Although Firmilian seems to be the least famous of the Cappadocian Fathers, his election as bishop of the Caesarea of Cappadocia province, in 230 A.C., marks the beginning of a list of great Bishops that will culminate with names like Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianz and of Gregory of Nyssa. Firmilian is the precursor of the glory of the Cappadocian Father and his reputation could be compared with the one of Dionysus of Alexandria or Cyprian, bishop of Carthage. The letter translated here in Romanian language was written around the winter of 256; within the context of the dispute regarding the validation of the heretics’ baptism, Ciprian of Carthage sends his deacon, Rogatian, in Asia Minor, to collect letters of disapproval of the Pope Stephan’s attitude, regarding this topic, from all the Bishops in the region. Through this, St. Ciprian wanted to demonstrate the clergy and the Christians of Carthage that Rome separation from the other Churches is not well-founded and the condemnation brought forward by Stephan does not have the support of the entire Church. St. Firmilian demonstrates Rogatian, thorough a long address and in writing through the letter he gave to him for St. Ciprian that heretics’ baptism it is not valid. He demonstrates that in the community where the Holy Spirit is not present, the Sacrament of Baptism can not be valid. In his argument, Firmilian brings into discussion some episode that took place „among ourselves”, he says, in which a demonic women was performing this Sacrament and moreover the sacrament of Eucharist. She was „performing” them by the rule of the Church, with all the constitutive elements; in this context he is rhetorically asking: “What, then, are we to say about such a baptism, where an evil demon baptized through the agency of a woman? Is it credible that forgiveness of sins was granted or that the rebirth of the saving waters was duly accomplished in a case where everything may have been done in semblance of the truth but was in fact done though the agency of the demon?”. We present below the Romanian translation of the text made on the basis of the bilingual text (Latin and French) of the letter of Firmilian to St. Ciprian of Carthage.
