Sermones [Attributi]

SERMON XVIII.

On Saint Peter. How he was led out of prison.

Now first published from the Cassinese manuscript.

CHAPTER 1. — In what manner Saint Peter was bound in prison with two chains and handed over to four quaternions of soldiers, and in what manner he was also freed from there by an angel of the Lord (Acts XII), your belovedness has heard in order. Saint Peter, then, was sent into prison for the sake of the name of Christ, but he could not dread the punishment of prison, because he himself was in prison a temple of God. He was bound with two chains, but the chains of sins he was drawing out from the believers themselves in that prison. He was guarded by four quaternions of soldiers, but under that very guard he was instilling the four Gospels into those coming to the faith. Nor is it strange, indeed, if he who was preserved by divine custody could not fear human custody. When, therefore, Peter was being carefully guarded in prison by four quaternions of soldiers, bound with two chains, the angel of the Lord came to him, as your belovedness has heard, and opened the doors of the prison, and said to him: Rise, and take your garment and put it on, and put your sandals on your feet, and come, follow me (Ibid. 8). And he, rising, was following him, and when he had come to the iron gate with the angel, immediately that same gate was opened to them by itself.

Nor is it surprising, indeed, if the door was already in the power of Saint Peter, who had already received the gates of hell into his power, when the Lord said to him: You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven (Matthew 16:18). He, therefore, opened the iron gate for Saint Peter who laid open the gates of hell. He snatched Peter from death who destroyed death itself.

CHAPTER II — But what was then done for Saint Peter according to the letter, we recognize is also done mystically in us, if we follow the faith of Peter. For we too are placed in this world as in a prison. If, then, we are worthy to be visited by the Lord, an angel of God is sent to us, and says to each one of us: Gird yourself and put on your sandals, and wrap yourself in your garment, and follow me. We gird ourselves if we surround the loins of our body with the belt of chastity, as the Apostle says: Let your loins be girded (Luke 12:35) in chastity. We also put sandals on our feet if we fortify the steps of our life with the precepts of the evangelical faith, so that we may securely tread underfoot the thorns of sin and the briars of iniquity. We also wrap ourselves in a garment if we preserve within us that wedding garment, that is, the grace of baptism. Let us therefore fulfill these things faithfully: at once the chains will fall from our hands, that is, the chains of sins, by which we were held bound and fettered in our soul.

But neither can we escape from the error of this world in any other way, unless we are visited by the Lord through an angel. There is opened to us also the iron gate, that is, both the gate of death and the punishment which the Son of God crushed by the power of his passion; and then we shall come to the house of Mary, that is, to the Church of Christ, where Mary the mother of the Lord dwells, and there a girl named Rhoda will meet us. But a name of this kind, Rhoda, is a mystery of our salvation. For Rhoda, according to the Greek letter, is called a rose. Therefore, as we come to the house of Mary, a girl named Rhoda meets us, that is, the congregation of the saints, which shines like a rose through the glorious blood of martyrdom.

ADMONITION ON THE FOLLOWING SERMON.

We are compelled to set forth the lengthy admonition of Quesnel, in accordance with our plan, by which we promised that all of it would be inserted into this edition. "This sermon," he says, "whether it was delivered on the feast of the seven brother martyrs, the Maccabees, or rather on the feast of the seven brothers, sons of Saint Felicity the martyr, that is, Januarius, Felix, Philip, Sylvanus, Alexander, Vitalis, and Martial, who were crowned with martyrdom in the time of the emperor Antoninus, there will perhaps be someone who doubts, if he turns his eyes away for a little while from the title, whose credibility, as also that of others of this kind, it is no sacrilege among the learned to bring into suspicion.

But although the famous memory of these men at Rome has been of ancient date, since they had ennobled that very City by their contest, we nevertheless think that this sermon was consecrated to the triumph of the former men, that is, of the Maccabees, both because it recalls the history of their martyrdom as read from the sacred Scriptures: "The reason," he says, "of today's solemnity, most beloved, you have most fully learned from the reading of the sacred history"; and because he does not attribute such martyrdom to the faith of a Roman emperor or prefect, but to the impiety of a most savage king.

Furthermore, that another feast was joined to this solemnity of the martyrs, St. Leo indicates—namely, as he says, the Nativity, or dedication of a church—and he asserts below that by its consecration the ancient festival was doubled. But whose church's natal day, and whose consecration this solemnity was, he himself does not disclose, nor has anyone after him taken pains to inquire: evidently because, as I think, all held it as certain that this was to be understood of the dedication of the basilica of St. Peter ad Vincula, since even today the dedication of this same church and the martyrdom of the Maccabees are one festival, fixed on the Kalends of August.

