Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon on Easter Wednesday, in which he finishes a story about a boy brought back to life at the shrine of *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030) in Uzalis (Proconsularis, central North Africa). Sermon 324, delivered in Latin in Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa), 424/427.
E03999
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 324
[Quo Augustinus complet partem sermonis mox praecedentis miraculo interrupti
'In which Augustine completes the sermon about a miracle, which was interrupted the day before']
Debet a nobis hesternus sermo compleri, qui maiori interruptus est gaudio.
'I must finish the sermon which was interrupted yesterday by a cause for much grater joy.'
Augustine reminds his audience that the brother and sister who have been just cured in Hippo were not brought to health in Ancona (Italy) or Uzalis (North Africa). Then, he continues the story interrupted the day before, about a woman in Uzalis whose son died unbaptised and who lamented that he would be doomed for eternity.
Impleta affectu fiduciae tulit illum mortuum, et cucurrit ad memoriam beati martyris Stephani, et coepit ab illo exigere filium, et dicere: sancte martyr, uides nullum mihi remansisse solatium. Non enim possum dicere filium praecessisse, quem nosti perisse: tu enim uides quare plangam. Redde filium meum, ut habeam eum ante conspectum coronatoris tui.
'Filled with a feeling of confidence, she picked up the dead child and hurried off to the shrine (memoria) of the blessed martyr Stephen, and began to demand her son back from him, saying, "Holy martyr, you can see that I have been left without any consolation at all. I mean, I can't say my son has gone ahead of me, since you know very well he has perished. You at least can see why I am so grief-stricken. Give my son back to me, so that I may have in the presence of the one who crowned you".'
The boy is brought back to life in order to be baptised. This having been done, he dies again.
Illa autem tali eum cum uultu deduxit, tanquam non deduceret ad requiem sepulcri, sed ad sinum martyris Stephani. Probatum est cor fidele mulieris. Ubi ergo tale miraculum fecit Deus per martyrem suum, non potuit ibi istos curare? Et tamen huc nobis directi sunt.
Conuersi ad Dominum, etc.
'She, for her part, conducted his funeral with such a tranquil expression that it seemed she was laying him not in the silence of the grave, but in the lap of the martyr Stephen. The woman's faithful heart was tried and passed the test. So could not God have cured these two in a place where he performed such a miracle as through his martyr? And yet they were directed here to us.
Turning to the Lord, etc.'
Text: Patrologia Latina 38, 1446-1447.
Translation: Hill 1994, 165-166.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Sermon/homily
Cult PlacesCult building - dependent (chapel, baptistery, etc.)
Non Liturgical ActivityOral transmission of saint-related stories
MiraclesMiracle after death
Power over life and death
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesWomen
Children
Ecclesiastics - bishops
Unbaptized Christians
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 was preached certainly after the discovery of the relics of Stephen in Caphargamala (Palestine) in 415, their arrival in Africa c. 420 and in Hippo c. 424, for the relics are evidently kept in the church in which Augustine is speaking. It was also preached before Book 22 of The City of God (which refers to this episode) was written in 426/427 (see E01135).
Discussion
This sermon is the last of the series connected with the miraculous healing at Easter 426. It was preached the day after Sermon 322 and 323 (E03660 ad E03851), which were delivered on Easter Tuesday, two days after Sermon 321 (E03632), and three days after Sermon 320 (E03631).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, 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).
Robert Wiśniewski
23/08/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00030 | Stephen, the First Martyr | Stephanus | Certain |
|---|
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