On Care for the Dead · §10 · Augustine of Hippo

Martyrs conquered affection for burial; the living's grief was the only suffering

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Augustine is explaining that the martyrs overcame the natural love of burial, and that while their bodies suffered no harm after death, their fellow Christians grieved because they could not bury them.

The martyrs of Christ overcame this affection by striving for the truth. And no wonder: they despised what they would not feel after death was completed, since they could not be conquered by the torments they felt while alive. God could certainly have kept the dogs from touching the bodies of his slain ones after they had been thrown to them—he who did not allow the lion to touch the prophet's body any further after it had killed him, and made the killer into a guardian. God could, I say, have kept the dogs away from the bodies of his own people after they had been thrown to them. He could also have terrified the savagery of those very men in countless ways, so that they would not dare to burn the corpses or scatter the ashes. But this trial also had to be present among the many varied forms of testing, so that the courage of confession—which would not yield to the cruelty of persecution for the sake of the body's safety—might not tremble for the honor of a tomb, and so that faith in the resurrection might not fear the consuming of bodies. These things therefore had to be permitted, so that even after such horrifying examples the martyrs, burning in their confession of Christ, might also become witnesses of this truth: they had learned that those who killed their bodies would afterwards have nothing left to do, because whatever they did to dead bodies, they were doing nothing at all—since when all life is absent from the flesh, the one who departed from it can feel nothing, and the one who created it can lose nothing from it. But amid these things that were being done to the bodies of the slain, while the martyrs endured them with great courage and no fear, there was nevertheless deep grief among the brothers, because no opportunity was given to perform due rites for the saints' funerals, nor did the watches of the cruel guards permit anything to be secretly taken away, as the same history testifies. So while no misery touched those who had been killed in the tearing apart of their limbs, the burning up of their bones, and the scattering of their ashes, great pity tormented those who could not bury any of them—because they themselves in some way felt for those who felt nothing at all, and where the dead no longer had any suffering, the living had a wretched compassion.

Latin

Hunc affectum martyres Christi certantes pro ueritate uicerunt. nec mirum quia contempserunt, quod non fuerant peracta morte sensuri, qui non potuerunt eis, quos uiuentes sentiebant, cruciatibus uinci. poterat utique deus. qui leonem prophetae corpus, quod ipse occiderat, ulterius non permisit adtingere et fecit de peremptore custodem, poterat, inquam, a suorum interfectis corporibus canes, quibus fuerant proiecta, prohibere; poterat et ipsorum hominum innumerabilibus modis terrere saeuitiam, ne cadauera incendere, ne cineres dispergere auderent: sed hoc quoque experimentum multiplici uarietati temptationum deesse non debuit, ne fortitudo confessionis, quae inmanitati persecutionis pro corporis salute non cederet, pro sepulcri honore trepidaret, postremo, ne fides resurrectionis consumptionem corporum formidaret. debuerunt ergo et ista permitti, ut etiam post haec tanti horroris exempla martyres in Christi confessione feruentes huius quoque testes fierent ueritatis, in qua didicerant eos, a quibus sua corpora interficerentur, postea nihil habere quod facerent, quoniam quidquid mortuis corporibus facerent, utique nihil facerent, quando in carne omni uita carente nec aliquid sentire posset, qui inde migrauit, nec aliquid inde perdere, qui creauit. sed inter haec, quae fiebant de corporibus occisorum, cum martyres non ea metuentes magna fortitudine paterentur, tamen apud fratres luctus ingens erat, quod nulla dabatur potestas sanctorum funeribus iusta persoluere nec occulte subtrahere aliquid, sicut eadem testatur historia, crudelium custodum uigiliae permittebant. ita cum illos, qui occisi fuerant, in dilaceratione membrorum suorum, in conflagratione ossuum, in dispersione cinerum miseria nulla contingeret, istos tamen, qui nihil eorum sepelire poterant, magna misericordia cruciabat, quia in nullo modo sentientibus ipsi quodam modo sentiebant et, ubi iam illorum nulla erat passio, erat istorum misera conpassio.

About this text

Paulinus wrote to ask whether it benefits a person after death to be buried near the memorial shrine of a saint.

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) wrote this letter to Paulinus, bishop of Nola. Paulinus had asked whether it benefits a person after death to be buried near the memorial shrine of a saint. The question was prompted by the request of Flora, a religious widow, for her deceased son to be buried in the basilica of the confessor Felix, while the body of Cynegius, a faithful young man and a different person, had already been placed there.

Augustine argues that burial location does not directly help or harm the dead, because the dead cannot sense what happens to their bodies. What helps the dead is the prayerful remembrance of the living, which can be increased when burial is at a holy memorial, so Christians should care for the dead from affection and faith in the resurrection and place hope in prayer and the church commemoration rather than in place. The reader will meet Paulinus, Flora, Cynegius, Felix, Curma who had a vision near death, Eulogius who dreamed of Augustine, John the monk consulted about a civil war, Ambrose at the shrines of Protasius and Gervasius, and Candidianus who carried the letter. Augustine quotes Paulinus to answer him, quotes Scripture from Paul, the Psalms, the prophets and the Gospel, gives the speech of the rich man to Abraham and the reported words of John, and gives Virgil in prose paraphrase rather than verse quotation.

Here memorial shrine means a shrine at the burial place of a martyr or saint meant to keep the dead in remembrance, and burial means the act of burying. Prayer, prayerful commending, sacrifice offered at the altar, alms and the intercession of martyrs are the means by which the living help the dead, while spirit means the soul apart from the body, vision means a dream seeing of the dead, and likeness means only the image seen and not the person himself. Old names keep Augustine Old Latin and Septuagint use, with the books of the Kingdoms meaning 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings, Ecclesiasticus meaning Sirach, Jesus son of Sirach meaning Ben Sira, the Acts of the Apostles meaning Acts, the books of the Machabees meaning Maccabees, and the Psalms numbered as in the Septuagint.

New English from the Latin base text; no published English used as wording.

Printed text used

Translated from CSEL 41 (1900) (Latin)

This work has passed this project's source check. This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.