But to this opinion we can by no means agree. For the basilica of St. Peter ad Vincula was built by Eudoxia, wife of the Emperor Valentinian, on the Esquiline Hill, whence it was also called the title of Eudoxia, which does not at all agree with what is said by Leo concerning this place. Indeed it is manifest that the basilica whose consecration was then being commemorated was built not by a woman but by a man. "The magnificent builder of the walls," he says, etc. Then all the things that Leo sets forth must apply to him who raised the basilica about which we are inquiring: namely, 1° that he himself ordered the shrine to be built at his own expense and munificence: "The magnificent builder of the walls," etc., by dwelling in what he built. 2° And that he himself consecrated or dedicated it as a church: "Who on this day doubled the ancient festivity of this place by its consecration." 3° That the same man had care of souls: "But the more magnificent builder of souls"; indeed, that he also discharged the office of teaching in the city of Rome, and therefore was a bishop; "by doing what he taught." 5° That he was the one whose memory the Romans could venerate with due honor and join to the solemnity of the martyrs: "Not only," he says, "do you venerate the martyrs and the mother of the martyrs, but also the memory of him who on this day doubled the ancient festivity of this place by its consecration.

5. Finally, that he was a contemporary of Leo, and performed works of piety in the eyes of those whom he was addressing, so that from their memory of these, no less than from the sight of the temple they beheld, they might be kindled to progress in virtue; for this is the sense of these words: "All things, therefore, dearly beloved, which you see with your eyes and remember in your mind, take up for the advancement of your edification," etc. But all these things cannot apply to Eudoxia; they must rather apply to one of the Roman pontiffs, to whom alone it belonged to dedicate churches in the City and to act as teachers and edifiers of souls therein. Indeed, these things can easily be said of Pope Celestine, who was certainly conspicuous for holiness and is read to have made the basilica of Julius. But I would prefer to refer them to Sixtus III, the last predecessor of our Leo. For first, it is manifest that the church whose dedication feast was then being celebrated was one of the principal basilicas of the Roman city; whose dedication was being commemorated by the entire Roman people with such great celebration, such magnificence of festivity, such concordant zeal and devout spirit, such a concourse of people: such was undoubtedly the basilica of St. Mary Major, which is also called St. Mary ad Nives, and ad Præsepe, and the basilica of Liberius. But that this was rebuilt anew and consecrated by Pope Sixtus III is attested by the book concerning the Roman pontiffs and by Pope Adrian in his letter to Charlemagne. This man made the basilica of St.

Of Mary, the Mother of the Lord, who was surnamed Liberta by the ancients, that book says in [the life of] Sixtus III. Concerning which Adrian says thus: Pope Sixtus, the successor of Celestine, made the basilica of the holy Mother of God, Mary, surnamed Major, which is also called [the basilica] at the Manger. Concerning this basilica there are marvelous things reported by Peter of Cluny, Bede, and those authors who wrote about the seven churches of the City. Then it can easily be believed that Leo burst forth into praises of Sixtus on the occasion of a solemnity, since he had been educated by him, had always adhered to him as his deacon, and had succeeded him most closely, as one for whom he had exerted excellent effort in administering ecclesiastical affairs, and whose memory was also the most recent of all. Finally, he himself also, as one renowned by the praise of sanctity, is found inscribed among the saints vindicated in the ecclesiastical records on the day of March, so that with good reason the holy pontiff called his memory to be venerated with just honor.

There is one objection that could be made, namely that the solemnity of the dedication of Saint Mary is held on another day, that is, on the Nones of August, and that on the contrary no solemnity of dedication is assigned to the Kalends of August in today's Roman Martyrology, except that of Saint Peter in Chains. But what wonder if, over the course of so many years, many things are found to have been changed in such ecclesiastical tables, whose trustworthiness is not in every respect certain and undoubted? Moreover, since that most ancient basilica often needed to be raised anew on account of its age and consecrated again, just as custom demanded that the day of its last consecration be kept among the feasts, so it was fitting that the memory of its first construction and consecration should not perish, which had become famous throughout the whole world by very many and distinguished miracles. For that reason, as I think, the solemnity of its dedication, which had been performed by Sixtus, was transferred from the first day of August to the fifth, so that the twin solemnities might coalesce into one, and the number of feast days might not increase to the inconvenience of the commonwealth. And it was especially fitting that this be done on account of the other dedication of Saint Peter in Chains, whose solemnity falls to be celebrated on that same first day of August.

