Evidence ID
E01924
Type of Evidence
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Major author/Major anonymous work
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 8
[Habitus Carthagine ad mensam sancti Cypriani
'Preached at Carthage at the altar of saint Cyprian']
Ch. 15:
Augustine quotes the episodes from the Acts of the Apostles in which the Apostles Peter and then Paul were miraculously freed from prison. He also says that 'their feast is celebrated on the same day' (quorum natalicium uno die celebramus).
Ch. 16:
Sanctus cuius mensa est ista Cyprianus fuit aliquando uel aurum uel argentum Aegyptiorum.
'Once the saint whose altar this is, Cyprian, was the gold or silver of the Egyptians'.
Text: Lambot 1961, 92 and 93.
Summary and translation: Robert Wiśniewski.
Festivals
Saint’s feast
Cult PlacesAltar
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.
This sermon deals with the Ten Plagues of Egypt. Since Augustine refers to it in his Explanation on Psalm 77, dated to 415, this sermon was preached earlier; according to Kunzelmann (p. 446) it was in 411.
Bibliography
Edition:Lambot, C., Sermones de vetere testamento (1-50) (Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina, 41; Turnhout: Brepols, 1961).
Translation:
Hill, E., Sermons 1-19 (The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century III/1; New York: New City Press, 1990)
Further reading:
Kunzelmann, A., "Die Chronologie der sermones des hl. Augustinus," Miscellanea Agostiniana, vol. 2 (Rome: Poligrafia Poliglotta Vaticana, 1931), 417-452.
Record Created By
Robert Wiśniewski
Date of Entry
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00008 | Paul, the Apostle | Paulus | Certain | S00036 | Peter, the Apostle | Petrus | Certain | S00411 | Cyprian, bishop and martyr of Carthage | Cyprianus | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Robert Wiśniewski, Cult of Saints, E01924 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E01924