Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of John (17: 11-19) in which Jesus prays, ‘Consecrate them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world’. Afterwards, Fr Paul shares a little about the lives of St Cornelius and St Cyprian whose memorials we celebrate today.

Fr Paul says, Cornelius was made bishop of the church of Rome in the year 251 and he established his authority with the aid of Cyprian.

The emperor Gallus sent Cornelius into exile, and he died a in 253. He is buried in Rome.

Cyprian was born in Carthage and spent most of his life in the practice of the law. He was converted to Christianity and was made bishop of Carthage in 249. He steered the church through troubled times, including the persecution of the emperor Decius, when he went into hiding so as to be able to continue looking after the church. In 258 the persecution of the emperor Valerian began. Cyprian was first exiled and then, on 14 September, executed, after a trial notable for the calm and courtesy shown by both sides.

Cyprian’s many letters and his treatises shed much light on a formative period in the Church’s history and are valuable both for their doctrine and for the picture they paint of a group of people in constant peril of their lives but still determined to keep the faith.

On this day, Fr Paul invites us to ask, ‘St Cornelius & St Cyprian… Pray for us!’.