These points were necessary under the hypothesis that the sermon on the Maccabees was believed to be Leo's. But they will be recognized as superfluous and useless for the present matter, if we have shown that the same sermon is not Leo's. For in the very ancient manuscript Lectionary Vatican 3836, which was undoubtedly Roman, for the use of the basilica of Saints Philip and James, where other genuine sermons of Leo are inscribed under his name, this one on page 1 is attributed not to Leo but to Augustine, with this title: Here begins the sermon of Saint Augustine on the Saints Maccabees, on the Kalends of August. Who would dare to claim for Leo, the Roman pontiff, a sermon which the Roman Church herself, by this most ancient testimony, adjudges away from him? It was therefore by the error of later times that in collections 2 and 4, which are of a later age, it was ascribed to Leo. This one piece of evidence is most clear to us.

Add, indeed, that this sermon indicates that the solemnity of the Maccabees was celebrated in the city in which it was delivered. That it was celebrated in Africa is known both from the old Carthaginian calendar, which Mabillon published in his Analects, and from Augustine's sermons 301 and the one published on the same feast, which can also confirm him as the author of this sermon as well. But that no feast of the Maccabees was celebrated at Rome in Leo's time is gathered from the fact that no Mass of that feast is noted on the Kalends.

The August festival is found not only in the most ancient Sacramentary attributed to Leo, which will be reprinted in the second volume, but also in the earlier Gregorian Sacramentary, which Ludovicus Muratorius printed from two manuscripts in the second volume of the Liturgia Romana vetus. But if this feast is asserted in the commonly circulated Gelasian Sacramentary, it is certain that this is not the pure Gelasian Sacramentary and that it has received several later additions, among which the Mass of the Maccabees must be counted, as anyone will understand from the very absence of this Mass in the later Gregorian Sacramentary. This addition, moreover, could have been introduced from some church where the feast of the Maccabees was celebrated, as it was also celebrated in Gaul in Leo's time; hence their feast is marked in the Kalendar of Polemius Silvius, whom we will prove in the observations on Sermon 83, no. 4, to have been a Gallic writer and to have written in Gaul.

There is also the inscription published by several and most recently reprinted by Father Abbot Monsacratus in his work on the Chains of Saint Peter, page 48, in which, among other things, the following is read concerning the church of Saint Peter in Chains: This temple of the Lord was first dedicated to Peter; the third bishop, Sixtus, once consecrated it; afterwards it was destroyed by civil war.

Eudoxia indeed renovated the whole place there; blessed Pope Pelagius consecrated it again, establishing there the bodies of the holy Maccabees. If this inscription were ancient and reported a genuine history, so that before Gregory the celebration of the Maccabees had begun at Rome under Pelagius, even then the sermon could not be attributed to Leo. Finally, the formula "dearest ones," which is inserted at the beginning of the chapter, is indeed familiar to Augustine, but utterly foreign to Leo's custom; and this indication more strongly confirms that the sermon was falsely attributed to Leo.

SERMO XIX.

On the birthday of the seven holy brother martyrs, the Maccabees.

Now first placed in the appendix, because it is not Leo's but Augustine's.

CHAPTER I. — We give thanks, dearest ones, to the Lord our God, because how great is the solemnity of this day, even if I were silent, your assembly shows. For you have come together with such unanimous zeal and devout spirit that, even if the sermon does not declare it, the gathering itself bears witness to the magnificence of the festival. And rightly so: for there is a twofold cause of joy, in which we both honor the birthday of the Church and rejoice in the passion of the martyrs; nor is it undeservedly that the Church exults worthily in the martyrdom of those by whose example she is adorned.

You have learned, dearly beloved, the cause of today's solemnity most fully from the reading of the sacred history, nor could it have escaped you what you heard in so great a sequence of events, when you honored the glorious mother of seven martyrs with an exultant and not silent affection—she who suffered in each of her sons, but was crowned in all. For they followed her in a blessed departure, whom she sent ahead with unconquered exhortation. Blessed mother, blessed offspring, memorable courage of those who went before. For when in that order of deaths and in that arrangement of punishments the impiety of the most savage king had devised this, that he might promise himself victory both from the first, whom he tortured without an example of endurance, and from the last, whom he tormented in another's punishment, the palms of the martyrs were multiplied, and while each one conquered in all, besides their own crowns all acquired seven.

CHAPTER II.—But these things are to be recalled for the fruitful pleasure of the ears. Knowledge puffs up (1 Cor 8:1) unless obedience builds up; things heard weigh down unless they are received as things to be imitated. For it is not because the persecutor and torturer has ceased, because all powers now serve God, that there are lacking to Christians passions to overcome. "My son," he says, "when you come to the service of God, stand in justice and fear, and prepare your soul for temptation" (Sir 2:1); and the Apostle says: "Whoever wish to live piously in Christ suffer persecution for justice's sake" (2 Tim 3:12).

