Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon on the feast of a group of martyrs, including *Primus, Victoria and Perpetua (martyrs of Africa, S01709); he warns his audience not to celebrate the day by drinking. Sermon 335A, delivered in Latin in an unknown city of North Africa, possibly Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa), sometime between 391 and 430.
Evidence ID
E04423
Type of Evidence
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Major author/Major anonymous work
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 335A
[De natale sanctorum martyrum
'On a feast of holy martyrs']
1. ... Credo quod aduertit caritas uestra, quando sanctorum passio legebatur, qui primus confessus est Primus uocabatur, ante nouissimum Victoria, in fine Perpetua.
'I'm sure your graces noticed, when the passion of the saints was being read, that the one who first confessed was called Primus; the one before last was Victoria, at the very end came Perpetua.'
In what follows Augustine plays with the names of the martyrs and comments upon their meaning. The sermon ends with the following words:
3. ... celebremus ergo martyrum dies, honorando martyrum passiones, non amando potiones. Conuersi ad Dominum.
'So let us celebrate the feast days of the martyrs, by honouring the sufferings of the martyrs, not in indulging ourselves in drink. Turning to the Lord ...'
Text: Morin 1930, 221.
Translation: Hill 1994, 212-213.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Liturgical ActivitiesSermon/homily
Festivals
Sermon/homily
Eucharist associated with cult
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Activities accompanying CultFeasting (eating, drinking, dancing, singing, bathing)
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
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 dating of this sermon and the place in which it was preached are uncertain. The group of saints named in this passage is otherwise unknown. Perpetua almost certainly cannot be identified with *Perpetua martyr of Carthage (S00009), since none of her companions was named Primus or Victoria. The two latter names appear in other sources, but never together.
Discussion
The names Primus, Victoria and Perpetua all appear amongst a group of thirteen (or twelve) African martyrs commemorated on 4 November in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (E05008), with Primus named first. This group, and the martyrs Augustine celebrates here must be the same, though they are otherwise unknown.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.
Record Created By
Robert Wiśniewski
Date of Entry
23/08/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01709 | Primus, Victoria, Perpetua and companions, martyrs of Africa | Primus, Victoria, Perpetua | Certain |
|---|
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