On Care for the Dead · §14 · Augustine of Hippo

Waking visions resemble dreams

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Augustine is arguing that the dead do not know when the living see them, and he now extends the point from dreams to waking visions of the disturbed.

Some visions of waking people are also like dreams—people whose senses are disturbed, like the delirious or those raging in any kind of madness. They talk to themselves as if they were talking to people truly present, and they talk to absent people as if they were present, discerning their images whether living or dead. But just as the living do not know that they are being seen and spoken with by such people—for they are not really present or really conversing, but people with disturbed senses suffer such imaginary visions—so too those who have departed this life appear to people affected in this way as if they were present, when they are absent and completely unaware whether anyone sees them in an image.

Latin

Similia sunt autem somniis nonnulla etiam uisa uigilantium, qui turbatos habent sensus, sicut phrenetici uel quocumque furentes modo. nam et ipsi loquuntur secum, quasi uere praesentibus loquantur, <loquuntur> etiam cum absentibus quam praesentibus, quorum imagines cernunt siue uiuorum siue mortuorum. sed quemadmodum hi, qui uiuunt, ab eis se uideri et cum eis se colloqui nesciunt — neque enim re uera ipsi adsunt aut ipsi sermocinantur, sed turbatis sensibus homines talia uisa imaginaria patiuntur — eo modo et hi, qui ex hac uita migrarunt, sic affectis hominibus uidentur quasi praesentes, cum sint absentes et, utrum aliquis eos imaginaliter uideat, omnino nescientes.

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.