Augustine of Hippo refers to a reading earlier in the day at the memorial shrine (ad memoriam) of *Theogenes (martyr and probably bishop of Hippo, S01133) in Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa). Sermon 272B, delivered in Latin in Hippo, 417.
Evidence ID
E02217
Type of Evidence
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Major author/Major anonymous work
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 272B
Augustine explains, referring to the history of Tobias, the meaning of the Jewish and Christian celebration of the Pentecost.
2. Audistis mane, qui fuistis intenti, cum legeretur lectio Tobiae ad memoriam beati Theogenis, quod in die pentecostes sibi fecerit prandium, inuitaturus aliquos de suis, qui digni essent participare cum illo mensam, ex eo quod esset timor in eis domini.
'You heard earlier this morning, those of you who were paying attention, when the reading from Tobit was being read at the memorial shrine (memoria) of the blessed Theogenes, how on the day of Pentecost he made a dinner for himself, intending to invite others of his people who would be worthy to share his table, seeing that they had in them the fear of the Lord.'
Text: Morin 1930, 23.
Translation: Hill 1993, 305.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Cult Places
Cult building - unspecified
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
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 delivered in Hippo Regius in 417; the dating is based on intertextual references with other works of Augustine.
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 (as here) no substantive difference in the ways he uses the word.Bibliography
Edition::Morin, G., Sancti Augustini Sermones post Maurinos reperti (Miscellanea Agostiniana, vol. 1; Rome: Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, 1930).
Translation:
Hill, E., The Works of Saint Augustine. A Translation for the 21st Century, vol. III 7, Sermons 230-272B on the Liturgical Seasons (New York: New City Press, 1993).
Dating:
Kunzelmann, A., "Die Chronologie der sermones des hl. Augustinus," Miscellanea Agostiniana, vol. 2 (Rome: Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, 1931), 417-452.
Record Created By
Robert Wiśniewski
Date of Entry
03/01/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01133 | Theogenes, martyr and probably bishop of Hippo | Theogenes | Certain |
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