Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon, possibly at Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa) on the eve of a feast of martyrs, in which he mentions the memorial shrine (memoria) at Rome of *Peter (the Apostle, S00036), visited by emperors. Exposition on Psalm 140, delivered in Latin, possibly in 397/405.
Evidence ID
E01779
Type of Evidence
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Major author/Major anonymous work
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 140.21
The preacher tells about martyrs whose bodies lay unburied and despised, but who at the end became dung which enriched and fertilised the soil upon which the Church grew. Now, the tombs of martyrs are not despised any more.
Imperator venit Romam. Quo festinat? ad templum imperatoris, an ad memoriam piscatoris?
'The emperor comes to Rome. Where does he hasten to? To the temple of the emperor, or to the memorial shrine (memoria) of the fisherman?'
Text: Dekkers and Fraipont 1956.
Translation: Robert Wiśniewski.
Liturgical ActivitiesEcclesiastics - bishops
Sermon/homily
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Cult PlacesCult building - independent (church)
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Monarchs and their family
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.
The Expositions on the Psalms are based on Augustine's homilies preached either in Hippo or other places in North Africa in the period from 392 to 417. According to la Bonnardière, 93-95, Sermons 140 and 141 (see E01782) were preached in Hippo between 397 and 405, that is between Augustine's episcopal ordination and the beginning of the violent confrontation with the Donatists to which Augustine does not make any allusion. Sermon 140 does not mention any feast directly, but we know that it was preached on the eve of a feast of martyrs, because in Sermon 141, delivered the day after, Augustine mentions explicitly the feast.
Discussion
Augustine juxtaposed the 'temple of the emperor' and the 'memorial shrine of the fisherman' also in the Expositions on the Psalms 86.8 and Sermon 22D (=341).4.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:Dekkers, E., and Fraipont, J., Enarrationes in psalmos (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 38; Turnhout: Brepols, 1956).
Further reading:
La Bonnardière, M.A., "Les Enarrationes in Psalmos prêchées par saint Augustin à l'occasion de fêtes des martyrs," Recherches Augustiniennes 7 (1971), 73-104.
Record Created By
Robert Wiśniewski
Date of Entry
27/06/2016
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00036 | Peter, the Apostle | Certain | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Robert Wiśniewski, Cult of Saints, E01779 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01779