Frustula Augustiniana

Vide formicam Dei: surgit quotidie, currit ad ecclesiam Dei, orat, audit lectionem, hymnum cantat, ruminat quod audivit, apud se cogitat, recondit intus grana collecta de area.   Enarratio in Ps. Sermo ad Plebem. 66.3

  Muta cor et mutabitur opus. Exstirpa cupiditatem, planta caritatem. Sicut enim radix omnium malorum cupiditas ( I Tim. 6.10 ), sic et radix omnium bonorum caritas. Sermo LXXII.3.4 .

Si distortum digitum haberes, non ad correctorem digiti tui medicum curreres? Certe tunc se habet bene corpus tuum, quando sibi concordant membra tua; tunc diceris sanus, tunc bene vales. Si autem aliquid in tuo corpore dissentiat ab aliis partibus, quaeris qui emendet. ...Certe viliores sunt ceteris membris capilli tui? Quid vilius in corpore tuo capillis tuis? Quid contemptius? Quid abiectius? Et tamen si male te tondeat, irasceris tonsori, quia in capillis tuis non servat aequalitatem... De utilitate ieiunii vi.8 . For the Curious This is a post from a year ago, which I have pruned of its context because I want to focus on hair, for more on which, see below. Before that, however, here's a little context. This sermon has been dated by Edmund Hill to the Ember days of 411 or to Lent of 412 – a sound argument based on Augustine's use of compelle intrare and its relation to the decrees of the Council of Carthage in 411 regarding the Donatists. Augustine became fond of using...

Idipsum et idipsum et idipsum, sanctus, santus, sanctus, dominus deus omnipotens. Augustinus, Confessiones XII.vii.7 . For the Curious In principio...   This just happened to be the beginning of the Frustula Augustiniana back in 2017. I posted it on Facebook when I still had that, people loved it, and so it began. It is, so far, the second shortest of all the frustula. For the really curious While O'Donnell's commentary on Conf.  IX.iv.11  has plenty for us to chew on about  idipsum in Augustine, he doesn't help with understanding where this odd use might have come from and whether Augustine knew that he was turning an adverbial into a name for being. Let's look at what we've got here: The very center of Augustine's thought (being)* found shaped through a Greek adverbial construction reinterpreted in order to praise the author of all our understanding and of every being. Where did it come from? Augustine used the phrase id ipsum with specifyin...

Idibus novembris... I published this on Facebook last year, but never posted it here.  It is the date of Augustine's birth. How do we know that his birth occurred on Nov. 13, or rather on the Ides of November? He tells us himself in his preface, addressed to Flavius Manlius Theodorus, of his De Beata Vita, written in 386-87. For Theodorus, you can read Claudian's Panegyricus dictus Theodoro (if you like late antique panegyric). Augustine, within a decade, ended up regretting his admiration of Theodorus (see Conf. vii.9.13). I've introduced this frustulum in Eng lish since, like most quotations taken from prefaces addressed to one person, I found it did not stand well on its own. Now that you know the context, it's clearer how he is being a good Ciceronian by establishing the time (natalis dies), the place (balneae), and the participants (Monica mater, Navigius frater, Trygetius et Licentius discipuli, Lastidianus et Rusticus consobrini, Adeodatus filius) of his...

Affectiones quoque animi mei eadem memoria continet: non illo modo quo eas habet ipse animus cum patitur eas; sed alio multum diverso, sicut sese habet vis memoriae. Nam et laetatum me fuisse reminiscor non laetus, et tristitiam meam praeteritam recordor non tristis, et me aliquando timuisse recolo sine timore, et pristinae cupiditatis sine cupiditate sum memor; aliquando e contrario tristitiam meam transactam laetus reminiscor, et tristis laetitiam. Quod mirandum non est de corpore: aliud enim animus, aliud corpus. Itaque si praeteritum dolorem corporis gaudens memini, non ita mirum est. Hic vero cum animus sit etiam ipsa memoria: nam et cum mandamus aliquid ut memoriter habeatur, dicimus, Vide ut illud in animo habeas; et cum obliviscimur, dicimus, Non fuit in animo; et, Elapsum est animo; ipsam memoriam vocantes animum: cum ergo ita sit, quid est hoc quod cum tristitiam meam praeteritam laetus memini, animus habet laetitiam, et memoria tristitiam; laetusque est animus ex eo quod in...

Nam quaero a vobis [Manichaeis omnino a carnibus abstinentibus], si quis existat – quod fieri potest – ita homo parcus et frugi ut, appetitum ventris et gutturis moderans, non epuletur bis per unum diem; et huic cenanti holuscula cum exiguo lardo apponantur, eodem lardo uncta atque condita, quantum comprimendae fami sat est; sitimque irriget propter diligentiam valetudinis, duabus aut tribus vini meracis potionibus, isque illi victus sit cotidianus: alius vero ex alia parte nihil gustans carnium, nihil vini, exquisitas et peregrinas fruges multis ferculis variatas et largo pipere aspersas nona hora libenter assumat, noctis etiam principio talia cenaturus; bibat autem mulsum, carenum passum, et nonnullorum pomorum expressos succos, vini speciem satis imitantes, atque id etiam suavitate vincentes; et bibat non quantum sitit, sed quantum libet; idque sibi exhibendum curet quotidie, talique victu deliciisque perfruatur, nulla necessitate, magna voluptate: quem tandem horum duorum, quod ad...