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RESURRECTION MIRACLES PUBLICIZED BY ST. AUGUSTINE

       "Accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead."

—Hebrews 11:19

Anyone who reads the writings of St. Augustine can see that the great miracles of the primitive Church continued. Given Augustine's lifespan, 354-430, it becomes evident that miracles were still being performed in the fifth century.

St. Augustine was one of the greatest men of all time. If we cannot accept his testimony, both reason and history are meaningless. After spending his youth and early manhood in wayward living and in philosophical studies, searching for truth, St. Augustine was converted (through the prayers of his mother, St. Monica, and the preaching of St. Ambrose), gave up his concubine, and became perhaps the greatest and most brilliant theologian in the history of the Church—as well as a great saint.

Bishop of Hippo (not far from ancient Carthage, in northern Africa) for 35 years, Augustine was also an orator, rhetorician, teacher, philosopher, apologist, spiritual leader, psychologist of the soul, guide, and writer of over a hundred books. He led the fight against three major heresies: Manichaeism, Donatism, and Pelagianism, and he is one of the four great founders of religious orders. St. Augustine's influence over the currents of history has lasted well beyond his own time, and his integrity and his ability are beyond question.

In what is perhaps Augustine's greatest work, De Civitate Dei, (The City of God), amid other displays of his vast knowledge and competence, Augustine speaks of miracles. He considers the complaint that has been voiced in every age: How is it that today we do not have the miracles that were seen in the early days of the Church? (There is nothing new under the sun!) Augustine replies:

       "The truth is that even today miracles are being wrought in the Name of Christ, sometimes through His Sacraments and sometimes through the intercession of the relics of His saints. Only, such miracles do not strike the imagination with the same flashing brilliance as the earlier miracles, and so they do not get the same flashing publicity as the others did."

Augustine points out how the miracle accounts of the canon of the Gospels (the genuine Scripture Gospels) were heard regularly by all, and that they carried the full authority of the Church. But there were many other miracles scarcely known about except by a few, even in the big cities; these were seldom backed by ecclesiastical authority.

Similarly, it is very likely that there are many miracles occurring today, as they have throughout Christian history, which receive little attention from ecclesiastical authority, that is, from the bishops and priests in positions of leadership.

True, these miracles, in and of themselves, are not objects of divine faith, and one has no specific duty to promulgate individual miracles as if they were. But Bishop and writer Augustine knew that one function of miracles was to strengthen the faith of the people by endorsing the authenticity of the Catholic Faith, echoing those well-known wonders of Our Lord and His Apostles.

Moreover, Augustine saw a subtler, deeper, hidden attack in the words of those who attempted to deny the miracles taking place in his own time: "It is sometimes objected that the miracles which Christians claim, no longer happen . . . However the malice of the objection is in the insinuation that not even the earlier miracles ought to be believed."

If only Augustine were alive today to confront some of the so-called Catholic Scripture scholars and exegetes who insinuate or declare that even biblical miracles should not be treated as objective occurrences! St. Augustine would be a master trial lawyer today, questioning such "scholars" and confounding them with his irrefutable logic. Such were the gifts of reasoning and rhetoric that helped him to overcome so many heretical opponents.

Augustine was right: There have been miracles in every age (in addition to those of the Old Testament period), from the water Christ turned into wine and the daughter of Jairus brought back to life, to the latest twentieth-century saints such as Pope St. Pius X healing the sick, Padre Pio restoring sight to the blind, or the miracle of the sun at Fatima. St. Augustine himself relates, among a number of other miracles, four accounts of the dead being raised. (Cardinal Newman credits him with accounts of five.)

In Chapter 8 of Book XXII of The City of God, Augustine speaks of a relic of the martyr St. Stephen. A Spanish priest, Eucharius, who was stationed in Calama, was cured of "stone" when Bishop Possidius applied to him the relic of St. Stephen. Later the same priest was near death from another sickness—he was so far gone that they had already bound his hands. They took the priest's tunic to the shrine and touched it to the relic of St. Stephen. When they returned to the apparently dead body of Eucharius, they placed the garment on him, and he was restored to life.

Near Audurus, at an estate called Villa Caspaliana, a consecrated virgin became sick and was on the brink of death. Her parents took her habit and set out for the shrine of St. Stephen in Audurus to touch it to his relic. In the meantime, the nun died. When the parents returned, they clothed the corpse with the habit; the moment they did this, their daughter came back to life.

There was a Syrian named Bassus who lived in Hippo (the see city of St. Augustine). He had a daughter in danger of death, and he took her robe to touch the relic of St. Stephen. He was still praying there at the shrine when his servants came to tell him that his daughter was dead (reminiscent of the daughter of Jairus). However, the friends who were with Bassus saw the servants first, and forbade them to tell their master the bad news lest he break down in public. When they got back home, Bassus found the house loud with the wailing of mourners. He threw the girl's robe on the corpse. Her life was restored.

Also in Hippo, the son of a certain tax collector named Irenaeus died; he was one of St. Augustine's neighbors. The corpse had been laid out and the funeral arranged. A friend attending the funeral suggested that the boy's body be anointed with oil from the shrine of St. Stephen. The family followed his suggestion, and the boy came back to life.

After relating a good number of miracles of various sorts, Augustine goes on to say: "How can I tell all the miracles I know . . . I know that many of my fellow Catholics will complain that I have left out any number of miracles which they happen to know as well as I do." So, limiting himself as to the narration of such miracles for lack of time and space, Augustine observes: "I should have to fill several volumes [of miracles]. . . officially recorded and attested for public reading in our churches." (Emphasis added). And Augustine was limiting himself to those miracles at St. Stephen's shrine, and at Calama and his own Hippo.

Note here several important facts. In one see city and two nearby places alone, a great scholar and discerning saint, Bishop and Father of the Church, relates a number of miracles as "official" and tells of many others that are simply known to all. Nor does he, apparently, claim credit for working any of them, or admit directly to any of his own. He assumes that everyone is aware of these miracles, almost as common occurrences—even the raising of the dead.

Yet there were many bishops in Africa at that time. And there were many other great sees—Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Ephesus, Jerusalem, Edessa, Florence, Milan, Lyons, Tours, and on and on. Then there were the great desert areas and wildernesses of the hermits and monks. One needs little imagination to guess at the great number of miracles worked not only in those days, but also in later days, including the raising of the dead. These miracles were not "legends," "myths," or mere poetical expressions of certain truths or beliefs.

After the example of other prelates, St. Augustine began to record the miracles at Hippo. He states that within just two years he recorded nearly 70 miracles and that he knew for certain of many others not officially recorded at the time of his writings. Moreover, he said that at Calama, where recording had begun earlier and miracles were more frequent, the number of attested cases there was "incomparably greater."

Augustine did what other bishops might do well to imitate today. He publicized in his own church the miracles of which he was aware. And, when possible, he had the beneficiaries present as proof. The twentieth-century faithful, too, are entitled to hear of such examined and attested miracles. And there are still miracles today, although perhaps not in the same great numbers as in "the ages of faith." When people do not hear of miracles—whether of the past or the present— they are not encouraged to pray for them. Those priests who "hide," dodge or scoff at such miracles may have much to answer for.

In answer to those who doubt the miracles attested to by Ambrose or Augustine, or other truly great men, Cardinal Newman stated well, decades before he became a Catholic, that there "will appear no reason, except to vexed and heated minds, for accusing the holy Ambrose of imposture, or the keen, practiced, and experienced intellect of Augustine of abject credulity."