Words of Cyprian
This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see - brigands on the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasures of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians - and I am one of them.
by Cyprian: letter to Donatus
Cyprian, also known as Thaschus Caecilius Cyprianus, was born in about C.E. 200 possibly near Carthage, North Africa (now Tunisia). He was a Christian bishop of Carthage and a Christian writer. Cyprian passed on at about 42 years of age on C.E. 14 September 258 in Carthage, North Africa.
This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see - brigands on the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. Yet in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasures of this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians - and I am one of them.
by Cyprian: letter to Donatus
Cyprian, also known as Thaschus Caecilius Cyprianus, was born in about C.E. 200 possibly near Carthage, North Africa (now Tunisia). He was a Christian bishop of Carthage and a Christian writer. Cyprian passed on at about 42 years of age on C.E. 14 September 258 in Carthage, North Africa.
