Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon on the feast of *Cyprian (bishop and martyr of Carthage, S00411). Sermon 313B, delivered in Latin at the shrine of the saint in Carthage (central North Africa), sometime between 391 and 430.
E03259
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 313B
[Habitus eodem loco et die de martyris supradicti natale
'Preached in the same day and place on the feast of the aforesaid saint']
1. Augustine expresses his delight because of the number of people who gathered at Cyprian's feast. They are probably more numerous than the crowd which witnessed Cyprian's death in the very same place.
2. He describes martyrs as those who avoided nests of the impious and refers to Cyprian as:
Cypriano episcopo, doctore gentium, frustratore idolorum, proditore daemoniorum, lucratore paganorum, confirmatore christianorum, inflammatore martyrum ...
'Cyprian the bishop, the teacher of nations, the smasher of idols, the unmasker of demons, the winner of pagans, the strengthener of Christians, the man who fired the zeal of the martyrs ...'
4. Augustine is convinced that many of those who saw Cyprian's death came to believe in Christ.
Text: Morin 1930, 72.
Translation: Hill 1994, 97.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Service for the saint
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Cult PlacesPlace of martyrdom of a saint
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Crowds
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.
The date of this sermon is impossible to fix with any certainty, but the lemma says that it was delivered on the same day as Sermon 313A. It was evidently preached in Carthage, in the basilica known as the Mensa Cypriani, constructed over the spot of Cyprian's death.
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
01/06/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00411 | Cyprian, bishop and martyr of Carthage | Cyprianus | Certain |
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