Maximus of Turin preaches a sermon (Sermon 12) for the feast of *Adventor, Octavius and Solutor (martyrs of Turin, S01116), in which he explains why the people of Turin should especially venerate the martyrs of their own city. Delivered in Latin in Turin (northern Italy), between c. 397 and 408/423.
E05322
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Maximus of Turin
Maximus of Turin, Sermon 12 (Full text and translation)
(1) Cum omnium sanctorum martyrum, fratres, deuotissime natalem celebrare debeamus, tum praecipue eorum sollemnitas tota nobis ueneratione curanda est, qui in nostris domiciliis proprium sanguinem profuderunt.
Nam licet uniuersi sancti ubique sint et omnibus prosint, specialiter tamen illi pro nobis interueniunt, qui et supplicia pertulere pro nobis. Martyr enim cum patitur, non sibi tantum patitur sed et ciuibus. Sibi enim patitur ad praemium ciuibus ad exemplum, sibi patitur ad requiem ciuibus ad salutem. Exemplo enim eorum didicimus Christo credere, didicimus contumeliis uitam aeternam quaerere, mortem didicimus non timere.
Videte ergo quid martyribus debeamus, in quo alter tortus est, ut alius saluaretur; alter carnificem pertulit, ut Christum alter agnosceret; alter morti addictus est, ut alius uita potiretur aeterna; et ad postremum sanctus occisus est, ut peccator euaderet! beati igitur martyres nec sibi uixerunt nec sibi sunt mortui. Exemplum enim nobis reliquerunt bene uiuendo conuersationis tolerando fortiter passionis.
Nam ideo Dominus per totum mundum diuersis in locis pati martyres uoluit, ut tamquam idonei testes nos praesentia quadam fidei exemplo suae confessionis urgerent; ut humana fragilitas, quae praedicationi dominicae auditu longiore uix credit, uel praesenti oculorum testimonio martyrio crederet beatorum.
(2) Cuncti igitur martyres deuotissime percolendi sunt, sed specialiter hi uenerandi sunt a nobis quorum reliquias possidemus. Illi enim nos orationibus adiuuant, isti etiam adiuuant passione. Cum his autem nobis familiaritas quaedam est; semper enim nobiscum sunt nobiscum morantur, hoc est et in corpore nos uiuentes custodiunt, et de corpore recedentes excipiunt; hic ne peccatorum nos labes absumat, ibi ne inferni horror inuadat.
Nam ideo a maioribus hoc prouisum est, ut sanctorum ossibus nostra corpora sociemus, ut dum illos tartarum metuit, nos poena non tangat; dum illis Christus inluminat, a nobis tenebrarum caligo diffugiat. Cum sanctis ergo martyribus quiescentes euadimus inferni tenebras si non propriis meritis at tamen consortii sanctitate.
Ait Dominus Petro: "Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam, et portae inferni non praeualebunt ei." Si ergo apostolo et martyri Petro inferni porta non praeualet, quisque sociatur martyri tartari ianua non tenetur. Martyres enim inferni porta non possidet, quoniam eos paradysi regna suscipiunt.
Nam uidemus eos hic utique iam regnare. Cernimus enim ab his frequenter obsessos inmundissimis daemonibus homines liberari, ita ut caelesti medicina et captiua anima de diaboli laqueis eruatur, et ipse diabolus uinculis igneis alligatus producatur de sua captiuitate captiuus, ut qui praedam paulo ante ceperat ipse subdatur in praedam. Haec et alia potiora mirabilia per sanctos fieri omnibus notum est.
Et ideo, fratres, ueneremur eos in saeculo quos defensores habere possimus in futuro; et sicut eis ossibus parentum nostrorum iungimur, ita et eis fidei imitatione iungamur! in nullo enim ab ipsis separari poterimus, si sociemur illis tam religione quam corpore.
‘ON THE PASSION OR FEAST OF THE SAINTS, THAT IS OCTAVIUS, ADVENTUS AND SOLUTOR OF TURIN
We ought to celebrate very devoutly the feast of all holy martyrs, brethren, but the solemnity of those who have poured out their own blood in the places where we live is to be observed in particular by us with total veneration. For although all the saints are everywhere and benefit everyone, nonetheless those who have put up with suffering for our sake intercede specially for us. For when a martyr suffers they suffer not for themselves alone but also for their fellow citizens: they suffer for themselves for the reward, for their fellow citizens as an example; they suffers for themselves for peace, for their fellow citizens for salvation. For by their example we have learned to believe in Christ, to seek eternal life in injury, and not to fear death.
See what we owe the martyrs, then: the one has been tortured that another might be saved, the one has endured the executioner so that the other might acknowledge Christ, the one has been given over to death so that the other might obtain eternal life, and finally, the saint has been slain so that the sinner might escape. Blessed are the martyrs then, who have neither lived for themselves nor died for themselves!
They have left us an example of how to live by living well and how to suffer by enduring courageously. Consequently the Lord willed that martyrs should suffer throughout the whole world in different places so that, like witnesses, they might urge us on by a kind of presence through the example of their own confession. Thus human frailty, which hardly believed either in the Lord's preaching after having heard it for a long time or in the testimony which can be seen with their eyes, might give credence to the martyrdom of the saints.
(2) All the martyrs, therefore, are to be very devoutly honoured, but the ones whose relics we possess are to be especially venerated by us. For they all help us by their prayers, but these help us also by their suffering. Among them there is a certain familiarity with us: they are always with us, they stay with us. While we are in our body they protect us, when we leave it they receive us; here lest a slide into sin corrupt us, there lest the horror of hell seize us.
