On Care for the Dead · §12 · Augustine of Hippo

Dream appearances of the dead and burial

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Augustine is answering the objection that the dead must sense their bodies' condition because they sometimes appear in dreams to ask for burial.

Certain visions are reported which seem to raise a question that this discussion should not ignore. Some of the dead, it is said, have appeared to the living either in dreams or in some other way, and when the living did not know where their bodies lay unburied, the dead pointed out the places and urged that the burial they had lacked be given to them. If we answer that these reports are false, we will seem to be shamelessly contradicting the writings of some of the faithful and the convictions of those who insist that such things happened to them. But the answer must be that we should not think the dead themselves perceive these things just because they seem to speak or point or ask in dreams. For living people also often appear to living people who are asleep, without knowing that they appear, and the dreamers hear from them the very things they dreamed—that they saw them doing something or speaking. So if someone can see me in a dream telling him something that has happened or even foretelling something that will happen, while I know nothing about it and am not concerned at all—not only what he is dreaming, but whether I am awake while he sleeps, or asleep while he is awake, or whether we are both awake or both asleep at the same time when he has the dream in which he sees me—what wonder is it if the dead, without knowing it and without perceiving these things, are nevertheless seen by the living in dreams and say something that those who wake up recognize as true? I would therefore believe that these things happen through angelic operations, whether permitted from above or commanded, so that the dead seem in dreams to say something about burying their bodies, while those whose bodies they are know nothing of it. And this sometimes happens usefully, either for some comfort to the living to whom those dead belong, whose images appear to dreamers, or so that by these admonitions the humanity of burial may be commended to the human race—which, although it does not help the dead, is still neglected with blameworthy irreligion. Sometimes, however, by deceptive visions people are sent into great errors, which it is just for them to suffer. For example, if someone should see in a dream what Aeneas is said, by poetic falsehood, to have seen in the underworld, and the image of some unburied person should appear to him and speak such words as Palinurus is reported to have spoken to him, and when he wakes up he should find the body in the place where he heard, while dreaming, that it lay unburied—having been admonished and asked to bury what he found—and because he discovers this to be true, he should believe that the dead are buried so that their souls may pass to places from which the souls of the unburied are barred by an underworld law, as he dreamed: would he not, by believing this, go far astray from the path of truth?

Latin

Narrantur uisa quaedam, quae huic disputationi non neglegendam uideantur inferre quaestionem. feruntur quippe mortui nonnulli uel in somnis uel alio quocumque modo adparuisse uiuentibus atque ubi eorum corpora iacerent inhumata nescientibus locisque monstratis admonuisse, ut sibi sepultura quae defuerat praeberetur. haec si falsa esse responderimus, contra quorundam scripta fidelium et contra eorum sensus, qui talia sibi accidisse confirmant, inpudenter uenire uidebimur. sed respondendum est non ideo putandum esse mortuos ista sentire, quia haec dicere uel indicare uel petere uidentur in somnis. nam et uiuentes adparent saepe uiuentibus dormientibus, dum se ipsi nesciant adparere, et ab eis haec quae somniauerint audiunt dicentibus, quod eos in somnis uiderint agentes aliquid uel loquentes. si ergo me potest aliquis in somnis uidere sibi aliquid quod factum est indicantem uel etiam quod futurum est praenuntiantem, cum id ego prorsus ignorem et omnino non curem, non solum quid ille somniet, sed utrum dormiente me uigilet, an uigilante me dormiat, an uno eodemque tempore uigilemus ambo siue dormiamus, quando ille somnium uidet, in quo me uidet: quid mirum, si nescientes mortui nec ista sentientes tamen a uiuentibus uidentur in somnis et aliquid dicunt, quod euigilantes uerum esse cognoscant? angelicis igitur operationibus fieri crediderim, siue permittatur desuper siue iubeatur, ut aliquid dicere de sepeliendis corporibus suis uideantur in somnis, cum id penitus nesciant, quorum illa sunt corpora. id autem aliquando utiliter fit siue ad uiuorum qualecumque solacium, ad quos pertinent illi mortui, quorum adparent imagines somniantibus, siue ut his admonitionibus generi humano sepulturae commendetur humanitas, quae, licet defunctis non opituletur, culpanda tamen inreligiositate neglegitur. aliquando autem fallacibus uisis homines in magnos mittuntur errores, quos talia perpeti iustum est. uelut si quisquam uideat in somnis, quod Aeneas uidisse apud inferos poetica falsitate narratur, et ei cuiuspiam non sepulti adpareat imago loquaturque talia, qualia fertur locutus illi fuisse Palinurus, et cum euigilauerit, ibi corpus eius inueniat, ubi iacere inhumatum, cum somniaret, audiuit, admonitus et rogatus, ut sepeliret inuentum, et quia id uerum esse comperit, credat ideo mortuos sepeliri, ut eorum animae ad loca transeant, unde insepultorum animas inferna prohiberi lege somniauit: nonne ita credens plurimum a tramite ueritatis exorbitat?

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.