E04447: Augustine of Hippo preaches in Latin a sermon on the martyrs, emphasising that they did not care about the integrity of their bodies after death. Sermon 335F, delivered on an unspecified date between AD 391 and 430, somewhere in North Africa.

Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 335F

[De martyribus

'On some martyrs']


Sed quid de martyribus dicamus? Quanta illis securitas data est ut non curarent etiam de diuisione membrorum suorum? Curam gerit de numero capillorum et non gerit curam in resurrectione de integritate membrorum?

'But what are we to say about the martyrs? What a great assurance was given them, so they shouldn't worry even about the cutting of their limbs! He takes care about the number of their hairs, and takes no care in the resurrection about the integrity of their limbs?'

In what follows Augustine reflects generally on the martyrs and their readiness for death and does not refer to any specific personage or form of the cult.

Text: Patrologiae Latinae Supplementum 2, 802. Translation: Hill 1994, 240. Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.