Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon on the feast of the women martyrs of Thuburbo (Proconsularis, central North Africa), almost certainly *Maxima, Donatilla, and Secunda (S01812), holding them up as an example to men. Sermon 345, delivered in Latin in an unknown city of central North Africa, sometime between 391 and 430.
E04534
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 345
1. Admonet nos et sollemnitas martyrum, et dominicus dies, hoc loqui caritati uestrae, quod pertineat ad contemptum praesentis saeculi, et ad spem futuri...
'The fact that today is both a feast of the martyrs and the Lord's day constrains me to speak to your graces about what concerns indifference or contempt for the present age and hopes for the age to come...'
After that Augustine does not refer to the martyrs or their cult until the following sentence:
... Erubesce, barbate: feminae secutae sunt, quarum hodie natalicia celebramus. Feminarum martyrum Tuburbitanarum sollemnitatem hodie celebramus.
'Blush for shame, bearded man, women have followed Him, those whose birthdays (natalicia) we are celebrating today. We are celebrating the feast today of the women martyrs of Thuburbo.'
Text: Morin 1930, 201 and 207.
Translation: Hill 1995, 58 and 62, lightly modified.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Service for the saint
Sermon/homily
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Women
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 probably preached on Sunday 30 July (the feast of the martyrs of Thuburbo was celebrated on this day), but it is impossible to specify the year. During Augustine's episcopate it could have been in 405, 411, 416, 422, or 428.
Discussion
The women martyrs of Thuburbo are know from their Martyrdom, see E07491.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 10, Sermons 341-400 On Various Subjects (New York: New City Press, 1995).
Dating:
Kunzelmann, A., "Die Chronologie der sermones des hl. Augustinus," Miscellanea Agostiniana, vol. 2 (Rome: Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, 1931), 417-452.
Robert Wiśniewski
23/08/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01812 | Maxima, Donatilla and Secunda, virgins and martyrs of Thuburbo | feminae martyres Tuburbitanae | Uncertain |
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