Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon on the feast of *Cyprian (bishop and martyr of Carthage, S00411), presenting him as a witness of the faith, both by his life and martyrdom, and arguing that the Donatist suicides, venerated by their congregations, are not martyrs. Sermon 313E, delivered in Latin, possibly in Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa), sometime before 411.
E03305
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 313E
[Tractatus de natale sancti Cypriani
'Discourse on the feast of St Cyprian']
Augustine praises Cyprian for the witness that he gave both by his martyrial death and and his life, and particularly by his writings:
1 ... Ille ipse ueridicus et uerax martyr seruus Dei, uerax munere dei, confitetur in scripturis suis, qualis antea fuisset: non obliuiscitur qualis fuerit, ne ingratus sit ei, per quem talis esse cessauit. Gemina ergo gratia commendatur Deo, episcopatu et martyrio. Episcopatus eius defendit et tenuit unitatem; martyrium eius docuit et impleuit confessionem.
'... He himself, a trustworthy and trustful martyr and servant of God, trustful by God's gift, confesses in his writings what he had been like previously; he doesn't forget what he had been like, in order not to be ungrateful to the one through whom he ceased to be like that. So he won God's favour by a twin grace, by the way he was a bishop and the way he was a martyr. As bishop he defended and held onto unity; as martyr he taught and gave an example of the confession of faith.'
Augustine emphasises the faith of Cyprian, which should be distinguished from the false faith of the heretics, and continues in the following words:
2. ... Haeretici autem et Donatistae, qui se ad Cyprianum falso iactant pertinere, si episcopatum eius attenderent, non se separarent; si martyrium, non se praecipitarent. Non est omnino discipulus Christi, non est comes Cypriani, haereticus in haeresi separatus, aut donatista in morte praecipitatus.
'... The heretics, though, and the Donatists, who falsely boast that Cyprian belongs to them, should pay attention to the way he exercised his office of bishop, and they wouldn't break away; to the way he went to his martyrdom, and they wouldn't hurl themselves [to their deaths]. The heretic breaking away in heresy, the Donatist jumping deliberately to his death, is certainly not Christ's disciple; certainly not one of Cyprian's comrades.
Augustine claims that the Donatists are not just bad Christians, but actually not Christians at all, since they follow the advice of the Devil, betraying Christ and killing themselves, like Judas.
5. ... Reuera enim, fratres, et ipsi se praecipitant, et a suis peruersis populis praecipitantur. Illi sunt homicidae ampliores, qui corpora praecipitatorum cum honore colligunt, qui praecipitatorum sanguinem excipiunt, qui eorum sepulchra honorant, qui ad eorum tumulos se inebriant.
'... Yes indeed, brothers, you see as well as hurling themselves [to their deaths], they are also hurled over by their misguided congregations. They are even greater murderers, the people who take up the bodies of the jumpers with honour, who collect the blood of these jumpers, who honour their graves, who get drunk at their tombs.'
Augustine continues to juxtapose Cyprian and the Donatist martyrs:
7. ... Dicimus et nos, non esse haereticos martyres, non esse martyres circumcelliones.
'... I too speak out and say that the heretics aren't martyrs, that the Circumcelliones aren't martyrs.'
At the end of the sermon Augustine expresses his belief in the intercession of saints:
8. ... Commotus est misericordia Dominus: exaudiuit Petrum, uiduam bonam operariam reddidit luci. Sicut ergo illa orationibus uiduarum a morte reparata est, ita et nos orationibus beati cypriani omnium que sanctorum potens est dominus ab omni malo [nos] liberare.
'8. ... The Lord was moved with pity; he listened to Peter, he gave back the good hard-working widow to the light of the day. So just as she was brought back from death by the prayers of the poor widows, in the same way the Lord is well able, by the prayers of the blessed Cyprian and all the saints, to deliver us too from every evil.'
Text: Morin 1930, 536-7, 539, 542-3.
Translation: Hill 1994, 109-10, 113, 115-16, lightly modified.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Service for the saint
Sermon/homily
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Cult PlacesBurial site of a saint - unspecified
Activities accompanying CultFeasting (eating, drinking, dancing, singing, bathing)
Rejection, Condemnation, SceptisismAcceptance/rejection of saints from other religious groupings
RelicsBodily relic - entire body
Bodily relic - blood
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesHeretics
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Theorising on SanctityConsiderations 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.
It is impossible to date this sermon with any certainty, but it must have been preached before the Conference in Carthage (411), which put an end to the official existence of the Donatist Church.
Discussion
Augustine rejected the sanctity of the Donatist martyrs on many occasions and claimed that they were in fact suicides (see E01030, E04446, E04577).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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