Augustine of Hippo reminds his audience of the penance imposed on those who participated in superstitious practices on the feast of the birth of *John the Baptist (S00020). Sermon 196, delivered in Latin, in Hippo Regius (Numidia, central North Africa), around 415.
E08205
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 196
4. ...Natali Ioannis, id est ante sex menses - tot enim menses inter se habent praeco et iudex -, de solemnitate superstitiosa pagana, christiani ad mare ueniebant et ibi se baptizabant. Absens eram: sed, sicut comperi, per disciplinam christianorum presbyteri permoti, quibusdam dignam et ecclesiasticam disciplinam dederunt. Murmurauerunt inde homines, et dixerunt quidam: quantum erat ut indicaretur nobis? Si ante praemoneremur, non faceremus. Ipsi praemonuissent presbyteri, non fecissemus. Ecce episcopus praemonet; moneo, praedico, denuntio...
4. ...On the birthday of John the Baptist, six months ago that is (that, you see, is how many months there are between the herald and the Judge), Christians took part in a superstitious pagan festival by going to the sea and baptizing each other. I was away; but, as I learned, the presbyters, being zealous for the discipline of Christians, imposed a fitting ecclesiastical penance on some persons. People grumbled about it, and some said, 'Was it so much trouble to warn us? If we were forewarned in good time, we wouldn't do it. Had the presbyters themselves forewarned us we wouldn't have done it.' Well, here's the bishop forewarning you; I'm warning you, I'm telling you beforehand, I'm formally commanding you...
Text: Patrologia Latina 38, 1021.
Translation: Hill 1993, 62.
Saint’s feast
Activities accompanying CultFeasting (eating, drinking, dancing, singing, bathing)
Rejection, Condemnation, SceptisismCondemnation/rejection of a specific cultic activity
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - lesser clergy
Other lay individuals/ people
Theorising on SanctityRelationships with pagan practices
Considerations about the validity of cult forms
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 is tentatively dated to the years 425-430 on the basis of intertextual references and its place in the collection of Augustine's sermons.
Discussion
Augustine refers to some customs, that he considers pagan survivals, connected with the festival of St John in his Sermon 293B.5 preached in 401 (E02433). A century later the custom of bathing on St John's feast in springs and rivers is attested by Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 33 (E07232).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 6, Sermons 184-229Z on the Liturgical Seasons (New York: New City Press, 1993).
Robert Wiśniewski
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00020 | John the Baptist | Ioannes | Certain |
|---|
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