These two saints knew one another. Here is an extract from a letter written by St Cyprian to St Cornelius: ‘Let us remember one another in concord and unanimity.   Let us on both sides of death always pray for one another.   Let us relieve burdens and afflictions by mutual love, that if one of us, by the swiftness of divine condescension, shall go hence the first, our love may continue in the presence of the Lord and our prayers for our brethren and sisters not cease in the presence of the Father’s mercy’.

‘Let us relieve burdens and afflictions by mutual love …’ These words are as necessary today as they were when they were written in the third century.

May these two saints pray for us now in the mercy of God, and may He bless us all this day.