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Homilia De Sancto Cypriano Episcopo Et Martyre [Incertus]

Victor Vitensis · ogl-pl

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machine-draft · no human review 3 passages · 677 words

Work dossier · summary and historical context

Summary

The *Homilia De Sancto Cypriano Episcopo Et Martyre* is a Latin festal homily for the feast of Cyprian of Carthage, transmitted under the name of Victor Vitensis (5th-century African bishop) but likely composed later, in the 6th or 7th century, in North Africa. It survives in a single manuscript tradition, often appended to Victor's *Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae*. The homily follows standard exordium formulas and reflects late antique theology of martyrdom as immediate celestial reward. It was used in the Mozarabic liturgy and cited by medieval hagiographers but never entered the Roman Breviary. The edition lacks a critical apparatus and does not collate variant readings from the two known manuscript witnesses.

This homily is a rare witness to the post-classical Latin festal sermon in North Africa, bridging the Vandal period and the Mozarabic liturgy. It attests to the enduring veneration of Cyprian and the adaptation of his cult in changing political and ecclesiastical contexts. Its uncertain authorship and textual corruptions highlight the challenges of studying late antique African Christianity.

Historical context

The homily is set in post-Roman North Africa, likely under Vandal or Byzantine rule, when the cult of Cyprian remained central to African Christian identity. The text's attribution to Victor Vitensis (fl. 5th c.) is uncertain; stylistic and theological features suggest a later date, possibly 6th–7th century, when the Mozarabic liturgy was developing. The homily survives in a single manuscript tradition, often bound with Victor's *Historia persecutionis*, indicating its association with the historical narrative of African persecution. Its use in the Mozarabic rite shows continued liturgical relevance in Visigothic Spain. The text shows scribal corruptions (e.g., 'solitum doferre sermonem' for 'solitum deferre sermonem'), suggesting a transmission history with limited correction. The homily's theology—emphasizing Cyprian's immediate heavenly reward—aligns with North African hagiographic traditions, but its precise community of origin remains unclear.

Apparatus · what the pipeline recorded

Annotation and terms

18 commentary units 3 structure3 term3 scripture3 background2 reception2 caution1 sense1 dating 2 derived notes 5 open questions 3 narrative
What the kinds mean

Pipeline notes

  • coverageNo English translation could be identified: a language model asked twice could not name one, though it could not rule one out either. That is not proof that none exists — translations in dissertations, recent books and other modern languages are easily missed.
  • limitThe English is a machine draft produced passage by passage from the transcribed Coptic; no human has verified it. The commentary is model-written and cites only keys the pipeline could resolve.
  • registerRegister: homily in Latin; the English keeps the liturgical formulae and the vocatives rather than normalising them.
  • structurePassages: 3 narrative.
  • caution2 passage(s) are fragmentary in the source; the English bridges each break and says so in the note.
  • sourceSource edition: ogl-pl — Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Term index

