Cyprianus of Brescia

Saint Cyprian of Brescia was bishop of Brescia in Italy in the first half of the sixth century. He is a locally venerated saint in the Roman Catholic Church, and his commemoration is on 21 April. Our sources mention no Orthodox veneration.

In the lists of the bishops of Brescia, Cyprian is named as successor of Paul II and predecessor of Herculanus. Some authors give more exact dates, between 530 and 585, but these are not founded on medieval historical sources. His enthronement was performed by his metropolitan, Datius of Milan. No sure information has been preserved about his work as bishop. He is sometimes wrongly confused with a saint of the same name, who died a martyr at the hands of pagans together with his brother. In some church traditions the founding of a church in which he is said to have been buried is attributed to him; other medieval sources name as the place of burial of his remains the church of Saint Eusebius.

Like all the bishops of Brescia of the third to seventh centuries, from Anatolius to Deusdedit, Cyprian was numbered already in the Middle Ages among the locally venerated saints. The cult of this bishop was widespread at Brescia in the eleventh to fifteenth centuries, and Saint Cyprian enjoyed a particular veneration from the inhabitants. In February 1453 his relics were moved to the main altar of the church of Saint Peter. There the remains of the bishops Paul II and Deusdedit and of the martyr Evasius were also found. In 1455 the relics of these saints were placed in specially made marble shrines. On 9 February 1798 the relics of Cyprian were taken to the church of Saint Agatha, where they are kept to this day. His name is not in the Roman Martyrology, and he is venerated only as a local saint of the diocese of Brescia. At first he was commemorated together with the other holy bishops of Brescia (Paul I, Silvinus, Paul II and Deusdedit) on the fourth Sunday after Easter. Now he is commemorated on 21 April and on the days of the translation of his relics, 9 and 14 February.