Augustine of Hippo, in a sermon preached in an unidentified city of central North Africa, mentions unspecified healing miracles produced daily through the relics (per memoriam) of a martyr, probably *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030). Sermon 61A, delivered in Latin in the 420s.
Evidence ID
E01988
Type of Evidence
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Major author/Major anonymous work
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 61A
5. ... Propter hoc admoneo primitus caritatem uestram, quoniam scio, et omnes scimus et dissimulare non possumus: feriunt enim oculos et nolentium, quae hic cotidie fiunt miracula sanitatum per memoriam beatissimi et gloriosissimi martyris praesentis in hoc loco: sed sine dubio aliqui petunt et non accipiunt.
'5. ... This is why I admonish Your Charity, for I know, and we all know and cannot hide it. Even the eyes of those who do not want it are stricken, because here, through the relics (per memoriam) of the most blessed and glorious martyr present in this place daily miraculous healings are wrought. Yet certainly others seek them, and do not receive them.'
There follow reflections on why not everybody is healed at the saint's shrine, in which Augustine emphasises that the most important healing is spiritual, not somatic.
Text: Lambot 1969, 181.
Translation and summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Liturgical ActivitiesMiracle after death
Relics
Sermon/homily
Cult PlacesCult building - unspecified
MiraclesMiracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
RelicsUnspecified relic
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Theorising on SanctityConsiderations about the nature of miracles
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 was not preached in Hippo, for at its beginning Augustine clearly states that he is visiting this city. The relics referred to in the quoted passage are almost certainly those of Stephen. After their discovery in Caphargamala in Palestine in 415 they arrived in several cities of North Africa in the early 420s.
Discussion
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 no substantive difference in the ways he uses the word. Here he is evidently referring explicitly to the power of relics.Bibliography
Edition:Lambot, C., "Le sermon de saint Augustin sur la prière publié par dom A. Wilmart," Revue Bénédictine 79 (1969), 173-184
Translation:
Hill, E., The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, vol. III 2. Sermons 20-50 (New York: New City Press, 1990).
Record Created By
Robert Wiśniewski
Date of Entry
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Uncertain |
|---|
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