The Confessor Left Behind

Cyprian to the elders and deacons, and to the whole congregation, my brothers, dearly loved and greatly missed: greetings. [a]

Dearest brothers, there is something that belongs both to our common joy and to the greatest glory of our church, and you ought to be told it. You should know that I have been directed and instructed, by God’s own gracious favor, that Numidicus the elder is to be enrolled among the elders of Carthage and to sit with us among the clergy.

He is a man made famous by the brightest light of confession, honored for his courage and for his faith alike. By his urging he sent ahead of himself a great number of martyrs, killed by stones and by fire. He watched with joy as his wife stayed at his side and was burned along with the rest — though I should rather say she was kept safe along with them. He himself was half burned, buried under the stones, and left for dead. Afterwards his daughter, in the anxious care of her love, came looking for her father’s body; he was found half alive, dragged out, and brought round, and stayed behind, against his will, from the company he had sent on ahead of him.

But the reason he was left behind, as we now see, was this: so that the Lord might add him to our clergy, and might adorn with glorious priests the ranks of our elders, which the fall of some had left empty. And when God allows it he will be promoted to a larger office in his own district, once by the Lord’s protection we have come back to you.

In the meantime, let what has been shown be carried out. Let us receive this gift from God with thanks, hoping from the Lord’s mercy for more men of the same kind to adorn us, so that, with the strength of his church restored, he may make such gentle and humble men flourish in the honor of our seated body.

I hope you are always well, brothers, dearly loved and greatly missed. Farewell.