On Care to Be Had for the Dead.

 1. Long time, my venerable fellow-bishop Paulinus, have I been thy Holiness’s debtor for an answer even since thou wrotest to me by them of the house

 2. But this being the case, how to this opinion that should not be contrary which the Apostle says, “For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat o

 3. Possibly thy inquiry is satisfied by this my brief reply. But what other considerations move me, to which I think meet to answer, do thou for a sho

 4. “But” (say I) “in such a slaughter-heap of dead bodies, could they not even be buried? not this, either, doth pious faith too greatly dread, holdin

 5. Yet it follows not that the bodies of the departed are to be despised and flung aside, and above all of just and faithful men, which bodies as orga

 6. If this be true, doubtless also the providing for the interment of bodies a place at the Memorials of Saints, is a mark of a good human affection t

 7. When therefore the faithful mother of a faithful son departed desired to have his body deposited in the basilica of a Martyr, forasmuch as she beli

 8. We read in the Ecclesiastical History which Eusebius wrote in Greek, and Ruffinus turned into the Latin tongue, of Martyr’s bodies in Gaul exposed

 9. And yet, by reason of that affection of the human heart, whereby “no man ever hateth his own flesh,” if men have reason to know that after their de

 10. This affection the Martyrs of Christ contending for the truth did overcome: and it is no marvel that they despised that whereof they should, when

 11. In regard to that woful compassion which I have mentioned, are those praised, and by king David blessed, who to the dry bones of Saul and Jonathan

 12. Stories are told of certain appearances or visions, which may seem to bring into this discussion a question which should not be slighted. It is sa

 13. Such, however, is human infirmity, that when in a dream a person shall see a dead man, he thinks it is the soul that he sees: but when he shall in

 14. Like dreams, moreover, are also some visions of persons awake, who have had their senses troubled, such as phrenetic persons, or those who are mad

 15. Similar to this is also that condition when persons, with their senses more profoundedly in abeyance than is the case in sleep, are occupied with

 16. Why should we not believe these to be angelic operations through dispensation of the providence of God, Who maketh good use of both good things an

 17. Some man may say: “If there be not in the dead any care for the living, how is it that the rich man, who was tormented in hell, asked father Abrah

 18. So then we must confess that the dead indeed do not know what is doing here, but while it is in doing here: afterwards, however, they hear it from

 19. Hence too is solved that question, how is it that the Martyrs, by the very benefits which are given to them that pray, indicate that they take an

 20. Howbeit it is a question which surpasses the strength of my understanding, after what manner the Martyrs aid them who by them, it is certain, are

 21. Such, we may believe, was that John the Monk, whom the elder Theodosius, the Emperor, consulted concerning the issue of the civil war: seeing he h

 22. Which things being so, let us not think that to the dead for whom we have a care, any thing reaches save what by sacrifices either of the altar, o

 23. Here, to the things thou hast thought meet to inquire of me, thou hast such reply as I have been able to render: which if it be more than enough p

19. Hence too is solved that question, how is it that the Martyrs, by the very benefits which are given to them that pray, indicate that they take an interest in the affairs of men, if the dead know not what the quick are doing. For not only by effects of benefits, but in the very beholding of men, it is certain,53    Inquilinatum that the Confessor Felix (whose denizenship among you thou piously lovest) appeared when the barbarians were attacking Nola, as we have heard not by uncertain rumors, but by sure witnesses. But such things are of God exhibited, far otherwise than as the usual order hath itself, unto each kind of creatures apportioned. For it does not follow because water was, when it pleased the Lord, in a moment changed into wine, that we are not to regard the worth and efficacy of water in the proper order of the elements, as distinct from the rarity, or rather singularity, of that divine work: nor because Lazarus rose again, therefore that every dead man rises when he will; or that a lifeless man is raised up by a living, in the same way as a sleeping man by one who is awake. Other be the limits of human things, other the signs of divine virtues: other they be that are naturally, other that be miraculously done: albeit both unto nature God is present that it may be, and unto miracles nature is not lacking. We are not to think then, that to be interested in the affairs of the living is in the power of any departed who please, only because to some men’s healing or help the Martyrs be present: but rather we are to understand that it must needs be by a Divine power that the Martyrs are interested in affairs of the living, from the very fact that for the departed to be by their proper nature interested in affairs of the living is impossible.

CAPUT XVI.

19. Martyres adesse nonnullis adjuvandis. Quomodo martyres adsint periclitantibus, negat se posse definire. Hinc et illa solvitur quaestio, quomodo martyres ipsis beneficiis quae dantur orantibus, indicant se interesse rebus humanis, si nesciunt mortui quid agant vivi. Non enim solis beneficiorum effectibus, verum etiam ipsis hominum aspectibus confessorem apparuisse Felicem, cujus inquilinatum pie diligis , cum a Barbaris Nola oppugnaretur, audivimus, non incertis rumoribus, sed testibus certis. Verum ista divinitus exhibentur, longe aliter quam sese habet usitatus ordo singulis creaturarum generibus attributus. Non enim quia in vinum aqua, cum voluit Dominus, repente conversa est (Joan. II, 9), ideo non debemus, quid aqua valeat in elementorum ordine proprio, ab istius divini operis raritate vel potius singularitate discernere: nec quoniam Lazarus resurrexit (Id. XI, 44), ideo mortuus omnis quando vult surgit, aut eo modo exanimis a vivente, quomodo a vigilante dormiens excitatur. Alii sunt humanarum limites rerum, alia divinarum signa virtutum; alia sunt 0607 quae naturaliter, alia quae mirabiliter fiunt: quamvis et naturae Deus adsit ut sit, et miraculis natura non desit. Non igitur ideo putandum est vivorum rebus quoslibet interesse posse defunctos, quoniam quibusdam sanandis vel adjuvandis martyres adsunt: sed ideo potius intelligendum est quod per divinam potentiam martyres vivorum rebus intersunt, quoniam defuncti per naturam propriam vivorum rebus interesse non possunt.