Augustine, Sermones 266-275 (Classis II, de Tempore)

the martyrs hate these things, they do not love those who do such things. But they hate them much more if they are worshipped.

Chapter IX. — 9. On the days of the martyrs we must think about following in their footsteps. The martyrs are to be praised and loved; the God of the martyrs is to be worshipped. Therefore, dearly beloved, rejoice on the days of the holy martyrs: pray that you may follow in the footsteps of the martyrs. For it is not that you are men and they were not men; it is not that you were born and they were born in some other way; for they did not bear flesh of another kind than that which you bear. We are all from Adam; we all strive to be in Christ. Our Lord Himself, the very Head of the Church, the only-begotten Son of God, the Word of the Father through Whom all things were made, had flesh of no other kind than we have. That is why He willed to take up manhood from a virgin, to be born of flesh from one of the human race. For if He had made Himself a body from elsewhere, who would believe that He bore the flesh which we too bear? But yet He [bore] flesh in the likeness of the flesh of sin, we the flesh of sin. For [He was] not [born] of a man's seed, nor of the concupiscence of male and female: but of what? Of the message of the Father. And yet, although He was wondrously born, He deigned to be born mortal, and to die for us, and to redeem us with His blood, according as He is man. See what I am saying, brethren: even Christ Himself, although He is God, although He is one God with the Father, although He is the Word of the Father, only-begotten, equal to the Father and coeternal; yet in so far as He deigned to be man, He preferred to be called a priest rather than to require a priest for Himself; He preferred to be a sacrifice rather than to demand one; in so far as He is man. For in so far as He is God, all that is owed to the Father is owed also to the only-begotten Son. Therefore, dearly beloved, venerate the martyrs, praise, love, proclaim, honour [them]: worship the God of the martyrs. Turning to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 274. On the Birthday of the martyr Vincent, 1.

Vincent conquered everywhere. One redeemed by the blood of Christ does not perish. Patience is a gift of God. Victory achieved over all the hostile contrivances. We have watched a great spectacle with the eyes of faith: the holy martyr Vincent conquering everywhere. He conquered in words, he conquered in punishments; he conquered in confession, he conquered in tribulation; he conquered when burnt by fires, he conquered when sunk beneath the waves: lastly he conquered when tortured, he conquered when dead. When his flesh, in which was the trophy of Christ the victor, was being cast from a boat into the sea, it was silently saying: We are cast down, but we do not perish (2 Cor. 4:9). Who gave this patience to His soldier, except He Who first shed His blood for him? He to Whom it is said in the Psalm: For Thou art my patience, O Lord; O Lord, my hope from my youth (Ps. 70:5). A great contest wins great glory; not human, nor temporal,

but divine and everlasting. Faith fights; and when faith fights, no one overcomes the flesh. For even if it is torn, even if it is mangled, when does he perish who has been redeemed by the blood of Christ? A powerful man cannot lose what he bought with his gold, and does Christ lose what He bought with His blood? But let this whole thing be referred not to the glory of man, but to the glory of God. From Him truly is patience, true patience, holy patience, religious patience, right patience; Christian patience is the gift of God. For many robbers too are tortured most patiently; and, not yielding and overcoming the torturer, they are afterwards punished with eternal fire. The cause distinguishes the martyr from the patience, or rather from the hardness, of criminals. The punishment is equal, but the cause is unequal. With the voice of martyrs we have sung (for Vincent had said these words in his prayers): Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause from a nation not holy (Ps. 42:1). His cause is distinguished: because he fought for truth, for justice, for God, for Christ, for the faith, for the unity of the Church, for undivided charity. Who gave him this patience? Who? Let the Psalm show us. For there it is read, there it is sung: Shall not my soul be subject to God? For from Him is my patience (Ps. 61:2). Whoever thinks that holy Vincent was able to do these things by his own strength errs greatly. For whoever presumes that he can do this by his own strength, even if he seems to conquer by patience, is conquered by pride. To conquer well, that is, to conquer all the devices [of the enemy]. When he offers allurements, he is conquered through continence; he inflicts punishments and torments, he is conquered through patience; he suggests errors, he is conquered through wisdom. At the last, when all these have been conquered, he suggests to the soul: Well done, well done, how much you have been able to do! how much you have striven! Who is compared to you? How well you have conquered! Let the holy soul answer him: Let them be confounded and put to shame who say to me, Well done, well done (Ps. 69:4). When then does it conquer, except when it says, In the Lord shall my soul be praised; let the meek hear, and be glad (Ps. 33:3). For the meek know what I am saying; because in them the word dwells, in them the example dwells. For he who is not meek does not know what savour there is in what has been said, In the Lord shall my soul be praised. For everyone who is not meek, proud, harsh, puffed up, wants to be praised in himself, not in the Lord. But he who says, In the Lord shall my soul be praised, does not say, Let the nations hear, and be glad; let men hear, and be glad: but, Let the meek hear, and be glad. Let those hear to whom it has savour. For Christ was meek: As a sheep He was led to the slaughter (Isa. 53:7). Therefore meek, because as a sheep He was led to the slaughter. Let the meek hear, and be glad. Because they savour what has been said, Taste, and see how sweet the Lord is: blessed is the man who hopes in Him (Ps. 33:3, 9). We have heard a long reading, the day is short: we too ought not to hold your patience with a long sermon. We know that you have listened patiently, and by standing long and listening you have as it were suffered with the martyr. May He Who hears you love you, and crown you.

