Maximus of Madaura (Numidia, central North Africa), a pagan grammarian, and Augustine, then already a Christian (and possibly already a presbyter at Hippo), correspond on the cult rendered by the Christians to the saints (Augustine, Letters 16 and 17); Maximus expresses his horror that four saints, *Miggin, Sanam, Namphamon and Lucitas (African martyrs, probably of Madaura, S02917) receive more veneration than the pagan gods. Written in Latin, in central North Africa, c. 390.
E08310
Literary - Letters
Letter 16 (Maximus to Augustine)
2. Sed inpatientem me esse tanti erroris dissimulare non possum. Quis enim ferat Ioui fulmina uibranti praeferri Migginem, Iuononi, Mineruae, Veneri, Vestaeque Sanamem et cunctis, pro nefas! diis inmortalibus archimartyrem Namphamonem? Inter quos Lucitas etiam haud minore cultu suspicitur atque alii interminato numero, diis hominibusque odiosa nomina, qui conscientia nefandorum facinorum specie gloriosae mortis scelera sua sceleribus cumulantes dignum moribus factisque suis exitum maculati repperunt. Horum busta, si memoratu dignum est, relictis templis, neglectis maiorum suorum manibus stulti frequentant, ita ut praesagium uatis illius indigne ferentis emineat: "Inque deum templis iurabit Roma per umbras." Sed mihi hac tempestate propemodum uidetur bellum Actiacum rursus exortum, quo Aegyptia monstra in Romanorum deos audeant tela uibrare minime duratura.
'2. But I cannot pretend that I am not impatient with so great an error. Who, after all, would tolerate that Miggin should be preferred to Jupiter brandishing his thunderbolts or that Sanam and the martyr of martyrs, Namphamon, should be preferred to Juno, to Minerva, to Venus, to Vesta – and horror! – to all the immortal gods? Among them Lucitas is honored with scarcely less worship, as well as others to an indefinite number – names hateful to the gods and to men! Defiled by the consciousness of their wicked crimes, heaping outrages upon outrages, under the guise of a glorious death, they have met with an end suited to their characters and actions. Foolish people frequent their tombs, if it is worth mention, while the temples are abandoned and the shades of their ancestors neglected, so that the prediction of that prophet who treats them in contempt might be clearly seen, "In the temples of her gods Rome will swear by shades." But it almost seems to me at this time that the war of Actium has arisen again in which Egyptian monsters, which are not going to last, dare to shake their spears at the gods of Rome.'
Letter 17 (Augustine to Maximus)
5. (...) Ad summam tamen ne te hoc latet et in sacrilegia conuicia inprudentem trahat, scias a Christianis catholicis, quorum in uestro oppido etiam ecclesia constituta est, nullum coli mortuorum, nihil denique ut numen adorari, quod sit factum et conditum a deo, sed unum ipsum deum, qui fecit et condidit omnia. Disserentur ista latius ipso uero et uno deo adiuuante, cum te grauiter agere uelle cognouero.
'(...) Above all, nonetheless, in order that this point may not escape your notice and unwisely lead you to sacrilegious charges, you should know that Catholic Christians, who also have a church in your town, do not worship any of the dead and adore nothing as a god that has been created and established by God, but adore the one God himself, who has created and established all things. These topics will be treated more fully with the help of the one and true God, when I have come to know that you want to have a serious discussion.'
Text: Goldbacher 1895, 37-44.
Translation: Teske 2001, 46-50, lightly modified.
Saint’s feast
Rejection, Condemnation, SceptisismScepticism/rejection of the cult of saints
Theorising on SanctityConsiderations about the veneration of saints
Relationships with pagan practices
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.
Maximus of Madaura in Numida was a pagan grammarian, probably known to Augustine from his student days. The letters were probably exchanged before the imperial law prohibiting the worship of idols was issued on 28 February 391.
Discussion
The four saints named here cannot be reliably identified in any other text. A 'Namfamon' is commemorated in the Martyrologium Hieronymianym on 18 December (E05055), but is unlikely to be our Namphamon, as the Martyrologium's martyr is just one name towards the end of a list of 43 martyrs venerated 'in Africa'. Miggin could be the same martyr as the 'Meggen' whose relics are recorded in a mosaic inscription at Theveste (E08309), a neighbouring town to Madaura (E08309), but again the Meggin of Theveste is one of a group of seven saints, and none of the others share a name with the saints mentioned by Maximus. Miggin, or Meggen, in fact appears to have been quite a common name: in the Hieronymianum, men bearing this name are commemorated in several places - in Mauretania (E05039), in Spain (E05047), in Nicomedia (E05041), and in Ephesus (E04851). Sanam and Lucitas are names that do not otherwise occur in our database. Sanam was evidently a woman, as Maximus compares her cult with that of female goddesses. All four have Punic names, strongly suggesting that they were not from the elite classes - a fact that probably contributed to Maximus' disdain.It is most likely that all four were local martyrs of Madaura, with little or no cult elsewhere, but, seemingly, some intense devotion in their local city. From Augustine's reply to Maximus, it is clear that their cult (and presumably their bodies) were in a church (or several churches) in Donatist hands. Here, as elsewhere in his writings, Augustine seeks to make it clear that Catholics do not worship saints (though they venerate them, and worship God through them); he also appears to implicitly accuse the Donatists of crossing the line into excessive devotion.
We do not know why Namphamon was called by Maximus archimartyr. It has been suggested that he might have been the chronologically first martyr of Africa (interpreting archimartyr as a synonym for protomartyr). But Baxter, after referring to and discarding this opinion, plausibly proposed that the title was a mark of particular contempt towards Namphamon on the part of Maximus (Baxter 1924, 28).
The quotation used by Maximus is taken from Lucan, Pharsalia, VII, 459.
Bibliography
Edition:Goldbacher, A., Augustinus, Epistulae (ep. 1-30) (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 34/1; Vienna: Tempsky, 1895).
English translation:
Teske, R., The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century. Letters 1-99, vol. II 1 (New York: New City Press, 2001).
Further reading:
Baxter, J.H., "The Martyrs of Madaura, A.D. 180," Journal of Theological Studies (1923-24), 21-37.
Gassman, M., "Debating Traditional Religion in Late Fourth-Century Roman Africa," Journal of Late Antiquity 11 (2018), 83-110.
Stanisław Adamiak
6/8/2024
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S02917 | Miggin, Sanam, Namphamon and Lucitas, African martyrs, probably of Madaura | Miggin, Sanam, Namphano, Lucitas | Certain |
|---|
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL:
Stanisław Adamiak, Cult of Saints, E08310 - http://csla.history.ox.ac.uk/record.php?recid=E08310