E02793
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 306C
[Sermo sancti Augustini episcopi ad mensam Cypriani de sancto Quadrato
'Sermon of Saint Augustine the Bishop at the Table of Saint Cyprian on Saint Quadratus']
1. Hoc discens et docens iste Quadratus – erat enim episcopus – cuius sollemnitatem hodie celebramus, cum tota plebe sua, clericis et laicis, confessus est Christum. Praemisit gregem, quem pascebat: post quadriduum Quadratus secutus est. Massa enim Candida, cuius ante quadriduum sollempnitas celebrata est, plebs erat Dei, gubernationi huius credita. Quam magnum parietem signinarium regebat iste Quadratus.
'Quadratus, whose feast we are celebrating today, both learned and taught his lesson - he was a bishop, you see - and with his whole people, clergy and laity, confessed Christ. He sent the flock on ahead, which he had been pasturing; four days later Quadratus followed them. The Shining White Mass (Massa Candida), you see, whose feast was celebrated four days ago, was the people of God entrusted to this man's care. What a splendid wall for posters this Quadratus had presided over.'
In the next passage of the sermon (§ 2) Augustine comments upon Quadratus' name, which denotes firmness. The rest of the sermon does not refer to him anymore.
Text: Morin 1930, 646.
Translation: Hill 1994, 36.
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 397 on the basis of intertextual references and its place in the collection of Augustine's sermons.
Discussion
For the feasts of Quadratus and the martyrs of Massa Candida in the Calendar of Carthage see E02199.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 306-340A 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
11/04/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00904 | Martyrs of Massa Candida (Utica) | Massa Candida | Certain | S01324 | Quadratus, bishop and martyr of Utica | Quadratus | Certain |
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