The Life of Augustine of Hippo
Part Three: The Pelagian Crisis (411–430)
Edited By Frederick Van Fleteren
Note 53: De ciuitate dei (2)
Extract
NOTE 531
De ciuitate dei (2)
In De ciuitate dei XVIII,53 Augustine writes it was nearly thirty years since Manlius Theodorus was consul (399). Apparently then he had written this book in 428 and as a result he had finished De ciuitate dei XXII in 429 or 430 at very the end of his life. However, in Retractationes II,43, written apparently in 428, he supposes that De ciuitate dei had already been completed. Augustine cites De ciuitate dei XXII,26 in Retractationes I,26, written at the latest in 427, and in Retractationes II,41 he cites De cuitate dei II,29.
In addition, in De ciuitate dei XXII,8 he writes it is not quite two years since the relics of St. Stephen had arrived in Hippo. He reports the famous healing of Paul and Palladia on Easter Sunday in front of the relics at the shrine of St. Stephen. Paul had a vision three months earlier on January 1. (Clearly it is necessary to read kalendarum januariarum die, and not juniarum.) In this vision he was promised a cure for his condition in the third month, intra tertium mensem. Thus Easter should be dated in March of that year. This dating occurred in 430 when Easter fell on March 30. However, it is difficult to date this miracle in 430 in the middle of the Vandal siege. Without doubt Augustine would have spoken of this miracle in detail in De...
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