Being a Christian used to be no big deal

Christians were accepted members of society. Church leaders lived comfortable lives (sadly, some were even scandalous).

But things changed. Society turned against Christians. Government agents targeted the Church. There were many stories of violence and even death.

Many Christians succumbed to the pressure and turned publicly away from the faith. Of these, many would eventually repent of their apostasy and return to the Church.

Some of those who had remained loyal to the faith were angry with those who had deserted, even to the point of treating these penitents with extreme cruelty. Some said that baptized Christians who had formally embraced another religion could not be forgiven.

The divisions within the Church on this question were bitter and intense, so much so that a rival Pope was elected. The most prominent of the moderate bishops, a man who had become a Christian when he was already middle-aged, wrote and spoke eloquently in defense of the rightful Pope and in asserting a stern but merciful approach to repenting apostates.

Meanwhile, the rightful Pope, overwhelmed by the attacks of an anti-Christian society and an extremist rival, was driven out of Rome and died. For the next five years, the leader of the moderates continued to support the rightful Pope’s successors and strove to restore reason to Church debates. His work would be cut short, however, when he was seized by government agents.

St. Cyprian, bishop of the North African city of Carthage, refused to renounce his faith and was martyred during this very week in the year 258. His memorial is celebrated together with St. Cornelius, the Pope he had fought to support against enemies inside and outside the Church, both men simply trying to be Christians who were faithful to the Truth and to mercy.