Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon on the feast of the *Scillitan Martyrs (martyrs in Carthage from Scillium, S00913). Sermon 299D, delivered in Latin, probably in Carthage (central North Africa), possibly in 413.
E02656
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 299D
[In natali sanctorum martyrum Scillitanorum
'On the feast of the Scillitan martyrs']
1. Martyres sancti, testes Dei, ne uiuendo morerentur, moriendo uiuere maluerunt; ne timendo mortem negarent uitam, amando uitam contempserunt uitam. Ut negaretur Christus, uitam promittebat inimicus, sed non qualem Christus. Credentes ergo quod a Saluatore promittebatur, riserunt quod persecutor comminabatur. Fratres, quando sollemnia martyrum celebramus, exempla nobis proposita nouerimus, quae imitando assequamur.
'1. The holy martyrs, witnesses of God, preferred to live by dying, in order not to die by living; in order not to deny life by fearing death, they despised life by loving life. To get them to deny Christ, the enemy was promising them life, but not the kind Christ was. So as they believed the promises of the Saviour, they laughed at the threats of the persecutor. Brothers, when we celebrate the festivals of the martyrs, we should know that examples are being set before us, which we should try to match by imitating them.'
In what follows Augustine refers to a dialogue between the judge and the martyrs, which does not seem to be related to any specific text that we know.
Text: Morin 1930, 75.
Translation: Hill 1994, 256.
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.
This sermon is tentatively dated to 413 on the basis of intertextual references and its place in the collection of Augustine's sermons. Carthage, the site of the martyrs' shrine, is the most likely location.
Discussion
According to the manuscript tradition this sermon was preached at the feast of the Scillitan martyrs, but the dialogue that Augustine quotes is not the one that we know from their Acts.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 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.
Robert Wiśniewski
28/02/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00913 | Scillitan Martyrs, martyrs in Carthage from Scillium | Uncertain |
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