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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 *Cyprian (bishop and martyr of Carthage, S00411) in which he presents martyrs as conquerors over demons and urges the audience to celebrate the feast day in sobriety. Sermon 312, delivered in Latin, probably in Carthage (central North Africa), sometime between 391 and 430, perhaps c. 417.

Evidence ID

E02859

Type of Evidence

Literary - Sermons/Homilies

Major author/Major anonymous work

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 312

[In natali Cypriani martyris

'On the feast of the martyr Cyprian']


1. Diei tam grati laetique solemnitas, et coronae tanti Martyris tam felix et iucunda festivitas, sermonem a me debitum flagitat. Sed tantam sarcinam orationes illius mecum portant; ut si quid minus quam debetur, exsolvero, non me despiciat loquentem vobis, sed omnes reficiat precando pro vobis. Faciam sane quod ei certum mihi est esse gratissimum, ut eum in Domino laudem, cum de illo Dominum laudo.

'The requisite sermon is demanded of me by the celebration (
solemnitas) of such a welcome and joyful day as this, and by such wonderful and happy festivities in honour of the triumph of so great a martyr. But his prayers are carrying together with me the burden of this great responsibility, so that if I pay out to you anything less than is your due, he will refresh you all by praying for you, instead of looking down on me as I speak to you. I will certainly do what I am sure is most acceptable to him, namely, praise him in the Lord, when I praise the Lord on his account. '


Augustine compares the life of Cyprian before and after his conversion, both presented in very general terms, without references to specific episodes, although in ch. 4 he names Cyprian's professional activity as an advocate.

5. Et si adhuc quisquam quaerit forte quis vicerit, ut omittam regnum coeleste sanctorum, quod infideles credere nolunt, quia videre non possunt; nunc in ista terra, in ista vita, in domibus, in agris, in civitatibus in orbe terrarum, ecce sunt ferventes laudationes martyrum: ubi sunt furentes accusationes impiorum? Ecce quemadmodum honorantur memoriae peremptorum, nunc illi ostendant idola daemoniorum. Quid eis iudicando facturi sunt, qui eorum templa moriendo everterunt? Quomodo eorum superbas fallacias resurgentium militum suorum splendore damnabit, qui eorum fumantes aras morientium sanguine exstinxit?

'And if anyone should still perhaps be asking who defeated whom, leaving aside any reference to the heavenly kingdom of the saints, which unbelievers refuse to believe in, because they can't see it; right now, on this earth, in this life, in houses, in the fields, in the cities, in the whole wide world, you can see how fervently the praises of the martyrs are sung
but where are the furious accusations of the godless? You can see how the memorial shrines (memoriae) of the slain are honoured; now let those others show us the idols of the demons. Just imagine what those, who overthrew their temples just by dying, are going to do them when they pass judgement on them! How the one who extinguished their smoking altars with the blood of the dying, will condemn their proud deceits by the splendour of his soldiers as they rise again!'


In what follow Augustine praises Cyprian and ends the sermon with these words:

Quapropter, carissimi, tam gratae festivitati debito sermone pro viribus persoluto, exhortor dilectionem devotionemque vestram, ut istum diem honeste ac sobrie peragamus, et hoc exhibeamus diei, quo Cyprianus beatissimus passus est, quod amavit ut pateretur.

'So finally, dearly beloved, having paid the debt of a sermon to such a popular feast, I urge upon your love and your devotion that we should spend this day decently and soberly, and exhibit on this day, on which the blessed Cyprian suffered, what he loved enough to die for.'


Text:
Patrologia Latina 38, 1420-22.
Translation: Hill 1994, 81-85.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.

Liturgical Activities

Service for the saint
Sermon/homily

Festivals

Saint’s feast

Cult Places

Cult building - dependent (chapel, baptistery, etc.)

Activities accompanying Cult

Feasting (eating, drinking, dancing, singing, bathing)

Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Ecclesiastics - bishops

Theorising on Sanctity

Considerations about the veneration 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 tentatively dated to c. 417 on the basis of intertextual references, but this dating is far from certain. Since Augustine seems to have been invited to preach on this feast, he was evidently not in Hippo, but probably in Carthage.


Discussion

The term memoria, literally 'memory' or 'memorial', is also used by Augustine both for the shrines of martyrs and, more narrowly, for their relics. Since it is evident that, for Augustine, the memorial shrine (memoria) of a saint contained relics of that saint, and served as a focus of memory, there is often (as here) no substantive difference in the ways he uses the word.

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

Related Saint Records
IDNameName in SourceIdentity
S00411Cyprian, bishop and martyr of CarthageCyprianusCertain


Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Robert Wiśniewski, Cult of Saints, E02859 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E02859