Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon on the feast of the nativity of *John the Baptist (S00020). He emphasises that it is the only earthly birthday of a man other than Christ which the Church celebrates, and explains why it falls on the summer solstice. Sermon 288, delivered in Latin, possibly in Carthage (central North Africa) in 401.
E02417
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 288
1. Diei hodiernae festiuitas anniuersario reditu memoriam renouat, natum esse Domini praecursorem ante mirabilem mirabiliter; cuius natiuitatem considerare nos et laudare maxime hodie conuenit. Ad hoc enim et dies anniuersarius huic miraculo dedicatus est, ut beneficia Dei et excelsi magnalia non deleat obliuio de cordibus nostris.
'Today's feast reminds us, as it comes round every year, that the Lord's forerunner was born in a wonderful way before the Wonderful one. Today especially it is fitting for us to reflect and to praise his birth. The reason, after all, why this anniversary is dedicated to this miracle, is to ensure that forgetfulness does not erase from our hearts the benefits of God and the might works of the Most High.'
What follows presents John the Baptist's role as the Voice in relation to that of Christ, the Word. At the end Augustine emphasises that the feast of John the Baptist falls on the summer solstice as a sign of John's humility, since from this day on the days get shorter.
Text: Patrologia Latina 38, 1302.
Translation: Hill 1994, 110.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Sermon/homily
Service for the saint
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Theorising on SanctityConsiderations about the veneration of saints
Relationships with pagan practices
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 is dated to 401 on the basis of intertextual references and its place in the collection of Augustine's sermons. Augustine was then in Carthage.
Bibliography
Edition:Migne, J.P., Patrologia Latina 38 (Paris, 1865).
Translation:
Hill, E., The Works of Saint Augustine. A Translation for the 21st Century, vol. III 8, Sermons 273-305A on the Saints (New York: New City Press, 1994).
Dating:
Kunzelmann, A., "Die Chronologie der sermones des hl. Augustinus," Miscellanea Agostiniana, vol. 2 (Rome: Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, 1931), 417-452.
Robert Wiśniewski
03/01/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Iohannes Baptista | Certain |
|---|
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