On Care for the Dead · §2 · Augustine of Hippo

Life's merit decides whether posthumous rites help

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Augustine is answering Paulinus's worry that his view about burial and prayers for the dead might conflict with Paul's statement that each person will be repaid for what he did in the body.

But since this is so, you indicate that you do not quite see how the apostle's saying is not contrary to this opinion: "For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what he did through the body, whether good or evil" (2 Corinthians 5:10). This apostolic sentence warns that what can help after death should be done before death, not at the time when each person must already receive what he did before death. But the question is solved this way: by a certain kind of life something is acquired while one lives in this body, so that these things may help the dead somewhat. And so, according to what they did through the body, they are helped by the things that are religiously done for them after the body. For there are some whom these things do not help at all—whether they are done for those whose merits are so evil that they are not worthy to be helped by such things, or for those whose merits are so good that they do not need such helps. Therefore, by the kind of life that each one led through the body, it comes about that whatever is piously done for him after he has left the body helps or does not help. For if no merit by which these things help was acquired in this life, it is sought in vain after this life. So it happens that neither the church nor the care of one's own people spends its religious effort for the dead in vain, and yet each one receives according to what he did through the body, whether good or evil, the Lord repaying each one according to his works (Romans 2:6). For in order that what is spent may help him after the body, it was acquired in that life which he led in the body.

Latin

Sed cum haec ita sint, quomodo huic opinioni contrarium non sit quod dicit apostolus: omnes enim astabimus ante tribunal Christi, ut ferat unusquisque secundum ea quae per corpus gessit, siue bonum siue malum, non te satis uidere significas. haec quippe apostolica sententia ante mortem admonet fieri quod possit prodesse post mortem. non tunc, quando iam recipiendum est quod quisque gesserit ante mortem. uerum haec ita soluitur quaestio, quoniam quodam uitae genere adquiritur, dum in hoc corpore uiuitur, ut aliquid adiuuent ista defunctos, ac per hoc secundum ea quae per corpus gesserunt eis quae post corpus religiose pro illis facta fuerint adiuuantur. sunt enim, quos nihil omnino adiuuant ista, siue pro eis fiant, quorum tam mala sunt merita, ut nec talibus digni sint adiuuari, siue pro eis, quorum tam bona, ut talibus non indigeant adiumentis. genere igitur uitae, quod gessit quisque per corpus. efficitur, ut prosint uel non prosint, quaecumque pro illo pie fiunt, cum reliquerit corpus. nam meritum per quod ista prosint, si nullum conparatum est in hac uita, frustra post hanc quaeritur uitam. ita fit, ut neque inaniter ecclesia uel suorum cura pro defunctis quod potuerit religionis inpendat et tamen ferat unusquisque secundum ea quae per corpus gessit, siue bonum siue malum reddente domino unicuique secundum opera eius. ut enim hoc, quod inpenditur, possit ei prodesse post corpus, in ea uita est adquisitum, quam gessit in corpore.

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.