interdict was eventually lifted shortly before she died.
Her surviving works include more than a hundred letters to emperors and popes, bishops, nuns, and nobility. Many persons of all classes wrote to her, asking for advice, and one biographer calls her “the Dear Abby of the twelfth century.” She wrote 72 works of song, including a play set to music. Musical notation had only shortly before developed to the point where her music was recorded in a way that we can read today. Accordingly, some of her work is now available, and presumably sounds the way she intended. She left us about seventy poems and nine books. Two of the books of medical and pharmaceutical advice, dealing with the workings of the human body and the properties of various herbs. She also wrote a commentary on the Gospels and another on the Athanasian Creed. Her major works are three books on theology: Scivias (“Know the paths!” ), Liber Vitae Meritorum (on ethics), and De OperationeDei. They deal (or at least the first and third do) with the material of her visions. The visions, as she describes them, are often enigmatic but deeply moving, and many who have studied them believe that they have learned something from the visions that is not easily put into words.
Quote
“Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around Him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God.”
What made Hildegard great was more than her genius. It was her prayer. Her visions matched those of Paul the Apostle’s (as seen in today’s reading). They motivated her as they motivated Paul. Prayer made her irrepressible.
What derives from your prayer? There is no substitute to devotion to knowing God and receiving Spirit to spirit.
Cyprian with his martyr’s crown. Mosaic in the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna (Click for more info)
Bible Connection
For this reason I kneel before the Father,from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called;one Lord, one faith, one baptism;one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. — Ephesians 3:14-4:6
Cyprian of Carthage (ca. 200-258)
Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus was the bishop of Carthage and an early Christian writer of Berber descent. Many of his Latin writings are extant.
Cyprian was born into a wealthy family, probably in Carthage, in present-day Tunisia. He took the additional name Caecilius in memory of the pastor to whom he owed his conversion. Before then, he was a leading member of a legal fraternity, an orator, a “pleader in the courts,” and a teacher of rhetoric (persuasive communication). He came to faith as an adult, being baptized when he was thirty-five years old.
When I was still lying in darkness and gloomy night, I used to regard it as extremely difficult and demanding to do what God’s mercy was suggesting to me… I myself was held in bonds by the innumerable errors of my previous life, from which I did not believe I could possibly be delivered, so I was disposed to acquiesce in my clinging vices and to indulge my sins… But after that, with the help of the water of new birth, the stain of my former life was washed away, and a light from above, serene and pure, was infused into my reconciled heart… a second birth restored me to a new man. Then, in a wondrous manner, every doubt began to fade… I clearly understood that what had first lived within me, enslaved by the vices of the flesh, was earthly and that what, instead, the Holy Spirit had wrought within me was divine and heavenly.
Not long after his baptism he was ordained a deacon and soon afterwards a priest (presbyter/elder). Sometime between July 248 and April 249, he was elected bishop of Carthage. That was a popular choice among the poor who remembered his generosity. However, his rapid rise did not meet with the approval of some senior members of the church leaders in Carthage.
Not long after Cyprian became bishop, a great crisis for the Church arose. Emperor Decius (249–251) issued a decree in 250 that all citizens must perform public sacrifice to the Roman gods. But for Christians, to offer sacrifices—sprinkling incense before a statue of the god or goddess—was idolatry. In fact it was apostasy, the denial or betrayal of Christ. Some Christians refused to sacrifice and were imprisoned or executed.
Potentially Novatian
Cyprian avoided martyrdom by going into hiding. He directed church affairs in secret. After the persecution died down, he faced a great pastoral question: what to do with the “lapsed” Christians, the ones who had performed the required sacrifice but who now wanted to be welcomed back as upright members of the Christian community. Some church leaders believed performing the sacrifice was unforgivable. Others were willing to accept the repentance of the lapsed and take them back into communion. Cyprian wanted to wait for a council of all the North African bishops to discuss the question. But a presbyter from North Africa named Novatian, who was one of the premier theologians at the time, teaching in Rome, refused his guidance. He and his allies began issuing letters of pardon according to their very strict idea of permanent penance, causing division in the church. Novatian had refused to sacrifice and was imprisoned. He claimed the way he endured persecution gave him the authority to forgive (or not). Some people think his attitude makes him the first Protestant.
During the Decian persecution, Pope Fabian was martyred. The persecution was so fierce it was impossible to elect a successor, so the papal seat remained vacant for a year. During this period the church was governed by several presbyters, including Novatian. When it became possible to confer, the bishops elected a moderate, Cornelius, to be Pope, overlooking Novatian. His faction persisted with a more rigorous position than Cornelius, and consecrated Novatian as pope in 251. He is known as the first anti-pope, competing with the duly-elected one, seating alternative bishops and sending out papal letters. He was excommunicated shortly afterwards, but the schismatic church he established persisted for several centuries.
In the Easter season of 251, when the council finally met, Cyprian’s address to it did not focus on the lapsed, but on the division Novatian created; it survives as On the Unity of the Catholic Church. Cyprian argued that, although the devil wages external war on the church through persecution, the more dangerous threat comes from the deceptive war he wages through heresy and division. Although made up of many individual congregations, the church is one: “The Church, bathed in the light of the Lord, spreads her rays throughout the world, yet the light everywhere diffused is one light and the unity of the body is not broken.”
