E01837: Augustine, while a priest in Hippo Regius (North Africa), in his Letter 29, to Alypius, bishop of Thagaste, recounts events which took place in Hippo during the feast of an unnamed saint, probably *Leontius (bishop of Hippo, S01685). He emphasises his efforts to put an end to the custom of excessive eating and drinking on such occasions and mentions similar unsuitable celebrations in Rome, at the basilica of *Peter (the Apostle, S00036). Written in Latin in Hippo, 394/396

Augustine of Hippo, Letter 29.10

In some manuscripts the colophon says that the letter concerned the feast of Leontius, bishop of Hippo.

Augustine tells Alypius how the congregation in Hippo protested against the prohibition of celebrating a laetitia (joy), which usually consisted in excessive eating and heavy drinking. In the days preceding the feast, Augustine preached against this custom, emphasising how wicked it was to relish carnal pleasures in the name of religion, particularly within the walls of the church. Augustine summarises the last of these sermons. In this context he says what follows:

Deinde hortatus sum, ut transmarinarum ecclesiarum, in quibus partim ista recepta numquam sunt, partim iam per bonos rectores populo obtemperante correcta, imitatores esse uellemus. Et quoniam de basilica beati apostoli Petri cotidianae uinulentiae proferebantur exempla, dixi primo audisse nos saepe esse prohibitum, sed quod remotus sit locus ab episcopi conuersatione et in tanta ciuitate magna sit carnalium multitudo peregrinis praesertim, qui noui subinde ueniunt, tanto uiolentius quanto inscitius illam consuetudinem retinentibus, tam immanem pestem nondum compesci sedari que potuisse. Verum tamen nos si Petrum apostolum honoraremus, debere praecepta eius audire et multo deuotius epistulam, in qua uoluntas eius apparet, quam basilicam, in qua non apparet, intueri; statim que accepto codice recitaui, ubi ait ...

'Then I exhorted them that we should want to be imitators of the Church across the sea in which these practices were in part never accepted and in part corrected by good pastors with the obedience of the people. And because examples of daily drunkenness in the basilica of the blessed apostle Peter were brought forth, I first said that we had heard that this had often been forbidden, but that the place was distant from the residence of the bishop and in so large a city there is a great multitude of people who live according to the flesh, especially since travelers, when they first arrive there, retain that custom with more insistence, the more ignorant they are. Hence, so great a plague could not as yet be brought under control and quieted down. If, nonetheless, we wanted to honor the apostle Peter, we ought to heed his commandments and to look with more devotion at his Letter, in which his will is seen, rather than at his basilica, in which it is not seen. And having immediately taken up the book, I read out where it says ...'

There follows a quotation from 1 Peter 4.1-3.

Text: Goldbacher 1895, 120. Translation: Teske 2001, 99. Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.