Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon on the feast of the beheading of *John the Baptist (S00020). Sermon 307, delivered in Latin at Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa), possibly in 414/415.
Evidence ID
E02768
Type of Evidence
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Major author/Major anonymous work
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 307
[In decollatione beati Ioannis Baptistae
'On the beheading of John the Baptist]
Augustine starts the sermon with a short reminder of the story of John the Baptist's death and then focuses on the oath of Herod who promised to give Salome whatever she would ask for. Starting from this episode he preaches against the custom of taking oaths.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Liturgical ActivitiesService for the saint
Festivals
Service for the saint
Sermon/homily
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Non Liturgical ActivityOath
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 414/415 on the basis of intertextual references and its place in the collection of Augustine's sermons. In §5 he addresses the congregation as one which knows him well; thus the sermon was certainly pronounced in Hippo.
Discussion
According to the early 6th century Calendar of Carthage on the 27 of December the Church of this city celebrated the feast 'of saint John the Baptist and of the apostle James whom Herod killed'. That was most probably the feast of the beheading of John. One needs to remark, however, that if the sermon refers to the reading about the death of John it does not mention the feast which is named only in the lemma. This lemma can be then be a later addition. If it were so, the sermon originally would not have been preached for the feast. See also E02815.Augustine preaches against the custom of taking oaths, but does not suggest in any way that people swore by saints.
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.
Record Created By
Robert Wiśniewski
Date of Entry
11/04/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Ioannes Baptista | Certain |
|---|
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