CopticRenderingCountFirst
no glossary terms recorded
tmp925.tmp925.opp-lat1:1 · narrativemedium
Source
HOMILIA DE S. CYPRIANO EPISC. ET MARTYRE. I. Hodie nos solitum doferre sermonem beati Cypriani natalia festa compellunt. Quis enim possit tanti martyris silere virtutes, tacere gloriam, merita non referre, nisi forte qui nunc mœroris ejus propriæ sedis amissionem jersentiunt. Non ille victoriarum suarum modo agit in coelestibus sic triumphos curonarum suarum [nec] supernis infulis sic polilur, ut non laniati populi, dispersi cIeri, fugati sacerdotii, perditæ castitatis, violati pudoris, polluti sanctuarii, altaris profanati grande vulnus cum ipsa viscerum suorum capiivitate deploret. Ipse est qui et ante lapsos et ruinas suorum tali deOet affectu, dicens: a Et nos cum prostratis fratribus prostravit affectus. Antistes populum, pastor gregem, parens [Colb. pariensl patriam, martyr fidem non sine magno dolore perquiriL. Exstingueretur barbarus, quia civis habetur exstinetus; nec teneret altaria perfidus, a quibus fidelis lugetur exctusus, vel ex parte solaretur ipse martyrum solitudo, cui uiiquc obsecuturus deerat, si devotus non insultabat, sacrilegus non instabat Illusor.
English
Homily on St. Cyprian, Bishop and Martyr. I. Today the feast of the blessed Cyprian’s birth compels us to deliver the customary sermon. For who could be silent about the virtues of such a great martyr, conceal his glory, or fail to recount his merits, unless perhaps those who now feel the loss of his own see in their grief? He does not so conduct his triumphs in the heavens, so shine with the crowns of his victories and the insignia of the highest, that he does not lament the great wound of his own people’s captivity—the scattered laity, the dispersed clergy, the fugitive priesthood, the lost chastity, the violated modesty, the polluted sanctuary, the profaned altar—together with the captivity of his own vitals. It is he who, with such affection, grieves over the fallen and the ruins of his own, saying: “And affection has prostrated us along with our prostrate brothers.” The bishop seeks the people, the shepherd the flock, the parent the fatherland, the martyr the faith, not without great sorrow. The barbarian would be extinguished, because the citizen is considered extinguished; nor would the faithless one hold the altars from which the faithful is mourned as excluded, or the solitude of the martyrs itself be in some part consoled, for whom no one would be lacking to attend, if the devoted did not insult, if the sacrilegious mocker did not press.
tmp925.tmp925.opp-lat1:2 · narrativemedium
Source
Hoc diximus, fratres, ut probaremus iterum pau martyrem, iterum martyrem tormenta sentire Herum pro omnibus carnifices sustinere, qui pro se et de se, post tantas palmas fuerat jam securus; tunc semel caesus capite, nunc quotidie propriis punitur in membris, et quorum laetabatur obsequiis, eorum luctibus nunc tenetur astrictus. II. Sed in bis omnibus, fratres, crigamur ad Dominum, qui jacemus ex nobis; nec desperationis exstinguamur incommodo, qui spei sumus remcdiis Christo vivificante salvati. Beatus Cyprianus in Deo et cum Deo liber est, qui captivus habetur in nobis; et in supernis regnat, qui in terris hostibus videtur addictus. Adest sibi, nec nobis deest; pio peccatoribus apud justum judicem justus patronus assistit, apud pium regem innocens advocatus exorai. Dicit Domino: Domine, quare tradidisti adversariis domum tuam, inimicis hæreditatem tuam? cur profanis sancta, cur luunda pollutis, et cur lupis agnos? Cur tradit bestiis gregem, pastorum Principem pastor audacter appellat; cur Rex exercitum sic devotum hostili subjecerit ditioni, dux strenuus convenienter inquirit; cur perfidis addixerit sic fideles, sacerdos in martyrio probatus inclamat. Ait etiam corporis sui causas dicendo: Domine, cur membra quae te sic conlessa sunt passus es captivari?
English
We have said this, brothers, to prove again that the martyr suffers torments, that the martyr endures tortures again and again, that he sustains executioners for all, who for himself and concerning himself, after such great victories, had already been secure; then once beheaded, now daily he is punished in his own members, and he whose obsequies he rejoiced in, by their grief he is now held bound. II. But in all these things, brothers, let us rise up to the Lord, we who lie prostrate from ourselves; nor let us be extinguished by the inconvenience of despair, we who are saved by the remedies of hope, enlivened by Christ. Blessed Cyprian is free in God and with God, he who is held captive among us; and he reigns in the heavens, he who on earth seems handed over to enemies. He is present to himself, nor is he absent from us; as a pious advocate for sinners, he stands before a just judge as a just patron, before a pious king as an innocent intercessor. He says to the Lord: Lord, why have you handed over your house to adversaries, your inheritance to enemies? Why the sacred to the profane, why the clean to the polluted, and why the lambs to wolves? Why have you handed over the flock to beasts, the shepherd boldly calls out to the Prince of shepherds; why the king has subjected such a devoted army to hostile dominion, the valiant leader fittingly inquires; why the faithful have been so consigned to the faithless, the priest proven in martyrdom cries out. He also speaks concerning the cause of his body, saying: Lord, why have you allowed the members that have so confessed you to be taken captive?
tmp925.tmp925.opp-lat1:3 · narrativemedium
Source
cur testem sanguinis, quem tanto sublimaveras honore, tanto despectui reliquisti, ad postremum cL de nobis et de nostris, quæ [Mart. quiaj tua sunt omnia fac sicut vis. Ubi est nomen tuum, ubi est gloria tua, ubi est virtus tua? Hæc dicendo gentes quae te ut nos invaderent blasphema verunt. Exsurge: qaare obdormis, Domine? exsurge. et ne repellas usque in linem. Redde tibi tuam* gloriam, terram tuam tuis redde redde meis ossa mea; ut te triumphante, et hostes lui pereant, et nos in sedibus nostris nostro ordine gaudeamus. III. Adest et sanctus Cornelius Romæ urbis antistes, qui hoc eodem die passus in tali causa socium non relinquit, non deserit in tali postulatione collegam.
English
why have you left the witness of your blood, whom you had raised to such great honor, in such contempt? Finally, concerning us and our people—since all things are yours—do as you wish. Where is your name, where is your glory, where is your power? Saying these things, the nations that invaded us as you did have blasphemed. Arise: why do you sleep, O Lord? Arise, and do not drive us away until the end. Restore your glory to yourself, restore your land to your people, restore my bones to me; so that, with you triumphant, both your enemies may perish and we may rejoice in our own seats, in our proper order. III. Here also is the blessed Cornelius, bishop of the city of Rome, who suffered on this same day in such a cause and does not leave his companion, does not desert his colleague in such a petition.
Citation. Tergwame, “Homilia De Sancto Cypriano Episcopo Et Martyre [Incertus]”, tmp925.tmp925.opp-lat1:1, machine-draft, 2026. https://naxiai.com/christian/works/tmp925.tmp925.opp-lat1#s1
Colophon. Source: ogl-pl · licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License · model: deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash:floor · provider: Relace · cost: $0.0021 · generated 2026-11-15.