Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Celerinus to Lucian.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Epistle XX.2262
| 2262
Oxford ed.: Ep. xxi. a.d.
250. |
Celerinus to Lucian.
Argument.—Celerinus, on Behalf of His Lapsed Sisters at Rome,
Beseeches Peace from the Carthaginian Confessors.
1. Celerinus to Lucian, greeting. In
writing this letter to you, my lord and brother, I have been rejoicing
and sorrowful,—rejoicing in that I had heard that you had been
tried on behalf of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, and
had confessed His name in the presence of the magistrates of the world;
but sorrowful, in that from the time when I was in your company I have
never been able to receive your letters. And now lately a twofold
sorrow has fallen upon me; that although you knew that Montanus, our
common brother, was coming to me from you out of the dungeon, you did
not intimate anything to me concerning your wellbeing, nor about
anything that is done in connection with you. This, however,
continually happens to the servants of God, especially to those who are
appointed for the confession of Christ. For I know that every one
looks not now to the things that are of the world, but that he is
hoping for a heavenly crown. Moreover, I said that perhaps you
had forgotten to write to me. For if from the lowest place I may
be called by you yours, or brother, if I should be worthy
to hear myself named Celerinus; yet, when I also was in such a
purple2263
| 2263
“Florida,” scil. “purpurea,”
purpled, that is, with blood. See concluding section of Ep.
viii. The Oxford translator has
“empurpled.” | confession, I
remembered my oldest brethren, and I took notice of them in my letters,
that their former love was still around me and mine. Yet I
beseech, beloved of the Lord, that if, first of all, you are washed in
that sacred blood, and have suffered for the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ before my letters find you in this world, or should they now
reach you, that you would answer them to me. So may He crown you
whose name you have confessed. For I believe, that although in
this world we do not see each other, yet in the future we shall embrace
one another in the presence of Christ. Entreat that I may be
worthy, even I, to be crowned along with your company.
2. Know, nevertheless, that I am placed in
the midst of a great tribulation; and, as if you were present with me,
I remember your former love day and night, God only knows. And
therefore I ask that you will grant my desire, and that you will grieve
with me at the (spiritual) death of my sister, who in this time of
devastation has fallen from Christ; for she has sacrificed and provoked
our Lord, as seems manifest to us. And for her deeds I in this
day of paschal rejoicing,2264
| 2264
[Written at Easter, like the first Epistle to the Corinthians, as
implied in cap. v. 7. See Conybeare and Howson.] | weeping day and night, have spent the
days in tears, in sackcloth, and ashes, and I am still spending them so
to this day, until2265
| 2265 The
Oxford edition has a variation here, as follows: “Until our
Lord Jesus Christ afford help, and pity be manifested through you, or
through those my lords who may have been crowned, from whom you will
entreat that these dreadful shipwrecks may be pardoned.” |
the aid of our Lord Jesus Christ, and affection manifested through you,
or through those my lords who have been crowned, from whom you are
about to ask it, shall come to the help of so terrible a
shipwreck. For I remember your former love, that you will grieve
with all the rest for our sisters whom you also knew well—that
is, Numeria and Candida,—for whose sin, because they have us as
brethren, we ought to keep watch. For I believe that Christ,
according to their repentance and the works which they have done
towards our banished colleagues who came from you—by whom
themselves you will hear of their good works,—that Christ, I say,
will have mercy upon them, when you, His martyrs, beseech
Him.
3. For I have heard that you have received
the ministry of the purpled ones. Oh, happy are you, even
sleeping on the ground, to obtain your wishes which you have always
desired! You have desired to be sent into prison for His
name’s sake, which now has come to pass; as it is written,
“The Lord grant thee according to thine own
heart;”2266
and now made a
priest of God over them, and the same their minister has acknowledged
it.2267
| 2267
This seems altogether unintelligible: the original is
probably corrupt. [It seems to relate to the sort of
priesthood which was conceded to all martyrs, in view of
(Rev. i. 6 and v.
10) the message sent by the
angel “to His servants,” and by their servant or minister,
John.] | I ask,
therefore my lord, and I entreat by our Lord Jesus Christ, that you
will refer the case to the rest of your colleagues, your brethren, my
lords, and ask from them, that whichever of you is first crowned,
should remit such a great sin to those our sisters, Numeria and
Candida. For this latter I have always called Etecusa2268
| 2268
Dodwell conjectures this name to be from ἀτυχοῦσα (unhappy) or
ἀεκοῦσα (unwilling), and
applies it to Candida. | —God is
my witness,—because she gave gifts for herself that she might not
sacrifice; but she appears only to have ascended to the Tria
Fata,2269
| 2269 A
spot in the Roman Forum which must of necessity be passed by in the
ascent to the Capitol. It would appear that Candida therefore
repented of her purpose of sacrificing, when she was actually on her
way to effect it. | and thence to
have descended. I know, therefore, that she has not
sacrificed. Their cause having been lately heard, the chief
rulers2270
commanded them
in the meantime to remain as they are, until a bishop should be
appointed.2271
| 2271
i.e., in the room of Fabian. | But, as
far as possible, by your holy prayers and petitions, in which we trust,
since you are friends as well as witnesses of Christ, (we pray) that you would be indulgent
in all these matters.
4. I entreat, therefore, beloved lord
Lucian, be mindful of me, and acquiesce in my petition; so may Christ
grant you that sacred crown which he has given you not only in
confession but also in holiness, in which you have always walked and
have always been an example to the saints as well as a witness, that
you will relate to all my lords, your brethren the confessors, all
about this matter, that they may receive help from you. For this,
my lord and brother, you ought to know, that it is not I alone who ask
this on their behalf, but also Statius and Severianus, and all the
confessors who have come thence hither from you; to whom these very
sisters went down to the harbour2272
| 2272 [i
e., to Ostia or Portus]. | and took them up into the city, and
they have ministered to sixty-five, and even to this day have tended
them in all things. For all are with them. But I ought not
to burden that sacred heart of yours any more, since I know that you
will labour with a ready will. Macharius, with his sisters
Cornelia and Emerita, salute you, rejoicing in your sanguinary
confession, as well as in that of all the brethren, and Saturninus, who
himself also wrestled with the devil, who also bravely confessed the
name of Christ, who moreover, under the torture of the grappling claws,
bravely confessed, and who also strongly begs and entreats this.
Your brethren Calphurnius and Maria, and all the holy brethren, salute
you. For you ought to know this too, that I have written also to
my lords your brethren letters, which I request that you will deign to
read to them.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
