E01118: Augustine of Hippo, in his City of God (22.8), tells how a tunic deposited at the memorial shrine (memoria) of *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030), on the estate of Audurus (North Africa), brought to life a virgin devoted to God. Written in Latin in Hippo Regius (North Africa), c. 426/427.
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posted on 2016-02-14, 00:00authored byrobert
Augustine of Hippo, City of God 22.8
Sanctimonialis quaedam in uicina possessione, quae Caspaliana dicitur, cum aegritudine laboraret ac desperaretur, ad eandem memoriam tunica eius adlata est; quae antequam reuocaretur, illa defuncta est. Hac tamen tunica operuerunt cadauer eius parentes, et recepto spiritu salua facta est.
'A religious female (sanctimonialis), who lived at the neighboring estate called Caspaliana, when she was so ill as to be despaired of, had her tunic brought to this shrine, but before it was brought back she died. However, her parents wrapped her corpse in the tunic, and, her breath returning, she got well.'
Text: Dombart and Kalb 1955. Translation: Dods 1887.
Miracle after death
Healing diseases and disabilities
Cult Activities - Protagonists in Cult and Narratives
Women
Ecclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Cult Activities - Relics
Unspecified relic
Contact relic - cloth
Making contact relics
Privately owned relics
Touching and kissing relics
Source
Augustine wrote Book 22 of the City of God in Hippo, c. 426/427. The 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 memoria to which the parents of the girl brought her tunic was located in the estate of Caspaliana (see E01117) the exact place of which in unknown. It is interesting to remark that some relics of *Stephen, as well as those of *Gervasus and Protasius (see: E01111), were evidently 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).