Sermons on the Liturgical Seasons

472 Pages·2008·28.432 MB·English

by  Augustine

THE FATHERS
OF THE CHURCH
A NEW TRANSLATION
VOLUME 38
THE FATHERS
OF THE CHURCH
A NEW TRANSLATION
EDITORIAL BOARD
Hermigild Dressler, O.F.M.
The Catholic University of America Press
Editorial Director
Robert P. Russell, O.S.A. Thomas P. Halton
Villanova University The Catholic University of America
Robert Sider Sister M. Josephine Brennan,
Dickinson College I.H.M.
Marywood College
FORMER EDITORIAL DIRECTORS
Ludwig Schopp, Roy J. Deferrari, Bernard M. Peebles
Richard Talaska
Editorial Assistant
SAINT AUGUSTINE
SERMONS ON THE
LITURGICAL SEASONS
Translated by
SISTER MARY SARAH MULDOWNEY, R. S. M.
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS
WASHINGTON, DC
NIHIL OBSTAT:
JOHN S. KENNEDY
Censor Deputatus
IMPRIMATUR:
~ HENRY J. O'BRIEN
Archbishop of Hartford
October 15, 1958
Copyright © 1959 by
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, INC.
Reprinted 1984
All rights reserved
First paperback reprint 2008
Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 65-18318
ISBN No. 0-8132-0038-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-8132-1565-5 (pbk)
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION IX
FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY (Sermons
184-196) ........... 3
FOR NEW YEAR'S DAY (Sermons 197-198). . . 49
:FOR THE EPIPHANY (Sermons 199-204) . . . 59
FOR THE LENTEN SEASON (Sermons 205-211) 83
FOR THE RECENT CONVERTS (Sermons 212-
218) ........ ....... 117
FOR THE VIGIL OF EASTER (Sermons 219-223) 171
FOR EASTER SUNDAY (Sermons 224-228) . . . 185
:FOR THE EASTER SEASON (Sermons 229-260) . 201
FOR THE FEAST OF THE ASCENSION (Sermons
261-265) 379
INDEX . 421
v

INTRODUCTION
III
HE SERMONS OF St. Augustine which, as a group,
are here published in English translation for the first
time in this country were delivered on the various
feasts and seasons of the liturgical year. They include twelve
discourses for the feast of Christmas, two for New Year's
Day, six for the Epiphany, fourteen for Lent, five for the
Vigil of Easter, five for Easter Sunday, thirty for the Easter
season, and five for Ascension Thursday. In the translation
an attempt has been made to adhere, as closely as seemed
feasible, to the style of St. Augustine, repetitious though it is,
since to do otherwise would inevitably detract from the sim
plicity and directness which constitute the singular charm
of his discourse.
These Sermones de tempore constitute one part of the
monumental collection of the preaching of St. Augustine
as published by the Benedictines of St. Maur in 1683 and
as subsequently compiled by P. Migne in the Patrologia
Latina. There we find a corpus of about 400 sermons, includ
ing 83 on various passages of the Old Testament, 88 on the
great liturgical feasts of the year, 69 on the festivals of the
saints, 23 on a variety of subjects and 31 of doubtful authen
ticity. To this number may be added the sermons in explana
tion of the psalms and of the Gospel and Epistles of St. John
which are often designated as tracts, as well as a small num-
VII
Vlll SAINT AUGUSTINE
ber of others distributed through the corpus. In addition, 313
sermons are classified as spurious.1 Nevertheless, though
grounded on the first printed edition compiled by Augustinus
Dodo in 1495 and enlarged by supplementary material furn
J. J.
ished by Vlimmerius (1564), Sirmondus (1631), Vig
nier (1654), and though revised with great discrimination
by the monks of St. Maur, this Benedictine edition was far
from definitive.2
Since the publication of Migne's Patrologia Latina, various
libraries have contributed over 600 additional manuscript
sermons attributed, on tenable or untenable grounds, to St.
Augustine. In 1792, for example, M. Denis discovered
a twelfth-century manuscript of San Severino, Naples, con
taining 57 sermons, two dozen of which are recognized
as reliable, hitherto-unpublished sermons of St. Augustine.
On the other hand, in the collection of 200 or more sermons
discovered and published by A. B. Caillou (1836-1842)
and of a like number brought to light by Cardinal Angelo
Mai (1852), few sermons appear to be authentic. However,
a truly valuable find of a Carolingian manuscript from the
Wolfenbiittel Library, made by Dam Germain Morin in
1913, supplied 40 new Augustinian sermons. Such discoveries
not only furnish us with new sermons, but also lead to emen
dations of texts previously published. The task of building
up a complete collection of the sermons is a tremendous one
and will be accomplished only when all existing manuscripts
of St. Augustine's sermons have been discovered, inspected,
and criticized.
The existence of hundreds of sermons spuriously desig
nated as Augustinian is not surprising. In the first place, the
actual number of St. Augustine's sermons must have exceeded
1 See R. J. Deferrari, 'St. Augustine'S Method of Composing and
Delivering Sermons: AlP 43 (1922) 98; D. J. Kavanagh, Commentary
on the Lord's Sermon on the Mount (Fathers of the Church ll) 14.
2 See A. Wilmart, 'Easter Sermons of St. Augustine: Journal of Theo
logical Studies, 28 (1927-1928) 113-116.
INTRODUCTION IX
even the combined total of genuine and spurious discourses
attributed to him. From the time of his ordination to the
priesthood when, contrary to the practice of the period
whereby bishops alone enjoyed the privilege of preaching,
he was directed to assume this duty because of Bishop Vale
rius' unfamiliarity with the Latin tongue to his death,3
he preached regularly on Sundays and on all special feasts.
Instances of sermons on five successive days, and on three
successive days,4 besides numerous references to discourses
on two consecutive days may be cited. Forty years of preach
ing even at the rate of two sermons a week would entail
more than 4,000 sermons. Furthermore, we know that he
often preached in churches outside his episcopal see, in Car
thage, Bulla Regia, Utica, and elsewhere, since Possidius, his
biographer, says: 'Besides, as a bishop, with a zeal and fervor
the greater in proportion as his authority was ampler, he
preached the word of eternal salvation enthusiastically and
skillfully, not only in one region but wherever, on invitation,
he had come, at that time when the Church of the Lord
was developing and growing. He was always ready to furnish,
to those requesting it, an explanation of the faith and hope
which is directed to God.'5 In the second place, St. Augus
tine's sermons formed, throughout the Middle Ages, 'the
reservoir which fed richly for a thousand years the piety and
preaching of priest and monk and saint.'6 The sermon col
lections of the Middle Ages are constantly revealing sermons
attributed to St. Augustine,7 so close to his in style and con
tent that it will require rigorous examination to sift the
3 See Possidius, Aurelii Augusti'ni Vita 5; also, St. Augustine, Epis.
tulae 21.
4 See St. Augustine, Sermons 153·156; Tractatus in Joannis Evangelium,
19·23; Sermons 320·322.
5 Possidius, op. cit. 9; d. D. C. Lambot, Sancti Aurelii Augustini
Sermones selecti duodeviginti (Brussels 1950) 5.
6 T. Shahan, 'St. Augustine of Hippo-Educator of Christian Europe:
Catholic World (1930) 580.
7 G. Bardy, Bibliotheque Augustinienne 12 (Paris 1950) 52.