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E01117: Augustine of Hippo, in his City of God (22.8), tells how relics of *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030), deposited on the estate of Audurus (North Africa), saved a child driven over by a wagon. Written in Latin in Hippo (North Africa), c. 426/427.

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posted on 2016-02-14, 00:00 authored by robert

Augustine of Hippo, City of God 22.8

Audurus nomen est fundi, ubi ecclesia et in ea memoria martyris Stephani. Puerum quendam paruulum, cum in area luderet, exorbitantes boues, qui uehiculum trahebant, rota obtriuerunt, et confestim palpitauit expirans. Hunc mater abreptum ad eandem memoriam posuit, et non solum reuixit, uerum etiam inlaesus apparuit.

'Audurus is the name of an estate, where there is a church that contains a memorial shrine (memoria) of the martyr Stephen. It happened that, as a little boy was playing in the court, the oxen drawing a wagon went out of the track and crushed him with the wheel, so that immediately he seemed at his last gasp. His mother snatched him up, and laid him at the shrine, and not only did he revive, but also appeared uninjured.'

Text: Dombart and Kalb 1955. Translation: Dods 1887.

History

Evidence ID

E01117

Saint Name

Stephen, the First Martyr : S00030

Saint Name in Source

Stephanus

Related Saint Records

https://oxford.figshare.com/articles/Stephen_the_First_Martyr/13729177

Type of Evidence

Literary - Other

Language

Latin

Evidence not before

426

Evidence not after

427

Activity not before

418

Activity not after

427

Place of Evidence - Region

Latin North Africa

Place of Evidence - City, village, etc

Hippo Regius

Place of evidence - City name in other Language(s)

Hippo Regius Carthage Carthago Karthago قرطاج‎ Qarṭāj Mçidfa Carthage

Major author/Major anonymous work

Augustine of Hippo

Cult activities - Places

Cult building - unspecified

Cult Activities - Miracles

Miracle after death Healing diseases and disabilities

Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives

Women Children

Cult Activities - Relics

Bodily relic - unspecified Privately owned relics

Source

Augustine wrote Book 22 of the City of God in Hippo, c. 426/427. Chapters 8-9 enumerate a number of contemporary miracles, most of which took place in Hippo and other cities of North Africa, either at the relics of Stephen, the First Martyr, or those of *Gervasius and Protasius, martyrs in Milan.

Discussion

The exact location of Audurus in unknown. The following record E01118 names a neighbouring estate of Caspaliana. It cannot be said for sure whether relics of Stephen, which arrived in North Africa in around 417, were kept at Victoriana, but memoriae usually had relics of the saints to whom they were dedicated. This memoria was evidently in private possession, and it is interesting to see that some relics of Stephen were seemingly deposited in private memoriae, outside cities.

Bibliography

Edition: Dombart, B., and Kalb, A., Augustinus, De civitate dei, 2 vols. (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 47-48; Turnhout: Brepols, 1955). English translation: Dods, M., Augustine, The City of God (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 2; Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887). Further reading: Meyers, J., Les miracles de saint Etienne. Recherches sur le recueil pseudo-augustinien (BHL 7860-7861), avec édition critique, traduction et commentaire (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006).