Do you think that persecution has ceased, and that you have no conflict with enemies? Search the inner secret of your heart, and enter as a diligent explorer into all the recesses of your soul; and see whether no adversity attacks you, whether no tyrant wishes to rule in the citadel of your mind. Do not make peace with greed, and despise the increase of unjust gains. Refuse agreement with pride, and fear more to be received into glory than to be trampled in humility. Separate yourself from anger, lest the desire for revenge inflame the pain of envy. Renounce pleasure, turn away from impurity, drive out luxury, flee iniquity, resist falsehood; and when you see that you have a manifold struggle, do you also, as an imitator of the martyrs, seek a numerous victory. For we die to sins as often as sins die in us, and even this death is precious in the sight of the Lord for his saints, when a man is slain to the world, not by the destruction of the senses, but by the end of vices.

CHAPTER III. If therefore, most beloved, you do not bear the yoke with unbelievers (2 Cor 6:14), if you cease to be sinners and yield to no temptations of carnal desire, you celebrate this solemn day lawfully; and you venerate not only the martyrs and the mother of the martyrs, but also the memory of him who on this day doubled the ancient festival by the consecration of this place; magnificent indeed as a builder of walls, but more magnificent as a builder of souls, extending the works of his piety beyond the bounds of his own age, so that a devoted posterity might also enjoy the benefits of his foundations, both by dwelling in what he built and by doing what he taught.

CHAPTER IV. All things, therefore, most beloved, which you see with your eyes and remember in your mind, take up for your own progress in edification, and let each of you so use the dwelling prepared by his forebears as to remember that in himself the temple of God has been founded. Let him lay nothing crooked upon his structure, let him join no weak or unstable element to it, but let the whole body grow by an indissoluble connection into the unity of the Lord's body: with the help of the cornerstone himself, God and our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON XX.

On the Transfiguration of the Lord.

Now first published from the manuscript of St. Anthony of Padua, wrongly attributed to Leo.

CHAPTER I. — Today, most beloved brothers, we solemnly keep the day of him who, governing all things with the Father, created every day; the Word, I say, who in the beginning said: Let there be light, and there was light (Gen 1:3). His flesh today was glorified on the mountain, as the Gospel text recounts. On the mountain the Lord was transfigured before two prophets and three disciples; that is, to give us hope of his Divinity, he willed to show them his face shining white as snow. But if anyone wishes to know these prophets, let him run to the most sublime words of the evangelists. Yet if to anyone Luke seems to disagree with the two above him, in that he reports that this glory of the Lord was shown not after six days but after eight days (Lk 9), let him run to the trope of the grammarians. For there is among them a trope called syllepsis, where many are understood for one and one for many, and the whole is taken for the part and the part for the whole; and let him know that Luke nonetheless wrote tropically, setting down in his Gospel the day when it was promised, and theirs when it was fulfilled. Evidently, when the Lord had promised this, it was evening; and when he was transfigured, it was nonetheless morning.

Matthew and Mark, however, passing over the days of the promise and of the transfiguration, preferred to commit to perpetual remembrance only the six days in between.

CHAPTER II. — Yet if anyone asks why he wished to be transfigured before two prophets and three disciples, let him recall that illustrious first sermon of the Lord himself; he said to the Jews: In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true (John 13:17). But to show that he himself is the one who said to Moses, I am who I am, and you shall say this to the children of Israel: He who is has sent me to you (Exod. 3), and who had sent that same Moses to Pharaoh for the liberation of the children of Israel, and had given him the law on Mount Sinai, and had carried the prophet Elijah in a fiery chariot into the airy heaven — these witnesses he brought with him by divine power to the transfiguration of his brightness, to be contemplated together with the disciples; namely, recalling one of them from the threshold of death, the other from his translation into paradise. For no one could know the tomb of Moses except the one who commanded it and brought him to himself; and no one had known where Elijah had been translated except the one who had called him to himself. For this is the Only-begotten of the Father, who for the redemption of the human race willed to become the firstborn of a mother. For in this day's transfiguration he willed to unite the harmony of both pages. For to show that he is the Lord of the law and of the prophet, he willed to bring these men to the testimony of the evangelists.

