Augustine of Hippo preaches a sermon on the feast of the nativity of *John the Baptist (S00020); he emphasises that it is the feast of his earthly birth, not his martyrdom, and that the saint celebrated on this day is John the Baptist, not the Evangelist. Sermon 380, delivered in Latin, possibly in Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa), sometime between 391 and 430.
E04546
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 380
1. Quietis et parua uox sufficit. Si autem uultis, fratres, quieti audire, nolite habere cor in auribus, sed aures in corde.Hodiernum diem beati Ioannis Baptistae solemnitati illuxisse tradit et credit ecclesia. Oportet autem hoc de ipso die credere, quod sine uarietate totus orbis agnoscit: sed quia Ioannis esse diem nemo dubitat, non Ioannis qui euangelium scripsit, sed Ioannis Baptistae praecursoris Domini, qui tanto magnus apparuit, quanto se humilem praebuit, dicens, cum ipse christus putaretur, non se dignum corrigiam calceamenti soluere ei, quem Dominum agnoscebat, ut amicus esse mereretur. Nonnulli autem putant passionis eius diem hodie celebrari. Sciat prius sanctitas uestra, natiuitatis esse diem, non passionis. Ex lectione quippe euangelica inuenitur eius natiuitas sex mensibus praecedere domini natiuitatem. Et quoniam diem natiuitatis Domini octauo calendarum Ianuariarum die consensus tradit ecclesiae; restat ut hodiernus dies natiuitatis Ioannis intelligatur.
'For people who are keeping still, even a weak voice from the speaker is enough. But if you want to listen in real stillness, brothers, don't have your mind in your ears, but ears in your minds. The Church believes and hands down to us that this day has dawned for celebrating the feast of John the Baptist. We must, of course, believe about this day what the whole world acknowledges without exception. But because nobody doubts that it is John's day, not the John who wrote the Gospel, but John the Baptist, the Lord's forerunner, the man who was revealed to be all the greater, the more lowly he presented himself as being; thus when he was thought to be the Christ, he said that he was not worthy to undo the sandal strap of the one whom he acknowledged as his Lord, in order to gain the right to be his friend. Some people, however, think that what is being celebrated today is his death. The first thing your holiness should understand is that today is the day of his birth, not his death. The gospel reading, indeed, discloses that his birth preceded the birth of the Lord by six months. And since there is general agreement in the Church on the tradition that the Lord's birthday falls on the eighth day before the Kalends of January [= 25 December], it remains that today is to be taken as the birthday of John.'
In what follows the preacher focuses on the relationship between John the Baptist and Christ and explains how the latter was preceded by the former, and yet was pre-existent. This part is a direct polemic with the Arians.
Text: Patrologia Latina 39, 1675.
Translation: Hill 1995, 361, lightly modified.
Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.
Service for the saint
Sermon/homily
FestivalsSaint’s feast
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 is uncertain. It was possibly preached in Hippo, Augustine's episcopal see. The theological argument developed in the latter part of the sermon may be a later interpolation, but the opening paragraph quoted in this record seems authentic – it is very close to the remarks that can be found in other sermons of Augustine; see Sermons 287 (E02345), 292 (E02428) and 293 (E02431).
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 10, Sermons 341-400 On Various Subjects (New York: New City Press, 1995).
Robert Wiśniewski
23/08/2017
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Ioannes Baptista | Certain |
|---|
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