Extract

ARTICLE 3141

De cura pro mortuis gerenda

In Retractationes, Augustine places De cura pro mortuis gerenda after Enchiridion.2 Paulinus provides the occasion for this work. Doubtless he had cultivated Augustine’s friendship over the years though no sign of it had appeared for some time.

Cynegus, a faithful young man, had been baptized and later died.3 His mother asked and obtained burial in the church of St. Felix. Flora, an African widow, had lost her son who apparently had lived near Nola. She requested he be interred in a church dedicated to a saint. Paulinus wrote to console her and apparently granted her wish. He mentioned Cynegus. Paulinus himself had previously interred his own son in Spain near martyrs.4 Chapels for prayers and burial of the dead existed in the church of St. Felix.5 The young man had earlier been baptized there. Ambrose had a similar devotion.

Paulinus wrote Flora and used the occasion to write Augustine.6 He asks Augustine’s opinion of burial in a church dedicated to a saint. Paulinus apparently thinks such burial useful since several good people had requested it. The customary prayers offered for the dead confirmed him in this belief. On the other hand, these practices are difficult to accord with Paul assuring us that each person will receive recompense for what he had done in this life.7 The modest doubt of an illustrious and prudent bishop differs greatly from a rash condemnation of prayers for the dead...