Service and Hospitality: Cyprian on Caring for the Sick During Plague

During the devastating Plague of Cyprian (c. 250-270), while pagan Romans fled from the sick and abandoned their own families, the Christians of Carthage, led by Bishop Cyprian, organized care for the sick -- both Christian and pagan. Cyprian preached: "There is nothing remarkable in cherishing merely our own people with the due attentions of love, but that one might become perfect who should do something more than heathen men or publicans."…