E03305: Augustine of Hippo delivers a Latin sermon, probably on the feast of *Cyprian (bishop and martyr of Carthage, S00411), presenting him as a witness of the faith, both by his life and martyrdom, and arguing that the Donatist suicides, venerated by their congregations, are not martyrs. Sermon 313E, preached at an unknown date, probably in the 410s in an unknown place in North Africa.

Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 313E

[Tractatus de natale sancti Cypriani

'Discourse on the Birthday of St Cyprian']


Augustine praises Cyprian for the witness that he gave both by his martyrial death and and his life, and particularly by his writings:

1 ... Ille ipse ueridicus et uerax martyr seruus Dei, uerax munere dei, confitetur in scripturis suis, qualis antea fuisset: non obliuiscitur qualis fuerit, ne ingratus sit ei, per quem talis esse cessauit. Gemina ergo gratia commendatur Deo, episcopatu et martyrio. Episcopatus eius defendit et tenuit unitatem; martyrium eius docuit et impleuit confessionem.


'... He himself, a trustworthy and trustful martyr and servant of God, trustful by God's gift, confesses in his writings what he had been like previously; he doesn't forget what he had been like, in order not to be ungrateful to the one trough whim he ceased to be like that. So he won God's favour by a twin grace, by the way he was a bishop and the way he was a martyr. As bishop he defended and held onto unity; as martyr he taught and gave an example of the confession of faith.'


Augustine emphasises the faith of Cyprian, which should be distinguished from the false faith of the heretics and continues in the following words:

2. ... Haeretici autem et Donatistae, qui se ad Cyprianum falso iactant pertinere, si episcopatum eius attenderent, non se separarent; si martyrium, non se praecipitarent. Non est omnino discipulus Christi, non est comes Cypriani, haereticus in haeresi separatus, aut donatista in morte praecipitatus.

'... The heretics, though, and the Donatists, who falsely boast that Cyprian belongs to them, should pay attention to the way he exercised his office of bishop, and they wouldn't break away; to the way he went to his martyrdom, and they wouldn't throw themselves [over cliffs?]. The heretic breaking away in heresy, the Donatist jumping deliberately to his death, is certainly not Christ's disciple; certainly not one of Cyprian's comrades.


Augustine claims that the Donatists are not just bad Christians, but actually not Christians at all, since they follow the advice of the Devil, betraying Christ and killing themselves, like Judas.

5. ... Reuera enim, fratres, et ipsi se praecipitant, et a suis peruersis populis praecipitantur. Illi sunt homicidae ampliores, qui corpora praecipitatorum cum honore colligunt, qui praecipitatorum sanguinem excipiunt, qui eorum sepulchra honorant, qui ad eorum tumulos se inebriant.

'... Yes indeed, brothers, you see as well as hurling themselves [over cliffs?], they are also hurled over by their misguided congregations. They are even greater murderers, the people who take up the bodies of the [cliff?] jumpers with honour, who collect the blood of the [cliff/] jumpers, who honour their graves, who get drunk at their tombs.'


Augustine continues to juxtapose Cyprian and the Donatist martyrs:

7. ... Dicimus et nos, non esse haereticos martyres, non esse martyres circumcelliones.

'... I too speak out and say that the heretics aren't martyrs, that the Circumcelliones aren't martyrs.'


At the end of the sermon Augustine expresses his belief in the intercession of saints:

8. ... Commotus est misericordia Dominus: exaudiuit Petrum, uiduam bonam operariam reddidit luci. Sicut ergo illa orationibus uiduarum a morte reparata est, ita et nos orationibus beati cypriani omnium que sanctorum potens est dominus ab omni malo [nos] liberare.

'8. ... The Lord was moved with pity; he listened to Peter, he gave back the good hard-working widow to the light of the day. So just as she was brought back from death by the prayers of the poor widows, in the same way the Lord is well able, by the prayers of the blessed Cyprian and all the saints, to deliver us too from every evil.'


Text: Morin 1930, 536-7, 539, 542-3. Translation: Hill 1994, 109-10, 113, 115-16. Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.