Today, we celebrate the memorial of Saints Cornelius and Cyprian, martyrs and pastors of the Church.

SAINT CORNELIUS. Bishop and reluctant 21st pope, elected after a year-and-a-half period during which the persecutions were so severe that papal ascension was a quick death sentence. He worked to maintain unity in a time of schism and apostasy. He fought Novatianism and called a synod of bishops to confirm him as rightful pontiff, as opposed to the anti-pope Novatian. He had the support of Saint Cyprian of Carthage and Saint Dionysius. He welcomed back those who had apostacized during the persecutions of Decius; the documents that settled this matter prove the final authority of the Pope. Exiled to Centemcellae in 252 by Roman authorities to punish Christians in general, who were said to have provoked the gods to send plague against Rome and so proclaimed a Martyr.

SAINT CYPRIAN. Born to wealthy pagan parents, he taught rhetoric and literature. Converted as an adult in 246, he was taught the faith by Saint Caecilius of Carthage. Ordained a priest in 247, he was ordained bishop of Carthage in 249. During the persecution of Decius, beginning in 250, Cyprian lived in hiding, covertly ministering to his flock; his enemies condemned him for being a coward and not standing up for his faith. As a writer, he was second only in importance to Tertullian as a Latin Father of the Church. Friend of Saint Pontius he became involved in the great argument over whether apostates should be readmitted to the Church. Cyprian believed they should but under stringent conditions. He supported Pope Saint Cornelius against the anti-pope Novatian. During the persecutions of Valerian, he was exiled to Curubis in 257, brought back Carthage, and then martyred in 258.

His name, as well as that of Cornelius, is in the Communicantes in the Canon of the Mass.