Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon, on a feast of martyrs, emphasising that it is the cause, not the suffering, that makes a martyr, and encouraging his audience to celebrate the feast with sobriety. Sermon 328, delivered in Latin, possibly in Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa), probably before 411.
E04279
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 328
[In natali martyrum
'On a feast of martyrs']
In this sermon Augustine refers to the martyrs in general, not to a specific group of them. He emphasises that it is the cause, not the suffering, which makes a martyr, and so neither pagans nor heretics can be qualified as martyrs (§ 4). He also claims that while he martyrs already sojourn with Christ, they will receive even more splendid reward after the resurrection of their bodies:
6. ... Corpora ipsa sua habebunt magna ornamenta in quibus passi sunt magna tormenta.
'Their bodies will be magnificently adorned, because in them they suffered monstrous torments.'
In what follows Augustine encourages his audience to follow the example of martyrs. Even if proper martyrdom is not possible anymore, its equivalent can be achieved, for instance by enduring the sufferings caused by a malady. His closing remarks refer to the right way of celebrating the feasts of martyrs:
8. ... Hoc est ergo martyres amare, hoc est dies martyrum deuota pietate celebrare, non uino ingurgitari sed illorum fidem et patientiam imitari.
'So this is what it means to love the martyrs, this is what celebrating of the feast day of the martyrs with devotion and piety really means – not drowning yourself in wine, but imitating their faith and endurance.'
Text: Lambot 1939, 18 and 20.
Translation: Hill 1994, 179 and 180.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Service for the saint
Sermon/homily
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Activities accompanying CultFeasting (eating, drinking, dancing, singing, bathing)
Rejection, Condemnation, SceptisismAcceptance/rejection of saints from other religious groupings
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - 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.
This sermon cannot be dated with any certainty; the obvious and strong reference to the false Donatist martyrs makes it probable that it was preached before 411, when the Donatist Church was officially delegalised.
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.
Robert Wiśniewski
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00060 | Martyrs, unnamed or name lost | Certain |
|---|
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