E02702: Augustine of Hippo (North Africa), preaches in Latin a sermon on the feast of the *Maccabean Martyrs (pre-Christian Jewish martyrs of Antioch, S00303), referring to the reading of their history and admonishing his audience to participate in the feast of the martyrs rather than in the theatrical shows. Sermon 301A, preached c. 399 in Bulla Regia (North Africa).

Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 301A

[In solemnitate ss. Machabeorum

'For the feast of the holy Maccabees']


The first part of the sermon does not refer to the feast.

7. Modo spectauimus magnum certamen septem fratrum et matris illorum. Quale certamen, fratres mei, si nouerunt mentes nostrae spectare. Comparate huic sancto spectaculo uoluptates et delicias theatrorum. Ibi oculi inquinantur, hic corda mundantur: hic laudabilis est spectator, si fuerit imitator; ibi autem et spectator turpis est, et imitator infamis. Denique amo martyres, specto martyres: quando leguntur passiones martyrum, specto ... Opportune de spectaculo sanctorum Machabaeorum, quorum uictoriae memoriam hodie celebramus, de spectaculis theatricis admonenda uisa est mihi caritas uestra. O fratres Bullenses, circumquaque prope in omnibus ciuitatibus uicinis uestris lasciuia inpietatis obmutuit. Non erubescitis, quia apud uos solos remansit turpitudo uenalis?

'7. We have just now been spectators of the great contest of the seven brothers and their mother. What a contest, my brothers and sisters, if only our minds knew how to watch it! Compare with the holy spectacle the pleasures and delights of the theaters! There the eyes are defiled, here the heart is purified; here spectators are to be praised, if they become imitators; while there the spectator is base, and the imitator infamous. Well, anyway, I love the martyrs, I go and watch the martyrs; when the passions of the martyrs are read, I am a spectator, watching them ... The spectacle of the holy Maccabees, the memory of whose victory we are celebrating today, seemed to me to provide just the right opportunity for admonishing your graces about theatrical shows and spectacles. O my brothers of Bulla, all round about, in practically all your neighbouring towns, this kind of licentious impiety had fallen silent. Are you not ashamed that among you alone the obscenity has remained up for sale?'

In what follows Augustine preaches against theatrical shows.

Text: Morin 1930, 87. Translation: Hill 1994, 295-26. Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.