E02585
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 294
[Habitus in Basilica Maiorum, in natale martyris Guddentis V kalendas iulii.
'Preached in the Basilica Maiorum, on the feast of the martyr Gudden, on the 5th day before the Kalends of July [27 June]]
In natali sancti Ioannis inter caetera quae dicenda uidebantur, ad baptismum paruulorum noster sermo deductus est. Et quia iam prolixus erat, et de illo terminando cogitabatur, non tanta dicta sunt de tanta quaestione, quanta in tanto periculo a sollicitis dici debuerunt ... Hodie ergo, adiuuante Domino, placuit nobis hinc loqui. Diem quidem solemnem martyris celebramus ...
'On the birthday of Saint John, among other things that it seemed necessary to talk about, my sermon was led into the subject of the baptism of babies; and because it already had gone on rather long, and we had to think about bringing it to a close, not as much was said about such an important subject as should have been said by concerned persons when so much was at stake ... So today I have agreed, with the Lord's help, to speak on the topic. We are indeed celebrating the feast of the martyr ...'
What follows is devoted uniquely to the issue of the baptism of children and does not mention the martyr whose name appears only in the colophon.
Text: Patrologia Latina 38, 1335.
Translation: Hill 1994, 180.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Service for the saint
Sermon/homily
FestivalsSaint’s feast
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.
Discussion
The martyr Gudden is not mentioned in any other of Augustine's sermons. His or her feast is possibly noted in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum on 26 and 27 June (see E04863 and E04864), so just a few days after the feast of the nativity of John the Baptist (24 June), to which Augustine refers in this sermon. This identification, however, proposed by Delehaye, is problematic: the martyr celebrated in Africa on 26 June is called Gaudentius in all the early manuscripts of the Hieronymianum, while the one mentioned on 27 June is called Ziddin, and his/her feast is in Cordoba, not in Africa.There is no martyr of this name in the 6th-century Calendar of Carthage, though one is mentioned in the ninth-century Martyrology of Ado (Lambot, 1949, p. 260), which gives the consular date of the martyrdom (equivalent to AD 203), and thereby suggests that Ado might have had access to a Martyrdom account..
According to the colophon used by the Maurists (whose edition is reprinted in Patrologia Latina), the sermon was preached in the Basilica Maiorum, in which the bodies of *Perpetua (S00009) and her companions were deposited.
The gender of the martyr is impossible to determine; so too is the spelling of his or her name. The manuscript tradition of Augustine's sermon suggests that it was Guddens, but if we accept the identification with the martyr celebrated on 27 June, it could be Ziddin or Gudden.
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 9. Sermons 306-340A for 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.
Further reading:
Lambot, C., "Les sermons de Saint Augustin pour les fêtes de martyrs", Analecta Bollandiana 67 (1949), 249-266.
Robert Wiśniewski
28/02/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Ioannes | Certain | S01258 | Gudden, martyr of Carthage | Guddentis | Certain |
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