Christ Held Captive

Cyprian to Januarius, Maximus, Proculus, Victor, Modianus, Nemesianus, Nampulus, and Honoratus, his brothers: greetings.

I have read your letter with overwhelming grief of mind, dearest brothers, and not without tears — the letter your loving concern moved you to write to me about the captivity of our brothers and sisters. Who would not grieve at trouble of that kind? Who would not count his brother’s grief his own? The apostle Paul says: “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; and if one member rejoices, all the members rejoice with it.” And in another place he says: “Who is weak, and I am not weak?” So the captivity of our brothers has to be reckoned our own captivity now, and the grief of those in danger counted as our own grief, since we are all one body joined together. It is not love alone that ought to stir us and strengthen us to redeem the members of our brotherhood; our duty to God ought to do it as well. [c]

For the apostle Paul says again: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” Even if love were doing less to urge us to help our brothers, we would still have to reflect that what has been taken captive here is the temples of God, and that we must not let the temples of God stay long in captivity through long inaction and neglect of their suffering. We must strain with what strength we have and act quickly, so that by our obedience we may deserve well of Christ our Judge and Lord and God. For as the apostle Paul says, “All of you who were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Christ is to be seen in our captive brothers. He who redeemed us from the danger of death is to be redeemed from the danger of captivity. He who took us out of the jaws of the devil, and who remains and lives in us, is now himself to be rescued and redeemed out of the hands of barbarians with a sum of money — he who redeemed us with his cross and his blood. And he allows this to happen for this reason: so that our faith may be tested, to see whether each of us will do for another what he would want done for himself, if it were he who was being held captive among barbarians. For anyone who remembers that he is human, and is reminded of the love we owe one another — if he is a father, will he not think now that his own sons are there? If he is a husband, will he not think that his own wife is being held captive there, with as much grief as shame for the marriage bond? But how great the grief is among all of us, and how great the suffering, over the danger to the virgins who are held there. For them we have to mourn not only the loss of freedom but the loss of their chastity. We have to lament the chains of the barbarians less than the rape and the brothels, and dread that bodies dedicated to Christ, pledged for life by their own modest virtue to the honor of self-control, should be defiled by the lust and the pollution of the men who assault them. [f]

Our brotherhood, weighing all this as your letter set it out, and going over it in sorrow, has gathered supplies of money for the brothers, every one of them promptly, willingly, and generously. They are always ready for God’s work, in proportion to the strength of their faith; but the thought of suffering as great as this has stirred them to saving work all the more. For the Lord says in his Gospel, “I was sick, and you visited me.” With how much greater reward for our work will he say now, “I was a captive, and you redeemed me”! And since he also says, “I was in prison, and you came to me,” how much more will it be when he begins to say, “I was in the dungeon of captivity, and I lay shut up and bound among barbarians, and you brought me out of that prison of slavery” — and we are to receive our reward from the Lord when the day of judgment comes. Finally, we thank you most warmly for wanting us to share your anxiety, and a work as great and as necessary as this; for offering us fertile fields where we could scatter the seed of our hope, expecting a harvest of the most abundant fruit to come out of this heavenly and saving work. So we have sent you a hundred thousand sesterces, collected here in the church over which by the Lord’s mercy we preside, from the contributions of the clergy and of the people settled with us. You will distribute it there with all the care you can. [i]

We do wish, of course, that nothing of this kind may happen again, and that our brothers, guarded by the majesty of the Lord, may be kept safe from dangers like these. But if anything of the kind should happen — to search out the love in our minds and to test the faith in our hearts — do not delay to tell us about it in your letters. Count on this: our church and the whole brotherhood here beg in their prayers that these things may not happen again, and that if they do happen, they will supply help willingly and generously. And so that you may keep in mind, in your prayers, the brothers and sisters who have worked so promptly and so generously at this necessary task — that they may always work at it — and so that in return for their good work you may present them in your sacrifices and prayers, I have added the name of each one below. I have added the names of my colleagues and fellow priests as well; they were present themselves, and each of them contributed some little thing, as far as he could, in his own name and in the name of his people. Along with our own amount I have listed their small sums and sent them. As faith and love require, you ought to remember all of them in your petitions and prayers. We bid you, dearest brothers, always a hearty farewell; and remember us. [l]