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The Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity


from its origins to circa AD 700, across the entire Christian world


Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon on the feast of the Apostles *Peter and *Paul (S00036 and S00008), expressing his disappointment that it is less well attended by the faithful that those of other martyrs. Sermon 298, delivered in Latin in Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa), possibly in 426/430.

Evidence ID

E02613

Type of Evidence

Literary - Sermons/Homilies

Major author/Major anonymous work

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 298

1. Debuimus quidem tantorum martyrum diem, hoc est, sanctorum apostolorum Petri et Pauli, maiore frequentia celebrare. Si enim celebramus frequentissime natalitia agnorum, quanto magis debemus arietum?

'Really, we should have been celebrating the feast of such great martyrs, that is of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, with a much bigger crowd than this. After all, if we flock in big crowds to the celebration of the birthday of lambs, how much more should we do for those of the rams?'

In what follows, Augustine expresses once again his disappointment at the fact that so few of the faithful attended the feast.


Text: Lambot 1950, 95.
Translation: Hill 1994, 224.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.

Liturgical Activities

Sermon/homily
Service for the saint

Festivals

Saint’s feast

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops
Crowds

Theorising on Sanctity

Considerations about the hierarchy of saints

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 the years 426-430 on the basis of intertextual references and its place in the collection of Augustine's sermons. Augustine's obvious disappointment at the smallness of his congregation shows that it was preached at Hippo.


Discussion

Augustine suggests that the feast of the apostles (rams) attracted less people that those of other, most probably local martyrs (lambs).


Bibliography

Edition:
Lambot, C., Sancti Aurelii Augustini Sermones selecti duodeviginti = Stromata Patristica et Mediaevalia, vol. 1 (Utrecht, 1950).

Translation:
Hill, E., The Works of Saint Augustine. A Translation for the 21st Century, vol. III 9, 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.


Record Created By

Robert Wiśniewski

Date of Entry

28/02/2017

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00008Paul, the ApostlePaulusCertain
S00036Peter, the ApostlePetrusCertain
S00060Martyrs, unnamed or name lostCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Robert Wiśniewski, Cult of Saints, E02613 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E02613