On Care for the Dead · §20 · Augustine of Hippo

How martyrs help the living surpasses my understanding

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Augustine has just argued that the dead cannot by nature be involved in the affairs of the living, and now he turns to the question of how martyrs nevertheless help the living.

Yet this question goes beyond the strength of my understanding: how martyrs help those who are certainly aided through them. Do they themselves, by their own power, attend at one time in places so diverse and separated by such great distances—whether where their memorial shrines are, or apart from their shrines, wherever they are felt to be present? Or are they themselves in a place suited to their merits, removed from all dealings with mortals, and yet praying in a general way for the needs of those who entreat them—just as we pray for the dead, though we are certainly not present to them, nor do we know where they are or what they are doing—and does almighty God, who is present everywhere and neither joined to us nor far from us, hear the prayers of the martyrs and, through angelic ministries spread everywhere, provide to human beings those comforts that he judges should be provided in the misery of this life? And does he commend the merits of his martyrs where he wills, when he wills, how he wills—and especially through their memorial shrines, because he knows this helps us to build up faith in Christ, for whose confession they suffered—by his wonderful and ineffable power and goodness? This matter is too high for me to reach, and too hidden for me to search out. And so I do not dare to define which of these two it is, or whether perhaps it is both—that sometimes these things happen through the very presence of the martyrs, sometimes through angels taking on the role of the martyrs. I would rather ask those who know. For it is not that there is no one who knows these things—not someone who merely seems to himself to know yet does not know. These are gifts of God, who gives one thing to some and another to others, according to the apostle, who says that to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. "To one," he says, "is given through the Spirit a word of wisdom; to another a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith in the same Spirit; to another gifts of healings in the one Spirit; to another workings of powers; to another prophecy; to another discernment of spirits; to another kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of utterances. All these are worked by one and the same Spirit, distributing to each one his own as he wills" (1 Corinthians 12:8-11). Of all these spiritual gifts that the apostle listed, whoever has been given discernment of spirits knows these things as they ought to be known.

Latin

Quamquam ista quaestio uires intellegentiae meae uincit, quemadmodum opitulentur martyres his, quos per eos certum est adiuuari: utrum ipsi per se ipsos adsint uno tempore tam diuersis locis et tanta inter se longinquitate discretis, siue ubi sunt eorum memoriae siue praeter suas memorias, ubicumque adesse sentiuntur, an ipsis in loco suis meritis congruo ab omni mortalium conuersatione remotis et tamen generaliter orantibus pro indigentia supplicantum — sicut nos oramus pro mortuis, quibus utique non praesentamur nec ubi sint uel quid agant scimus — deus omnipotens, qui est ubique praesens nec concretus nobis nec remotus a nobis. exaudiens martyrum preces, per angelica ministeria usquequaque diffusa praebeat hominibus ista solacia, quibus in huius uitae miseria iudicat esse praebenda, et suorum martyrum merita ubi uult, quando uult, quomodo uult, maximeque per eorum memorias, quoniam hoc nouit expedire nobis ad aedificandam fidem Christi, pro cuius illi confessione sunt passi, mirabili atque ineffabili potestate ac bonitate commendet. res est haec altior, quam ut a me possit adtingi, et abstrusior, quam ut a me ualeat perscrutari. et ideo quid horum duorum sit, an uero fortassis utrumque sit, ut aliquando ista fiant per ipsam praesentiam martyrum, aliquando per angelos suscipientes personam martyrum, definire non audeo. mallem ab scientibus ista perquirere. neque enim nemo est, qui haec sciat, non qui sibi scire uideatur et nesciat. dona enim dei sunt his alia et illis alia largientis secundum apostolum, qui dicit unicuique dari manifestationem spiritus ad utilitatem. alii quidem, inquit, datur per spiritum sermo sapientiae; alii sermo scientiae secundum eundem spiritum; alteri autem fides in eodem spiritu; alii donatio curationum in uno spiritu; alii operationes uirtutum; alii prophetia; alii diiudicatio spirituum; alii genera linguarum; alii interpretatio sermonum: omnia autem haec operatur unus atque idem spiritus diuidens propria unicuique prout uult. horum omnium spiritalium donorum, quae commemorauit apostolus, cuicumque data est diiudicatio spirituum, ipse scit ista sicut scienda sunt.

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.