Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon for the feast of *Laurence (deacon and martyr of Rome, S00037), citing his story and referring to benefits which people who pray, most probably at the martyr's shrine, obtain. Sermon 302, delivered in Latin, possibly in Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa) in 400.
E02718
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 302
1. Beati martyris Laurentii dies sollemnis hodiernus est. Huic sollemnitati sanctae lectiones congruae sonuerunt. Audiuimus et cantauimus, et euangelicam lectionem intentissime accepimus. Martyrum ergo uestigia imitando sectemur, ne sollemnitates eorum inaniter celebremus. Cuius autem meriti sit memoratus martyr, quis ignorat? Quis ibi orauit, et non impetrauit? quam multis infirmis meritum eius etiam temporalia beneficia praestitit, quae ille tempsit.
Concessa sunt enim, non ut precantium permaneret infirmitas, sed ut de terrenis concessis, amor fieret ad appetenda meliora. Quaedam enim plerumque parua et ludicra concedit pater paruulis filiis, quae maxime, nisi acceperint, plorant. Benigna et paterna indulgentia haec impertit, haec donat, quae non uult permanere in filiis suis iam grandiusculis, iam proficientibus. Donat ergo pueris nuces, quibus seruat hereditatem.
'Today is feast of the blessed martyr Laurence. Readings suitable to this holy solemnity were heard. We have heard them and sung them, and followed the reading of the gospel with the greatest attention. So let us follow in the footsteps of the martyrs by imitating them, or else we will be celebrating their festivities in no purpose. Is there anyone who doesn't know about the powerful merits of this particular martyr? Did anybody ever pray there, and not obtain the favour asked for? To how many of the weaker brethren have his merits granted even the temporal benefits which he himself scorned!
They were conceded, you see, not so that those who prayed for them might remain in their weakness, but so that by being granted inferior benefits, their love might be stimulated to seek the better ones. A father, after all, often concedes trivial playthings to his small children, which they cry loudly about if they don't get them. A kindly and fatherly indulgence shares things, allows things, which he wouldn't like his children to remain attached to as they grow bigger, as they grow up. So he gives nutts to little boys for whom he is keeping an inheritance.'
Augustine urges his audience not to love the present, temporal life, but to follow the example of the martyrs who were the lovers of the other life.
8. Sanctus Laurentius archidiaconus fuit. Opes ecclesiae de illo a persecutore quaerebantur, sicut traditur; unde tam multa passus est, quae horrent audiri. Impositus craticulae, omnibus membris adustus est, poenis atrocissimis flammarum excruciatus est: uincens tamen omnes corporis molestias magno robore caritatis, adiuuante illo qui talem fecerat.
'Saint Laurence was an archdeacon. The treasures of the Church were demanded of him by the persecutor, as the tradition states. Which is why he suffered such dreadful torments, it is quite horrifying to hear about them. Placed on a gridiron, he was scorched all over his body, tortured with the most excruciating pain by fire. Yet he overcame all these bodily afflictions with the sturdy strength of his charity, helped by the one who had made him like that.'
In what follows Augustine admonishes his audience to be like the martyrs and not to rage against bad people. At the end of the sermon (ch. 22) he refers to the habit of seeking asylum at the church, though does not refer specifically to the shrines of martyrs.
Text: Patrologiae Latinae Supplementum 1, 100 and 104.
Translation: Hill 1994, 300 and 304.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Sermon/homily
Service for the saint
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Non Liturgical ActivitySeeking asylum at church/shrine
Oral transmission of saint-related stories
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
Prayer/supplication/invocation
MiraclesMiracle after death
Unspecified miracle
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 400 on the basis of intertextual references and its place in the collection of Augustine's sermons. It was probably preached in Hippo, Augustine's episcopal see.
Bibliography
Edition:Hamman, A., Patrologiae Latinae Supplementum, vol. 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1960).
Translation:
Hill, E., The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century III/8. Sermons 273-305A for the Saints (New York: New City Press, 1994).
Robert Wiśniewski
11/04/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00037 | Laurence/Laurentius, deacon and martyr of Rome | Laurentius | Certain |
|---|
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