Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon at the feast of a martyr, possibly *Catulinus (deacon and martyr of Carthage, S00914) and possibly in Carthage (central North Africa). Exposition on Psalm 39, delivered in Latin, c. 413.
Evidence ID
E01800
Type of Evidence
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Major author/Major anonymous work
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 39.16
Mortes in quas pagani saeuierunt, in illis hodie reficimur. Natalem martyrum celebramus, exempla martyrum nobis proponimus, adtendimus fidem, quomodo inuenti, quomodo adtracti, quomodo steterunt ante iudices.
'Today we are feeding on these deaths which pagans inflicted in rage. We are celebrating the annual feast of the martyrs, we are setting forth before you the examples of the martyrs, listening carefully how they were found, brought to, and put before judges.'
Text: Dekkers and Fraipont 1956.
Translation: Robert Wiśniewski.
Liturgical ActivitiesSermon/homily
Festivals
Sermon/homily
Eucharist associated with cult
FestivalsSaint’s feast
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. Augustine refers in this sermon to a feast of natalis civitatis (birthday of the city) which would be celebrated on the morrow. La Bonnardiere, 79-81, thinks that this refers to the city of Carthage whose feast was celebrated on 15 July, and on the basis of complicated intertextual references with other sermons tentatively dates our sermon to 413. The martyr commemorated on this day was probably *Catulinus, martyr and deacon of Carthage – his feast was celebrated on 15 July according to the Calendar of Carthage (see E02198).
Discussion
The dating and location of this sermon is uncertain. However, according to la Bonnardière (p. 80-1) the allusions to the stage of the Donatist controversyand other African affairs that can be found in the sermons from the same series point to the period after the conference in Carthage (411) and before the death of the count Marcellinus (413). The sermon also makes an allusion to a secular feast, dies natalis civitatis, to be celebrated on on the following day. La Bonnardière supposes Augustine preached it in Carthage whose dies natalis was held on the 15 of July. The Calendar of Carthage does not have a martyrial feast on the 14 of July, but on the 15th the church of this city commemorated the martyr Catulinus and the sermon pronounced on the 15 may have been preached on its eve.According to the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (E04882) Catulinus was a deacon.
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 | S00914 | Catulinus, deacon and martyr of Carthage | Uncertain |
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