Martírio e santidade na Antiguidade Tardia: Cipriano de Cartago nas obras de Pôncio e Prudêncio

Abstract

The current composition brings the representation of Cyprian of Carthage (210-258) in the works of Pontius and Prudentius, laying emphasis on, therefore, a consistent relation with the ideas of martyrdom and sanctity. Thereby, we will be working with two narratives; the first one being Pontius’ Vita Cypriani, inserted in a context where Christianism was persecuted by the Imperial state (259 d.C). The second composition, “Crowns of Martyrdom” by Prudentius, implants itself in a context where the martyrdom had stopped being an usual manner among the christians, at which point, as from Theodosius I, it is seeked to establish, institutionally, the nicene belief as “orthodoxy”. Cyprian is one of the christian thinkers who was used to support such “orthodox” position. Accordingly, the figure of Cyprian is discussed regarding particular aspects related to what christians understood by episcopal authority and how this notion acquired a new profile on such different and chronologically distant authors’ works, like Pontius and Prudentius are. Although, owing not to only distinct temporalities but also their literary genres, we believe it is crucial to analyze Vita Cypriani’s target audience just as much as Crowns of Martyrdom’s. In that event, the question that guides our proposition concerns to how these discrete authors perceive the relation between martyrdom and sanctity through the figure of Saint Cyprian.