For Cyprian the universal church’s unity was not a mere aspiration, but a fundamental reality. And how could one identify the one true church? He found the answer in the doctrine of apostolic succession, arguing that the authority to forgive sins, preach the gospel, and govern the church given to a bishop at ordination is ultimately derived from Christ and the apostles. Since Christ gave the authority to forgive sins to Peter and the other apostles, the only bishops who had that authority were those who received it in the line of apostolic succession. Those who claimed to be bishops outside this authority did not have the power to forgive sins. Since Novatian and his fellow leaders had set themselves up in authority rather than being consecrated as bishops at the hands of other bishops in the line of succession, he did not have the true authority of a bishop and certainly not as the pope.
Ultimately, the North African bishops sided with Cyprian. They allowed the lapsed back into communion if they sincerely repented, though at first those who had participated in heathen sacrifices were only allowed back upon their deathbed. Lapsed clergy could not resume their functions. Novatian’s fate is unknown. He may have died in the outbreak of terror that came under the next Emperor.
As if enough were not going on, about this time a plague spread through the Empire. One of the reasons we know about it is Cyprian’s writings. In De Mortatiltate he writes:
This trial, that now the bowels, relaxed into a constant flux, discharge the bodily strength; that a fire originated in the marrow ferments into wounds of the fauces; that the intestines are shaken with a continual vomiting; that the eyes are on fire with the injected blood; that in some cases the feet or some parts of the limbs are taken off by the contagion of diseased putrefaction; that from the weakness arising by the maiming and loss of the body, either the gait is enfeebled, or the hearing is obstructed, or the sight darkened;–is profitable as a proof of faith. What a grandeur of spirit it is to struggle with all the powers of an unshaken mind against so many onsets of devastation and death! what sublimity, to stand erect amid the desolation of the human race, and not to lie prostrate with those who have no hope in God; but rather to rejoice, and to embrace the benefit of the occasion; that in thus bravely showing forth our faith, and by suffering endured, going forward to Christ by the narrow way that Christ trod, we may receive the reward of His life and faith according to His own judgment!”
In 256 persecution resumed under the new emperor, Valerian. Pope Sixtus II was executed in Rome. In Africa, Cyprian prepared his people for the expected edict of persecution by his letter to them: De exhortatione martyrii. He also set an example for them, personally, when he was brought before the Roman proconsul in 257. He refused to sacrifice to the Roman deities and firmly expressed his faith.
The proconsul banished him to Curubis, now Korba. When a year had passed, he was recalled and kept under house arrest. A more stringent imperial edict arrived, which demanded the execution of Christian leaders. In September of 258, Cyprian was imprisoned on the orders of the new proconsul. His public examination has been preserved:
Galerius Maximus: “Are you Thascius Cyprianus?” Cyprian: “I am.” Galerius: “The most sacred Emperors have commanded you to conform to the Roman rites.” Cyprian: “I refuse.” Galerius: “Take heed for yourself.” Cyprian: “Do as you are bid; in so clear a case I may not take heed.” Galerius, after briefly conferring with his judicial council, with much reluctance pronounced the following sentence: “You have long lived an irreligious life, and have drawn together a number of men bound by an unlawful association, and professed yourself an open enemy to the gods and the religion of Rome; and the pious, most sacred and august Emperors … have endeavored in vain to bring you back to conformity with their religious observances; whereas therefore you have been apprehended as principal and ringleader in these infamous crimes, you shall be made an example to those whom you have wickedly associated with you; the authority of law shall be ratified in your blood.” He then read the sentence of the court from a written tablet: “It is the sentence of this court that Thascius Cyprianus be executed with the sword.” Cyprian: “Thanks be to God.”
The execution was carried out at once in an open place near the city. A huge crowd followed in Cyprian’s final steps. He blindfolded himself before he was beheaded.
More
Nice video from the Orthodox side of the one Church
A somewhat different view of Cyprian’s life from the Franciscans [link].
St. Cyprian Church on 63rd St. in Philadelphia [link].
What do we do with this?
Like in Cyprian’s time, the church in the U.S. recently went through a plague then got in a fight over stringency and leniency. Only in our time some think it is apostasy to jettison the faith handed down by the hierarchy regarding sexuality and others think the unity of the church depends on grace that transcends the teaching of men. What would Cyprian do?
In Cyprian’s time, the Church was finding a way to organize as it grew and needed to hold together. We can’t be too thrilled he came up with apostolic succession, since it has regularly been abused. The theory ended up being about the power of violence and not inspiration. But there is some basic Bible teaching associated with it (John 20:21, Matthew 18:15-18). At least Cyprian knew his authority was not just to rule but to die, like Jesus.
Cyprian’s two great contributions are 1) an attempt to be generous, but firm, and 2) talking about the big picture instead of getting tangled in an immediate, personality-driven conflict. He also put his life on the line to lead. People who aspire to exercise power, take note.
The spiritual adventurer is the main character of his most well known fantasies, Phantastes and Lilith. There is a sequence at the end of Lilith which imagines heaven in such a beautiful, extended way it seems impossible. The protagonist wakes from his vision, reflects on his journey through the land of the dead to this beautiful heaven and wonders, “Was it a dream or a real journey and does that matter?”
