Augustine of Hippo, in his City of God (22.8), tells how relics of *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030), deposited on the estate named Audurus (central North Africa), saved a child driven over by a wagon. Written in Latin in Hippo (central North Africa), 426/427.
Evidence ID
E01117
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other
Major author/Major anonymous work
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, City of God 22.8
Audurus nomen est fundi, ubi <est> ecclesia et in ea memoria martyris Stephani. Puerum quendam paruulum, cum in area luderet, exorbitantes boues, qui uehiculum trahebant, rota obtriuerunt, et confestim palpitauit expirans. Hunc mater abreptum ad eandem memoriam posuit, et non solum reuixit, uerum etiam inlaesus apparuit.
'Audurus is the name of an estate, where there is a church, and in it there is a relic (memoria) of the martyr Stephen. It happened that, as a little boy was playing in the court, the oxen drawing a wagon went out of the track and crushed him with the wheel, so that immediately he seemed at his last gasp. His mother snatched him up, and laid him by the relic, and not only did he revive, but also appeared uninjured.'
Text: Dombart and Kalb 1955.
Translation: Dods 1887, modified.
Cult PlacesMiracle after death
RelicsBodily relic - unspecified
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Cult building - unspecified
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
RelicsBodily relic - unspecified
Privately owned relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Children
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 exact location of Audurus in unknown. The following record, E01118, names a neighbouring estate of Caspaliana; but it too cannot be located.Augustine uses the word memoria (literally 'memory' or 'memorial') also for both shrines of saints and relics of saints. From the context here, it is clear that relics are being referred to, showing that these could be present outside of cities and (in this case) almost certainly in private hands. See E01104 for similar evidence relating to relics of Gervasius and Protasius.
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).
Further reading:
Meyers, J., Les miracles de saint Etienne. Recherches sur le recueil pseudo-augustinien (BHL 7860-7861), avec édition critique, traduction et commentaire (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006).
Record Created By
Robert Wiśniewski
Date of Entry
21/02/2016
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Stephanus | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Robert Wiśniewski, Cult of Saints, E01117 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01117