Primary source · Latin
To Donatus (on his conversion)
Cyprian of Carthage · AD 246
What this text is
Cyprian's first Christian writing — a garden conversation on what baptism did to a middle-aged rhetor: the world seen suddenly from above, and found both cruel and escapable.
Profile of Cyprian of Carthage →
Public-domain translations
Robert Ernest Wallis (ANF, 1886)
I was held in bonds by the innumerable errors of my previous life… But after that, by the help of the water of new birth, the stain of former years had been washed away… a second birth restored me to a new man. Then, in a wondrous manner, doubtful things at once began to be assured to me.
Manuscript witnesses
Early Cyprianic codices
6th–9th c.Ad Donatum opening the ancient collections.
Patrologia Latina, vol. 4 (Migne)
1844Standard pre-critical text of the corpus.
Provenance
Carthage, c. AD 246 — the new convert's letter on grace
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Cyprien: À Donat et La vertu de patience (SC 291)Jean Molager, 1982Critical edition with French translation.
- Cyprian (The Early Church Fathers)Allen Brent, 2010Introduction with translations.