Augustine of Hippo, in his City of God (22.8), tells how a tunic deposited at a shrine (memoria) of *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030), on the estate of Audurus (central North Africa), brought to life a virgin devoted to God. Written in Latin in Hippo Regius (central North Africa), 426/427.
Evidence ID
E01118
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other
Major author/Major anonymous work
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, City of God 22.8
Sanctimonialis quaedam in uicina possessione, quae Caspaliana dicitur, cum aegritudine laboraret ac desperaretur, ad eandem memoriam tunica eius adlata est; quae antequam reuocaretur, illa defuncta est. Hac tamen tunica operuerunt cadauer eius parentes, et recepto spiritu salua facta est.
'A religious female (sanctimonialis), who lived on a neighbouring estate called Caspaliana, when she was so ill as to be despaired of, had her tunic taken to this shrine (memoria), but before it was brought back she died. However, her parents wrapped her corpse in the tunic, and, her breath returning, she got well.'
Text: Dombart and Kalb 1955.
Translation: Dods 1887, modified.
Cult PlacesMiracle after death
RelicsUnspecified relic
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Cult building - unspecified
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
RelicsUnspecified relic
Contact relic - cloth
Making contact relics
Privately owned relics
Touching and kissing relics
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
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. The 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 memoria to which the parents of the girl brought her tunic was located on the estate of Audurus (see E01117) the exact location of which in unknown.Augustine uses the word memoria (literally 'memory' or 'memorial') also both for shrines of saints and for relics of saints. Here perhaps 'shrine' is the most ready translation; but an immediately previous passage tells us that this shrine contained relics of the martyr, so either translation would be possible (see E01117). 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).
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, E01118 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01118