In this transfiguration, indeed, it pleased him, the dispenser of the Father, to show the dispenser of the Son—namely, Peter to Moses—and he wished to demonstrate the holy old to the holy new, Elijah to John. Today the disciples beheld two suns on the mountain: one, which was contemplated by them all in the firmament, and the other, which shone more splendidly than that one and was beheld by the prophets and the disciples—the face of Jesus. But this Sun, who blazed on the mountain, illumined by his power that sun which is in the firmament. For this is the Sun of righteousness, burning and shining; for by burning he kindles the faithful in himself, and by shining he enlightens all. For of this Sun John says: He was the true light which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9).

CHAPTER III. — But so that the brightness of that light might be made known to us more certainly, after his countenance was transfigured into another appearance, and he was overshadowed with the apostles by a bright cloud and truly glorified by the Father: This is, he said, my most beloved Son, hear him (Luke 9:35). But the disciples, unable to bear so great a voice, fell on their face, and as Moses and Elijah withdrew, there remained only the divine offspring, who, raising them up, said: Do not be afraid—which is to say: Let those fear who do not believe; let those fear whom phantasms mock. You, who obey the Son of the Father and are present at his hidden mysteries, why are you afraid?

Nevertheless, the holy disciples, looking up, saw no one except Jesus alone, so that it might be clearly shown that the voice which had been sent forth befitted not Moses, not Elijah, but the only-begotten Son alone. For concerning this vision a certain most eloquent poet marvels and extols the merit of these three apostles, saying: O sublime merit of the three, to whom it fell to see in the world what the world has not believed! What? That they saw both Elijah and Moses, renowned in virtue, unknown to their eyes but known by the light of the heart. So that our faith may be the greater that this is the beginning and the end throughout the world, this, namely, the Alpha and: whom such prophets, standing in the midst, shone around. The one still living, the other standing in the light of life; and with starry sound, "This is my Son," the Father's voice declaring, showed Christ, begotten in the Word.

Hence indeed, when Moses prayed and said, "Show me your glory," the Lord said: "You cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live. Behold," he said, "there is a place with me, and you shall stand upon the rock; and when my glory passes by, I will place you in a cleft of the rock, and I will protect you with my right hand until I pass by, and I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back parts, but my face you cannot see." What, then, beloved, is this? What is this? Has no one ever seen the Lord?

Did one of these lie, who said: No one has ever seen God, except the Only-Begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him (John 1:18)? Is the omnipotent Father, then, to be believed to be incapable of being contained and immense, and invisible, and corporeal, or are bodily members ascribed to him, so that it is reported that he has posteriors? This is a great matter, this is a deep matter; and for such little ones to search out so deep a thing is not easy. But it must be opened by him alone who, when he wills, opens the mouth of brute animals to speak. O Holy Spirit, unlock for us this highest utterance of the Father. Attend more diligently, attend more carefully, most beloved, and prepare your mind together with me.

CHAPTER IV. — When I pass by, says the Lord, you shall see my posteriors, but you shall not be able to see my face (Exodus 33:23). For the face of the Lord is the incomprehensible Divinity; but his posteriors must be believed to be the assumed humanity of the Son. Indeed, by the face, which is the first part of the body, the Divinity is indicated before all ages; but the posteriors of Christ are the humanity, which in the last times came to us through the inviolate Mary. On this day, indeed, what he promised to his servant Moses, the Father faithfully fulfilled through the Son. Concerning this solemnity of this day David says: You have put on confession and beauty, clothed with light as with a garment (Psalm 103:1).

Christ is clothed in confession and beauty when he is glorified by the glory of the Father's voice; he is clothed with light as with a garment when he shows to his disciples his face shining with the brightness of the sun. The prophet Habakkuk also marveled at this solemnity, when he sang of it: Lord, I have heard your report and I feared; I considered your works and I was afraid (Habakkuk 3:1). Was it the fabric of the world that he marveled at and feared? No. But what did he marvel at and fear? Hear what follows: In the midst, he says, of two animals you will be known. O dearly beloved, what is it to be known in the midst of two animals, except either in the midst of the two Testaments, or in the midst of Moses and Elijah, who were speaking with him today on the mountain? For this is the cornerstone, in which both walls merited to be joined together—namely, the Old Testament and the New. The Old was signified through Moses and Elijah, through whom the law and the prophets are designated. The New, however, through Peter and James and John, through whom the holy and venerable Gospel is designated. Or through Moses and Elijah that former Jewish people is designated, through Peter, James, and John the Gentile people. For this is the people walking in darkness, who saw a great light; to which light may the Only-Begotten of the Father bring us to contemplate in that homeland, in which the righteous will shine like the sun, and God himself will be all in all, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, and is glorified as God through