Sermon 275. On the Birthday of the Martyr Vincent, II.

1. Vincent's fortitude in his punishments [came] from the help of Christ. It is the cause, not the punishment, that distinguishes martyrs. A great spectacle, and one much to be wondered at, has our mind taken in: not a most empty and most pernicious pleasure, such as is usual in the theatres of all manner of trifles, but a plainly most useful and most fruitful pleasure have we drunk in with our inner eyes, when the glorious passion of blessed Vincent was being read. One could see the unconquered soul of the Martyr striving in the fiercest conflict against the snares of the ancient enemy, against the savagery of the impious judge, against the pains of mortal flesh, and overcoming all things with the help of the Lord. So it plainly was, dearly beloved, so it entirely was: in the Lord let us praise this soul, that the meek may hear and be glad (Ps. 33:3). What words he heard, what he answered, what torments he overcame, the reading that has been gone through has declared, and has set the things that were done before us as if in sight. So great was the punishment in his limbs, so great the composure in his words, as though one man were being tortured and another were speaking. And truly another: for the Lord foretold this and promised it to His martyrs, saying: It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father Who speaks in you (Matt. 10:20). In the Lord, therefore, let this soul be praised. For what is man, except that He is mindful of him (Ps. 8:5)? Or what strength has dust, except with the help of Him Who made us from dust? That he who glories may glory in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:31). For if the diabolical and seducing spirit often fills either lying prophets or his own false martyrs, so that they either inflict torments of the body on themselves or despise those inflicted on them: what great thing is it for the Lord our God, in order to confirm the preaching of His name, to hand over the flesh of those very preachers into the hands of persecutors, but to take up their mind into the citadel of freedom, so that even while the former suffers iniquity, the latter asserts the truth? That is to say, so that it is not endurance but justice that makes victors: since it is the cause, not the punishment, that distinguishes martyrs. For many have endured pains out of obstinacy, not constancy; out of vice, not virtue; by depraved error, not right reason; with the devil possessing them, not persecuting them. But in our Vincent, the conqueror, he indeed was conquering who possessed him: but He possessed him Who had cast the prince of this world out (John 12:31), so that he who had already been overcome, so as not to have dominion within, might be overcome also when fighting from outside. For he who has been cast out goes about without ceasing like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8). But He storms him for us Who, having shut him out, reigns in us.

2. The devil more tortured in Vincent's torments than Vincent. In short, the devil was tortured more by Vincent's not being conquered than Vincent was by the devil's persecuting him. For the more savage and the more exquisite those torments were, the more did the tortured man triumph over the torturer; and from that flesh, as from earth watered with his own blood, over which the enemy grieved the more, the palm was growing. But because he rages secretly, and, conquered, is secretly afflicted;

it was plainly apparent in the governor, a man, what the devil was suffering in secret, and that invisible adversary was betrayed through the little cracks of his bursting vessel, which he had filled. For this man's cries, his eyes, his face, and the turbulent movement of his whole body showed how much heavier the torments were that he felt within than those which he was inflicting on the Martyr without. If we consider the agitation of the one torturing and the tranquillity of the one suffering the torments, it is very easy to see who was under the punishments and who was above the punishments. What joys will there be in the power of those who reign, when there are such great ones for those who die for the truth? What will the fountain of life be with the incorruption of the body, when its dew is so sweet amid torments? And what will the eternal flame do to the impious, whom the madness of an angry heart so lays waste? What will they suffer when they are judged, who are tormented already when they judge? What power will the future judgements of the saints have, when in this life the Martyr's rack tortured the judge's tribunal?

3. The lifeless body of the Martyr not left without divine protection. Honour procured divinely for the relics of the saints. Moreover the Lord gives great testimony to His witnesses, when He Who ruled the hearts of those contending does not desert the bodies of the dead either, as He displayed a most illustrious miracle concerning the body of this very blessed Vincent; so that what the enemy had desired, had striven and had acted to keep from appearing at all, was brought to light by so present a divine nod, and was shown to be buried and venerated the more religiously, so that the illustrious memory of victorious piety and vanquished impiety might endure in it. Truly precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (Ps. 115:15): when the earth of the flesh is not despised even as life deserts it; and, as the invisible soul departs from the visible house, the dwelling of the servant is guarded by the care of the Lord, and is honoured to the glory of the Lord by faithful fellow servants. For what does God do in performing wonderful works concerning the bodies of the departed saints, but bear witness that what dies does not perish to Him; and so that from this it may be understood in what honour He holds with Himself the souls of the slain, when the lifeless flesh is adorned with so great an effect of divinity? For just as the Apostle, speaking of the members of the Church, used a likeness drawn from the members of our body, since those parts of ours which are unseemly, on these we bestow more abundant honour (1 Cor. 12:23): so the providence of the Creator, by granting such illustrious testimonies of miracles to the corpses of martyrs, bestows more abundant honour on the bloodless remains of men, and where that which remains, once life has departed, is as it were already unsightly, there the Giver of life appears more evidently present.