Burial at a holy memorial helps only through the living's prayerful remembrance
Augustine has just restated his view on burial and now explains that a burial place at a martyrs' memorial shrine benefits the dead only insofar as it stirs the living to pray for them.
If this is true, then providing a place for burying bodies at the memorial shrines of the saints is certainly an act of good human affection toward one's own dead. For if there is some religious duty in burying them, there cannot be none when attention is paid to where they are buried. But when such consolations of the living are sought, by which their pious disposition toward their own may appear, I do not see what helps they are to the dead except this: that while they recall where the bodies of those they love have been placed, they commend them in prayer to those same saints, as to patrons, to be helped by them before the Lord. They could do this even if they could not bury them in such places. But the reason why the notable tombs of the dead are called either 'memorial shrines' or 'monuments' is none other than this: they call back into remembrance those who have been withdrawn from the eyes of the living by death, so that they are not also withdrawn from their hearts by forgetfulness, and by reminding they make them be thought of. For the name 'memorial shrine' shows this most openly, and 'monument' is named from the fact that it admonishes the mind, that is, it reminds. This is why the Greeks also call it μνημεῖον, which we call a memorial shrine or monument, since in their language the memory itself by which we remember is called μνήμη. And so when the mind recalls where the body of a dearest one is buried, and the place occurs to it as venerable by the name of a martyr, the affection of the one remembering and praying commends that beloved soul to the same martyr. When this affection is shown to the dead by their dearest faithful ones, there is no doubt that it benefits those who, while they were living in the body, merited that such things would benefit them after this life. But even if some necessity, when no opportunity is given, prevents bodies from being buried at all, or from being buried in such places, prayers for the spirits of the dead must not be omitted. The church has undertaken to make these prayers for all who have died in Christian and catholic fellowship, even without naming them, under a general commemoration, so that those who lack parents or children or any relatives or friends to do these things may have them offered by the one pious common mother. But if those prayers were lacking, which are made with right faith and piety for the dead, I think it would profit their spirits nothing, however much their lifeless bodies were placed in holy places.
Latin
Quod si uerum est, profecto etiam prouisus sepeliendis corporibus apud memorias sanctorum locus bonae affectionis humanae est erga funera suorum, quoniam, si nonnulla religio est, ut sepeliantur, non potest nulla esse, quando ubi sepeliantur adtenditur. sed cum talia uiuorum solacia requiruntur, quibus eorum pius in suos animus adpareat, non uideo quae sunt adiumenta mortuorum nisi ad hoc, ut, dum recolunt, ubi sint posita eorum quos diligunt corpora, eisdem sanctis illos tamquam patronis susceptos apud dominum adiuuandos orando commendent. quod quidem facere possent, etiamsi talibus locis eos humare non possent. sed non ob aliud uel 'memoriae' uel (monumenta> dicuntur ea quae insignite fiunt sepulcra mortuorum, nisi quia eos, qui uiuentium oculis morte subtracti sunt, ne obliuione etiam cordibus subtrahantur, in memoriam reuocant et admonendo faciunt cogitari. nam et (memoriae) nomen id apertissime ostendit et (monumentum) eo quod moneat mentem, id est admoneat, nuncupatur. propter quod et Graeci μvημεῑοuocant, quod nos memoriam seu monumentum appellamus, quoniam lingua eorum memoria ipsa, qua meminimus, μvήμη dicitur. cum itaque recolit animus, ubi sepultum sit carissimi corpus, et occurrit locus nomine martyris uenerabilis, eidem martyri animam dilectam commendat recordantis et precantis affectus. qui cum defunctis a fidelibus carissimis exhibetur, eum prodesse non dubium est his, qui cum in corpore uiuerent, talia sibi post hanc uitam prodesse meruerunt. uerum et si aliqua necessitas uel humari corpora uel in talibus locis humari nulla data facultate permittat, non sunt praetermittendae supplicationes pro spiritibus mortuorum, quas faciendas pro omnibus in christiana et catholica societate defunctis etiam tacitis nominibus eorum sub generali commemoratione suscepit ecclesia, ut quibus ad ista desunt parentes aut filii aut quicumque cognati uel amici, ab una eis exhibeantur pia matre communi. si autem deessent istae supplicationes, quae fiunt recta fide ac pietate pro mortuis, puto, quod nihil prodesset spiritibus eorum, quamlibet locis sanctis exanima corpora ponerentur.