Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs

Cornelius was elected bishop of Rome in 251, after the persecution of Emperor Decius, and accepted back into communion, after penance, Christians who had lapsed under persecution; the priest Novatian, who opposed this, was set up as a rival bishop. Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, a former teacher of rhetoric who wrote On the Lapsed and On the Unity of the Church, supported Cornelius by letter. Cornelius was exiled by Emperor Gallus to Centumcellae, today's Civitavecchia, and died there in 253. Cyprian was exiled under Emperor Valerian and then tried at Carthage. When the proconsul sentenced him to death, the record of his trial says, he answered “Thanks be to God”, and he had twenty-five gold coins given to his executioner. He was beheaded on 14 September 258.