The Ante-Nicene Church · AD 180–313

Firmilian of Caesarea

d. c. 268 · Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia · Theologian · Caesarea in Cappadocia

The Ante-Nicene Church

Who Firmilian of Caesarea was

Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia for some forty years and one of the most influential churchmen of the East — so devoted to Origen that he brought him to Cappadocia to teach and went to study with him in Palestine. He presided at the synods against Novatian and the two against Paul of Samosata (dying at Tarsus en route to the second). His long, blistering letter to Cyprian, backing the African and Eastern position that heretical baptism is invalid and denouncing Stephen of Rome’s claims — “I am justly indignant at the open and manifest folly of Stephen” — is one of the sharpest challenges to early Roman primacy on record. A bridge between Origen’s school and the Nicene generation.

Also listed in bishops beyond the great sees and roman emperors.

Common questions

When did Firmilian die?

Firmilian of Caesarea is dated d. c. 268 in the archive, which places Firmilian in the Ante-Nicene Church (AD 180–313). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.

What did Firmilian write?

Firmilian of Caesarea has 1 catalogued writing in the archive: Letter to Cyprian (Epistle 75).

Which early sources mention Firmilian?

Firmilian of Caesarea is named in 4 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Dionysius of Alexandria, Firmilian of Caesarea, Eusebius of Caesarea and Basil of Caesarea. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Where was Firmilian from?

The archive associates Firmilian of Caesarea with Caesarea in Cappadocia.

Writings (1)

Letter to Cyprian (Epistle 75)

The Cappadocian's Latin-preserved broadside in the baptismal controversy
But what is his error, and how great his blindness, who says that remission of sins can be granted in the synagogues of heretics!

Earliest witness · Early Cyprianic codices (multiple ancient collections) (6th–9th c.)

Read the interlinear source text →

Primary-source mentions (4)

Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.

Dionysius of Alexandria to Stephen, via Ecclesiastical History VII.5 ('Firmilianus and all Cappadocia')

c. AD 255
This had been the subject of discussion between Helenus of Tarsus in Cilicia, and Firmilianus, and all Cappadocia.
Dionysius of Alexandria · Ecclesiastical History VII.5 · source text

Cyprian, Epistle 75 (Firmilian to Cyprian)

c. AD 256
I am justly indignant at this so open and manifest folly of Stephen, that he who so boasts of the place of his episcopate… should introduce many other rocks and establish the new buildings of many churches.
Firmilian of Caesarea · 75 · source text

Ecclesiastical History VII.30.5 (his death at Tarsus, en route to the synod)

c. AD 325
Eusebius of Caesarea · Ecclesiastical History VII.30 · source text

On the Holy Spirit 29.74 (Basil claims 'our own Firmilian')

c. AD 375
That our own Firmilian held this faith is attested by the writings he has left.
Basil of Caesarea · On the Holy Spirit 29 · source text

Connected in the archive

People

Named alongside Firmilian in the sources

These figures are placed with Firmilian by the record — in a council roll, a martyr-act, a letter or a history — without Firmilian naming them in return.

Events in this lifetime

Place

Places served

The one place the sources put Firmilian.

  1. 1Caesarea in Cappadocia

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