On Care for the Dead · §4 · Augustine of Hippo

Burial cannot harm the dead, and costly rites help only the living

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Augustine is answering the objection that Christians killed in the sack of Rome could not be buried, continuing his argument that burial does not affect the dead.

"But in such a slaughter of corpses," I said, "they could not even be buried." Pious faith does not fear this too much, holding to what was foretold: that the beasts that consume them will not harm the bodies that are about to rise, whose hair of the head will not perish. The Truth would never have said, "Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul" (Matthew 10:28), if anything that enemies might choose to do with the bodies of the slain could harm the life to come. Unless someone is so absurd as to argue that those who kill the body should not be feared before death, lest they kill the body, but should be feared after death, lest they not allow the slain body to be buried. Is it false, then, what the Truth says: "those who kill the body and after that have nothing more they can do" (Luke 12:4), if they have so much they can do with the corpses? Far be it that what the Truth said should be false. For it says they do something when they kill, because there is sensation in the body while it is being killed; but after that they have nothing they can do, because there is no sensation in a slain body. So the earth did not cover many bodies of Christians, but no one separated any of them from heaven and earth, which he fills entirely with his presence—he who knows from where he will raise up what he created. It is said in the psalm: "They gave the bodies of your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of your holy ones to the beasts of the earth; they poured out their blood like water around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them" (Psalm 79:2-3). But this was said to exaggerate the cruelty of those who did these things, not the misery of those who suffered them. For though these things seem hard and dreadful in human sight, yet "precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones" (Psalm 116:15). Therefore all these things—the care of the funeral, the preparation of burial, the pomp of funeral rites—are more consolations for the living than helps for the dead. If a costly burial benefits an impious man, a cheap one or none at all would harm a pious man. A crowd of servants gave that rich man in purple a splendid funeral in human sight, but far more splendid in the sight of the Lord was the ministry the angels gave to that poor man covered with sores—they did not carry him out to a marble tomb, but lifted him up into Abraham's bosom (Luke 16:19-22). Those against whom we have undertaken to defend the city of God laugh at these things. Yet even their philosophers despised the care of burial. And often whole armies, while dying for their earthly country, did not care where they would lie afterwards or what beasts they would become food for. And the poets were allowed to say to applause on this matter: "He who has no urn is covered by the sky." How much less should they mock Christians about unburied bodies, when to Christians is promised the restoration and renewal not only of the flesh itself and all its members from the earth, but also from the most secret bosom of the other elements into which the scattered corpses have slipped away—to be given back in a moment of time!

Latin

(At enim in tanta, inquam, strage cadauerum nec sepeliri potuerunt. neque istud pia fides nimium reformidat, tenens praedictum nec absumentes bestias resurrecturis corporibus obfuturas, quorum capillus capitis non peribit. nullo modo diceret ueritas: nolite timere eos, qui corpus occidunt, animam autem non possunt occidere, si quidquam obesset futurae uitae quidquid inimici de corporibus occisorum facere uoluissent. nisi forte quispiam sic absurdus est, ut contendat eos, qui corpus occidunt, non debere timeri ante mortem, ne corpus occidant, et timeri debere post mortem, ne corpus occisum sepeliri non sinant. falsum est ergo quod ait: qui corpus occidunt et postea non habent quid faciant, si habent tanta, quae de cadaueribus faciant? absit, ut falsum sit quod ueritas dixit. dictum est enim aliquid eos facere, cum occidunt, quia in corpore sensus est occidendo, postea uero nihil habere quod faciant, quia nullus sensus est in corpore occiso. multa itaque corpora Christianorum terra non texit, sed nullum eorum quisquam a caelo et terra separauit, quam totam inplet praesentia sui, qui nouit unde resuscitet quod creauit. dicitur quidem in psalmo: posuerunt mortalia seruorum tuorum escam uolatilibus caeli, carnes sanctorum tuorum bestiis terrae; effuderunt sanguinem eorum tamquam aquam in circuitu Hierusalem, et non erat qui sepeliret, sed magis ad exaggerandam crudelitatem eorum, qui ista fecerunt, non ad eorum infelicitatem, qui ista perpessi sunt. quamuis enim haec in conspectu hominum dura et dira uideantur, sed pretiosa in conspectu domini mors sanctorum eius. proinde ista omnia, id est curatio funeris, conditio sepulturae, pompa exequiarum, magis sunt uiuorum solacia quam subsidia mortuorum. si aliquid prodest inpio sepultura pretiosa, oberit pio uilis aut nulla. praeclaras exequias in conspectu hominum purpurato illi diuiti turba exhibuit famulorum, sed multo clariores in conspectu domini ulceroso illi pauperi ministerium praebuit angelorum, qui eum non extulerunt in marmoreum tumulum, sed in Abrahae gremium sustulerunt. rident haec illi, contra quos defendendam suscepimus ciuitatem dei. uerum tamen sepulturae curam etiam eorum philosophi contempserunt. et saepe uniuersi exercitus, dum pro terrena patria morerentur, ubi postea iacerent uel quibus bestiis esca fierent, non curarunt, licuitque de hac re poetis plausibiliter dicere: caelo tegitur, qui non habet urnam. quanto minus debent de corporibus insepultis insultare Christianis, quibus et ipsius carnis membrorumque omnium reformatio non solum ex terra, uerum etiam ex aliorum elementorum secretissimo sinu, quo dilapsa cadauera recesserunt, in temporis puncto reddenda et redintegranda promittitur!

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.