E03499: Augustine of Hippo delivers a Latin sermon on the feast of *Stephen (the First Martyr, S00030), in which he explains why the Church celebrates only the day of a martyrs' death. Sermon 314, preached at an unknown date between 397 and 430, probably in Hippo Regius (North Africa).

Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 314

[In natali Stephani martyris

'On the birthday of the martyr Stephen']


1. Natalem Domini hesterna die celebrauimus; serui hodie natalem celebramus: sed natalem Domini celebrauimus, quo nasci dignatus est; natalem serui celebramus, quo coronatus est.

'Yesterday we celebrated the Lord's birthday; today, we are celebrating the birthday of his servant. But the birthday of the Lord which we celebrated was the one on which he was pleased to be born; the birthday we are celebrating of his servant is the one on which he was was crowned.'

In what follows Augustine explains why the Church celebrates both the birthday and death of Christ, whereas the birthday of martyrs in the flesh is not commemorated. It is so because, in the case of Christ both events were salvific, while the bodily birth of the future martyrs in itself did not bring any good. In paragraph 2 the preacher encourages his audience to follow Stephen's example and love one's enemies. The sermon ends with a formula which starts the celebration of the Eucharist.

Text: Patrologia Latina 38, 1425. Translation: Hill 1994, 426. Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.