16th September 2021
Today is the feast of St Cyprian. I never knew anything at all bout him until we started going to St Cyprian’s church. According to Butler’s “Lives of the Saints”, he’s a north African saint, probably from Carthage, a public orator and teacher of rhetoric. I suppose that’s probably appropriate for a church in Oxford, which is full of people who are ready to air their opinions in public! He converte to Christianity and became a priest and then a bishop. He lived in the 3rd century and survived persecution under the Roman emperor Decius.
We went to Mass this morning, more to support Father Damien than for any other reason. He’s had a really tough time these last 18 months, with the pandemic increasing his workload and at the same time making him feel helpless to look after this flock properly. In his sermon, he talked about how, during a plague in Carthage, Bishop Cyprian preached that Christians should care for all their neighbours, not just those who shared their faith.