Augustine of Hippo, in his City of God (22.8), tells how an old man in Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa) who prayed to the *Twenty Martyrs (martyrs of Hippo, S00703), with a famous memorial shrine (memoria) in the city, found a golden ring in the stomach of a fish; all at the beginning of the 5th c. Written in Latin in Hippo, 426/427.
Evidence ID
E01108
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other
Major author/Major anonymous work
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, City of God 22.8
Erat quidam senex Florentius hipponiensis noster, homo religiosus et pauper; sartoris se arte pascebat; casulam perdiderat et unde sibi emeret non habebat; ad uiginti martyres, quorum memoria est apud nos celeberrima, clara uoce ut uestiretur orauit.
'There was a fellow-townsman of ours at Hippo, Florentius, an old man, religious and poor, who supported himself as a tailor. Having lost his coat, and not having means to buy another, he prayed to the Twenty Martyrs who have a very celebrated memorial shrine (memoria) in our town, begging in a clear voice that he might be clothed.'
Young people mock at Florentinus' prayer. Yet the old man finds on the seashore a fish, still alive, and sells it to a chef. The latter finds in the fish a golden ring which he gives to Florentinus, saying that it was the Twenty Martyrs who clothed him in this way.
Text: Dombart and Kalb 1955.
Translation: Dods 1887.
Cult PlacesMiracle with animals and plants
Relics
Cult building - dependent (chapel, baptistery, etc.)
Rejection, Condemnation, SceptisismScepticism/rejection of miracles
Non Liturgical ActivityPrayer/supplication/invocation
MiraclesMiracle with animals and plants
Material support (supply of food, water, drink, money)
RelicsUnspecified relic
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesMerchants and artisans
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 Book 22 of the City of God in Hippo, in 426/427. Chapters 8-9 enumerate a number of contemporary miracles, most of which took place in Hippo and other cities of North Africa, either at the relics of *Stephen, the first martyr or those of Gervasius and Protasius, martyrs in Milan.
Discussion
The Twenty Martyrs are known only from Augustine (see E01121, E03498, E4009, E4081).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 no substantive difference in the ways he uses the word.
Bibliography
Edition:Dombart, B., and Kalb, A., Augustinus, De civitate dei, 2 vols. (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 47-48; Turnhout: Brepols, 1955).
English translation:
Dods, M., Augustine, The City of God (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 2; Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887).
Record Created By
Robert Wiśniewski
Date of Entry
21/02/2016
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00703 | Twenty Martyrs of Hippo Regius | viginti martyres | Certain |
|---|
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