It was provided for by our ancestors that we should join our bodies to the bones of the saints, for, inasmuch as the underworld feared them, punishment would not touch us, and, while Christ shed his light on them, shadowy gloom would flee from us. Resting with the holy martyrs, we have escaped the shadows of hell – not by our own merits but nonetheless as sharers in holiness.
The Lord says to Peter: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). If the gate of hell shall not prevail against the apostle and martyr Peter, then whoever is joined to a martyr will not be held by the gate of Tartarus. For the gate of hell does not hold the martyrs because the kingdom of paradise receives them.
And we see that they already reign here, for we see that often those possessed by unclean demons are set free, so that by a celestial remedy the captive soul is snatched from the devil's snare, and the devil himself, bound in fiery chains, is led forth captive in his own captivity, he who shortly before had preyed upon others now falls prey himself. Everyone knows that these and other powerful wonders are done by the saints.
And therefore, brethren, let us venerate in this world those whom we may have as defenders in the one to come, and just as we are joined to them by the bones of our parents, so let us be joined to them by a like faith. For we shall not be able to be separated from them if we join them as much in devotion as in body.'
Text: Mutzenbacher 1962, 41-42.
Translation: Ramsey 1989, 31-33, modified.
Sermon/homily
FestivalsSaint’s feast
Non Liturgical ActivitySaint as patron - of a community
Burial ad sanctos
MiraclesMiracle after death
Exorcism
RelicsBodily relic - unspecified
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Theorising on SanctityConsiderations about the veneration of saints
Considerations about the hierarchy of saints
Source
Maximus was bishop of late antique Turin, but the exact dates of his episcopate have been contested over the centuries. Gennadius of Marseille, writing in the late-fifth century, refers to a prominent bishop of Turin – called Maximus - who composed sermons on a variety of topics. According to Gennadius (De viris illustribus 41), this Maximus died in the reign of Honorius and the younger Theodosius, which would place Maximus’ death between 408 and 423.This was challenged in the early 17th century. Cardinal Baronius believed that the author of the sermons was the same Maximus who signed the acts of the Council of Milan in 451 and the Council of Rome in 465. He claimed that there was a mistake in Gennadius’ account: Maximus did not die, but instead ‘flourished’ (claruisse) between 408 and 423. Although this view was held until the end of the 19th century, it is now widely accepted that there were two bishops of Turin called Maximus, and that the author of the sermons did in fact die between 408 and 423. For a full overview of this argument, see Mutzenbecher’s preface to her critical edition of Maximus’ sermons.
Mutzenbecher’s edition contains 119 sermons, of which 106 are viewed as authentic. 89 of these apparently constituted the collection available to Gennadius in Marseille at the end of the fifth century. These sermons were preached to the congregation in Turin on a variety of different topics. Many of them were preached to celebrate the feast day of a specific saint.
Andreas Merkt has identified three main motivations guiding Maximus’ sermons on the saints. Firstly, he argues that Maximus preached on saints to provide examples for his congregation to follow. Secondly, that Maximus uses stories of martyrdom to communicate messages about the importance of Christ’s passion and the nature of the Eucharist to his congregation. Thirdly, Merkt argues that the saints Maximus focused on reflect his view on the ideal structure of the Church: he emphasises the primacy of Peter and Paul and the Roman church.
Discussion
This passage provides an example of the practice in late-fourth-century Italy of characterising the saints as patrons or defenders of a community. We can see this in Paulinus’ representation of *Felix (priest and confessor of Nola, southern Italy, S00000) as the patron (patronus) of Nola (southern Italy) (see E04767), or Ambrose’s treatment of *Gervasius and Protasius (martyrs of Milan, S00313) (see E05211). A similar desire to link saints with specific locations can be seen in Prudentius' Crown of Martyrs, written in Calahorra (northern Spain) in the early fifth century (E00801).Maximus also refers to the spiritual benefits burial ad sanctos can bring to the deceased. If we are ‘joined with the bones of the saints’ (sanctorum ossibus ... sociemus) then the deceased need not fear the horrors of hell. This is not through our own merits, but the influence of the martyrs. The benefits of this practice were debated across the Mediterranean world in this period. Paulinus of Nola envisaged significant benefits for the deceased if they rested near saints (E04380 and E04655). Augustine of Hippo, on the other hand, responded to reports of this practice in Nola by writing On the Care of the Dead, which argued no heavenly benefit could be gained merely through posthumous proximity to the bodies of saints (E01750).
Bibliography
Edition:Mutzenbecher, A., Maximi episcopi Taurinensis Collectionem sermonum antiquam (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 23; Turnhout: Brepols, 1962).
Translation:
Ramsey, B., The Sermons of Maximus of Turin (Ancient Christian Writers 50; Westminster MD: Newman Press, 1989).
Further Reading:
Brown, P.R.L., The Ransom of the Soul: Afterlife and Wealth in Early Western Christianity (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2015).
Duval Y., Auprès des saints corps et âme. L'inhumation « ad sanctos » dans la chrétienté d'Orient et d'Occident du IIIe siècle au VIIe siècle (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1988).
Lizzi, R., "Ambrose’s Contemporaries and the Christianisation of Northern Italy," Journal of Roman Studies 80 (1990), 156-173.
Merkt, A., Maximus I. von Turin. Die Verkündigung eines Bischofs der frühen Reichskirche im zeitgeschichtliche liturgischen Kontext (Leiden:Brill, 1997).
Frances Trzeciak
12/04/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S01116 | Adventor, Octavius and Solutor, martyrs of Turin | Adventor, Octavius, Solutor | Certain |
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