Cyprian of Carthage, On the Lapsed 2
We gaze upon the confessors, renowned for their good name and glorious in the praise of virtue and faith, with joyful eyes; we cling to them with holy kisses and embrace those we have longed for with insatiable desire. The white cohort of Christ's soldiers stands here, having broken the fierce and turbulent fury of persecution by their steadfast stand, prepared for the patience of prison, armed for the endurance of death. You resisted the world bravely; you offered a glorious spectacle to God; you became an example for the brothers who would follow. The religious voice spoke of Christ, confessing that it had believed in him once. Those illustrious hands, accustomed only to divine works, refused to take part in sacrilegious sacrifices. Those sanctified mouths, fed with heavenly food after receiving the body and blood of the Lord, spat out profane contagions and the relics of idols. Your heads remained free from the impious and wicked veil that covered the captive heads of those who sacrificed. Your foreheads, pure with the sign of God, could not bear the devil's crown; they reserved themselves for the crown of the Lord. How joyfully mother Church welcomes you to her bosom as you return from battle! How blessed and rejoicing she throws open her gates so that you may enter with assembled ranks, carrying trophies from the prostrate enemy! Along with the triumphant men come women who, wrestling with the world, also conquered their sex. Virgins arrive bearing the double glory of their warfare, and boys who have spent their years in virtues. The rest of the standing multitude also follows your glory, tracking your footsteps with badges of praise that are proximate and almost joined to your own. The same sincerity of heart is in them, the same integrity of tenacious faith. Anchored on the unshaken roots of the heavenly precepts and strengthened by the evangelical traditions, neither prescribed exiles nor destined torments nor the loss of family property nor bodily punishments frightened them. Days were appointed for the testing of faith. But the one who remembers that he has renounced the world knows no day of the world; nor does the one who hopes for eternity from God any longer calculate earthly times.
Latin
Confessores, praeconio boni nominis claros et virtutis ac fidei laudibus gloriosos, laetis conspectibus intuemur, sanctis osculis adhaerentes, desideratos diu inexplebili cupiditate complectimur. Adest militum Christi cohors candida, qui persecutionis urgentus ferociam turbulentam stabili congressione fregerunt, parati ad patientiam carceris, armati ad tolerantiam mortis. Repugnastis fortiter saeculo, spectaculum gloriosum praebuistis Deo, secuturis fratribus fuistis exemplo. Religiosa vox Christum locuta est, in quem se semel credidisse confessa est. Illustres manus, quae non nisi divinis operibus assueverant, sacrificiis sacrilegis restiterunt. Sanctificata ora coelestibus cibis, post corpus et sanguinem Domini, profana contagia et idolorum reliquias respuerunt. Ab impio sceleratoque velamine, quo illic velabantur sacrificantium capita captiva, caput vestrum liberum mansit. Frons cum signo Dei pura, diaboli coronam ferre non potuit, coronae se Domini reservavit. Quam vos laete sinu suo excipit mater Ecclesia de praelio revertentes! quam beata, quam gaudens portas suas aperit, ut adunatis agminibus intretis, de hoste prostrato trophaea referentes! Cum triumphantibus viris et feminae veniunt, quae cum saeculo dimicantes, sexum quoque vicerunt. Veniunt et geminata militiae suae gloria virgines, et pueri annos suos virtutibus transeuntes. Necnon et caetera stantium multitudo vestram gloriam sequitur, proximis et pene conjunctis laudis insignibus vestigia vestra comitatur. Eadem et in illis sinceritas cordis, eadem fidei tenacis integritas. Inconcussis praeceptorum coelestium radicibus nixos et evangelicis traditionibus roboratos, non praescripta exilia, non destinata tormenta, non rei familiaris damna, non corporis supplicia terruerunt. Explorandae fidei praefiniebantur dies. Sed qui saeculo renuntiasse se meminit, nullum saeculi diem novit; nec tempora terrena jam computat qui aeternitatem de Deo sperat.