Sermon 282 augm

(ErfurtSermon 282 augmentations

Sermon of Saint Augustine, Bishop

The Passions of Saints Perpetua and Felicity.

On the names of the martyrs Perpetua and Felicitas.

The feast day of the holy martyrs, which we celebrate today, not only shone with remarkable virtues in their suffering but also marked their reward for such great devotion with their own names and those of their companions. Perpetua and Felicitas are indeed the names of two, but the reward belongs to all. For all the martyrs did not labor bravely in the struggle of confession and suffering for a time, except to rejoice in perpetual felicity. Therefore, by divine providence governing, these [martyrs] had to be not only martyrs but also the closest companions, as it happened, so that they would mark one day of their glory and propagate a common celebration to be observed by posterity. For just as they urge us to imitate them by the example of their most glorious struggle, so by their names they testify that we will receive an inseparable reward. Both hold each other, both bind each other; we do not hope for one without the other. For neither does Perpetua avail if Felicitas is not, and Felicitas forsakes if Perpetua is not. These few words about the names of the martyrs, to whom this day is consecrated for us, should suffice for the time.

These were not only women, but even wives.

However, as for those whose names these words bear, as we have heard when their passion was read, as we know from tradition, these women of such virtues and merits were not only females but also women, one of whom was a mother, so that to the weakness of her sex was added the attachment of affection. From the mother, take the example of faith, strength, patience, and piety, celibate women; from women, young men; from females, virgins! Added to this was that they were nurtured tenderly according to the customs and love of their parents for their native place, so that the enemy, attempting them in all things, immediately believed they would not be able to endure the hard and cruel burdens of persecution and would soon be his. But they, with the most cautious and firm strength of the inner person, crushed all his snares and broke his attacks.

The martyrs, in their victorious determination, remained steadfast.

In the army of the King Christ, that they might not yield to any adversities with the most unencumbered battle array, hindered neither by the weaker sex, nor softened by feminine thoughts, not softened by the world’s allurements, nor frightened by the threats, women ardently, females manfully, the delicate harshly, the weak strongly contended, conquering flesh by spirit, fear by hope, the devil by faith, the world by love. With these arms, our King’s army is invincible, and thus armed, Christ’s soldiers triumphed not by preserving but by slaughtering the body's members, not by killing but by dying. Indeed, they preferred the eternal King’s dominion over the temporal king's dominion and surrendered their bodies so that they would neither serve nor worship any god, but their own God, fearing not those who kill the body but Him who has the power to kill both body and soul in the fire of Gehenna, and thus not only preserving their spirits which they had set unmovable in victorious purpose, but also counseling for their bodies which they seemed to despise, so that the injustice of persecution might sow them in dishonor and the truth of judgment might raise them in glory.

Perpetua conquered the devil.

In this struggle Perpetua, as it had been revealed to her through a vision, having been transformed into a man, overcame the devil, stripped of the world and clothed with Christ, arriving at the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, made into a perfect man and a principal member in His body, for which the whole body had not discarded one member.

What happiness was in the suffering of martyrdom.

In this struggle, Felicitas was not hindered from confessing martyrdom by the burden of her womb. For she was pregnant both in body and heart. One she had conceived by divine participation, the other by human union; the birth of the former nature's law deferred, the latter the force of persecution hastened; maturity was lacking to the former, the opportunity of interrogation was present to the latter; the former would be aborted if hurried, the latter would be killed if denied. Therefore, the most pious woman remembered both that she would endure the pain of childbearing and confess the child's virginity: she had made a place for one in her carnal womb, and for the other in her spiritual heart; laden with the human burden she languished, honored by the divine she rejoiced. Thus, she firmly believed and faithfully heeded Christ Himself saying: Whoever does the will of my Father is my brother, and sister, and mother. She became not the mother of Adam before confessing Christ the heavenly man before the judge, she preserved the earthly by groaning in the prison. There also was her response, when giving the cries of Eve in labor pains, they said to her, being so impatient in the necessity of bearing, what she would do under the beasts! "Here," she said, "what I suffer, I suffer; but there, He will suffer for me, for whose faith I am to suffer." Rightly it happened that she, so noble in cruelty, did not even feel the wild heifer's savagery she experienced, nor retained any memory of it. It was demonstrated to her what she had been in the burden of her womb, what had been granted to her in the passion of martyrdom.

Why are the names of the comrades of the martyrs not celebrated equally?

In this illustrious band of glory there were also male martyrs, on the same day men also triumphed with the strongest passion; yet they did not commend the same day with their names. This did not happen because women were preferred to men in dignity, but because both the women's weakness conquered the fiercest enemy with greater miracle and masculine virtue contended for eternal happiness.