AN APPENDIX TO THE EPITAPHS, ETC., OF THE CATACOMBS
The wish to be buried in the immediate vicinity of a saint or confessor, though perhaps especially marked in the subterranean cemeteries of Rome, was not peculiar to the Christians of the very early centuries. Many other instances could be quoted, from the days of the old prophet of Bethel who wished his bones to lie beside the bones of the man of God who came out of Judah (1 Kings xiii. 31) down to King John, who is said to have requested that he might be interred at Worcester directly between the bodies of SS. Oswald and Wulfstan.
S. Augustine’s De curâ pro mortuis gerendâ is a peculiarly interesting treatise. The great bishop discusses at some length this question, and his words throw considerable sidelight upon the growing practice of the invocation of saints.
The treatise, written about A.D. 421, was a reply to a question addressed to him by S. Paulinus of Nola, a very saintly and devoted man, but at the same time, in common with not a few holy men of his time, superstitious and often sadly mistaken in his exaggerated devotion to the noble army of martyrs who had played so well the part of pioneers in the recent days of bitter persecution.
S. Paulinus had been asked by a certain widow to allow her son to be buried in the church of the martyr S. Felix at Nola. He said he had granted her prayer, believing that this longing desire of faithful souls that their dear ones should be laid close to the remains of a saint was based not merely on an illusion but on some real need of the soul. But S. Paulinus evidently was uncertain here, so he asks the great teacher Augustine—Did it really help one who was dead to be buried near a saint?
S. Augustine’s reply on the whole was cautious: he remarked that if a man had lived righteously, to be buried close to a saint could not possibly be of any use to his soul; again, if his life had been evil, it would be equally useless.
Everything connected with the burial of the dead, Augustine concluded, has really more connexion with the survivors than with the dead. He explains this connexion thus: “When we think of the spot where our dear one lies, and that spot is in the immediate neighbourhood of the grave of a saint, we think at once of the saint in question, and we ask for his or her prayers for our dear dead one.” But if such prayers be not asked for, Augustine sees no advantage in such a neighbourhood. (Adjuvat defuncti spiritum, non mortui corporis locus, sed ex loci memoria vivus affectus.)
The famous North African theologian then proceeds to discuss the question: “How do martyrs help men?” He says: that they do help them is certain; then, are these saints, through the virtue of the power they possess, present in many places, or are they always dwelling in the home allotted to them—far away from mortal dwellings, but at the same time praying for those who ask for their intercession? And he adds that, God hearing their prayers, through the ministry of angels, grants at His good pleasure to those who have sought the prayers of the saints, the consolations these saints ask for them.
This seems to be the substance of S. Augustine’s reply to S. Paulinus of Nola, but he carefully guards his words by adding: “All this,” namely, the extent of the power of saints who are dead, “is too lofty a question for me to answer positively. It is too obscure.”
“I should like to ask the question of those who really know, for possibly there is some one who possesses this knowledge,” curiously added the great thinker and loving theologian.