E04167: Augustine of Hippo delivers a Latin sermon, probably on the feast of martyrs, emphasising that it is the cause, not the suffering that makes one a martyr. Sermon 327, preached possibly in Hippo, at an unknown date, probably before 411.

Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 327

[In natali martyrum

'On the birthday of the martyrs']


Cantauimus Deo martyrum uoce, iudica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta. Martyrum uox est.

'We have sung to God in the words of the martyrs, "Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from an unholy people" [Ps 43:1]. It is the voice of the martyrs.'

In what follows Augustine explains what martyrdom consists of.

Multi patiuntur tribulationes; parem habent poenam, sed parem non habent causam. Multa mala patiuntur adulteri, multa mala patiuntur malefici, multa mala patiuntur latrones et homicidae, multa mala patiuntur scelerati omnes, multa mala, inquit, et ego martyr tuus patior: sed discerne causam meam de gente non sancta, latronum, homicidarum, scelestorum omnium. Pati talia, qualia ego, possunt: habere talem causam non possunt. Ego in fornace purgor; illi cinerescunt. Et haeretici patiuntur, et plura a se ipsis; et uolunt martyres dici. Sed contra illos cantauimus, discerne causam meam de gente non sancta. Non facit martyrem poena, sed causa.

'Many people endure tribulation; they have equivalent pains, but not equivalent causes. Many evils are endured by adulterers, many evils by sorcerers, many evils by robbers and murderers, many evils by all sorts of villains; "I too, your martyr," he says, "endure many evils. But distinguish my cause from an unholy people of robbers, murderers, villains of all sorts. They can suffer the same sort of things as I do, they cannot have the same sort of cause. I am being refined in the furnace; they are just being incinerated." Heretics too suffer, and very often at their own hands; and they want to be called martyrs. But it is against them that we sung, "Distinguish my cause from an unholy people". It is not the punishment that makes the martyr but the cause.'

Text: Patrologia Latina 38, 1450; Translation: Hill 1994, 173.