Soon after the death of Caesarius (d. 543) Cyprian wrote a life of his great teacher in two books, being moved to the undertaking by the entreaty of the Abbess Caesaria the Younger, who had been the head of the convent at Arles since 529.

Cyprian was aided in his task by the two bishops, Firminus and Viventius, friends of Caesarius, as well as by the priest Messianus and the deacon Stephen.

The main part of the work up to the fortieth chapter of the first book was most probably written by Cyprian himself.

[1] In 1892 the Monumenta Germaniae Historica series published another writing of his, a letter to the Bishop St Maximus of Geneva, which discusses some of the disputed theological questions of that age.

[2] The biography was edited by d'Achery and Mabillon in the Acta Sanctorum Ord.