Augustine of Hippo in his Confessions (5.8.15) writes that in 383 his mother spent a night in the shrine (memoria) of *Cyprian (bishop and martyr of Carthage, S00411) close to the harbour of Carthage (central North Africa). Written in Latin in Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa), 397/400.
Evidence ID
E01018
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other
Major author/Major anonymous work
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine, Confessions 5.8.15
Augustine describes his departure from Carthage to Rome, and his scheme to get rid of his mother who wished to accompany him.
Et tamen recusanti sine me redire uix persuasi, ut in loco, qui proximus nostrae naui erat, memoria beati Cypriani, maneret ea nocte. Sed ea nocte clanculo ego profectus sum, illa autem non; mansit orando et flendo.
'And yet, refusing to go back without me, it was with difficulty I persuaded her [Monica, Augustine's mother] to remain that night in a place quite close to our ship, where there was the shrine (memoria) of the blessed Cyprian. That night I secretly left, but she did not, and stayed in prayer and weeping.'
Text: Verheijen 1981.
Translation: Pilkington 1887, modified.
Cult PlacesCult building - unspecified
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Cult building - unspecified
Cult building - dependent (chapel, baptistery, etc.)
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
Incubation
Vigils
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Source
Augustine of Hippo was born in 354 in the north African city of Thagaste. He received an education in rhetoric at Carthage, and after a period teaching there moved to Rome, and then in 384 to a public professorship of rhetoric in Milan. In these early years of adulthood Augustine was a Manichaean, but then got disillusioned with this religion, and in Milan in 386, largely under the influence of Ambrose, bishop of the city, he converted to Christianity, and was baptised by Ambrose in 387. Returning to Africa in 388, he was ordained a priest in 391 at Hippo Regius (in the province of Numidia), and rapidly acquired a reputation as a preacher. In 395 he became bishop of Hippo, which he remained until his death in 430. Details of his early life were recorded by Augustine himself in his Confessions, and shortly after his death a pupil and long-time friend, Possidius, wrote his Life, focused on Augustine as an effective Christian writer, polemicist and bishop (E00073).Amongst his many writings, the most informative on the cult of saints are his numerous Sermons, the City of God, and a treatise On the Care of the Dead. The Sermons tell us which saints (primarily African, but with some from abroad) received attention in Hippo, Carthage and elsewhere, and provide occasional details of miracles and cult practices. The City of God records the distribution, and subsequent miracles, of the relics of saint Stephen, after they arrived in Africa from Palestine in around 420. On the Care of the Dead, discusses the possible advantages of burial ad sanctos (in other words, close to a saint), and theorises on the link between the saints who dwell in heaven and their corporeal remains buried in their graves. In these works, and others, Augustine reveals his own particular beliefs about the saints, their relics and their miracles.
Augustine wrote the Confessions during the first years of his episcopate in Hippo (397-430). It is widely acknowledged that his narration is highly rhetorical and sometimes over-dramatised, but it reflects actual events.
Discussion
The shrine where Monica spent that night was almost certainly the major church of Cyprian near the harbour of Carthage (for which, see also E07882). Augustine's text strongly implies that it was open all night (unless Monica was doing her praying in a lodging close by), which is unusual for a church in the Latin West.The term memoria (literally 'memory' or 'memorial') is also used by Augustine both for the shrines of martyrs and, more narrowly, for their relics. Since it is evident that, for Augustine, the memorial shrine (memoria) of a saint contained relics of that saint, there is often (as here) no substantive difference in the ways he uses the word.
Bibliography
Edition:Verheijen, L., Augustinus, Confessionum libri XIII (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 27; Turnhout: Brepols, 1981).
English translations:
Pilkington, J.G. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1 (Buffalo, NY, 1887).
O'Donnell, J.J., Augustine, Confessions, 3 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992) [with commentary].
Record Created By
Robert Wiśniewski
Date of Entry
23/12/2015
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00411 | Cyprian, bishop and martyr of Carthage | Cyprianus | Certain |
|---|
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