Church Father
"Bishop, martyr, and theologian of Church unity — whose writings on the Petrine see are the definitive third-century Catholic ecclesiology"
Cyprian was born c. AD 200 into a wealthy pagan family in Carthage. He converted c. AD 245 and was elected Bishop of Carthage three years later. His decade as bishop (AD 249–258) spanned the Decian persecution, the controversy over the lapsi (those who apostasised), and a devastating plague. His dispute with Pope Stephen I over rebaptism is one of the earliest recorded conflicts between a regional bishop and Rome — yet even in this dispute his theological writings contain the strongest third-century statements of Petrine primacy. He was beheaded during the Valerian persecution in AD 258.
"They dare even to sail to Rome and carry letters from schismatics and profane persons to the chair of Peter and the principal Church, from which priestly unity takes its rise."
"He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother. He who deserts the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, does he trust that he is in the Church?"
Ordination chain from Christ to this Father — and onward to students. Solid links cite named primary sources. Unknown means no ordainer is historically attested. Nodes with a profile are linked.
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