The Church Fathers · c. 258–259
The Life of Cyprian
Vita Cypriani
Pontius the Deacon
What it is
Written by Cyprian's own deacon within a year of his death, arguing that a bishop who lived well deserves a record as much as a layman who died well, and describing the beheading in the field at Sesti down to the cloak spread on the ground and the coins left for the executioner.
Why it lasted
The first Christian biography written in Latin, and the model for the saint's life as a genre — the shape Athanasius would give Antony and Sulpicius would give Martin.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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