Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 688
Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius (North Africa), asks the presbyter Cyprian to deliver his letter to a woman named Italica in Rome. He asks him also to write to him, if Italica does not, about the views of those who claim that God is seen with the eyes of the body. Augustine, Letter 92A, AD 395/408.
Letter 92A
 
Domino merito sincerissimo et sancto fratri et conpresbytero Cypriano Augustinus in Domino salutem.
 
Benedictae filiae nostrae Italicae litteras misi, quas ad eam peto ipse perferre digneris [...].
Quid autem contra dicant, qui illud sentiunt, quod paucis refutare temptauimus, sanctitas tua mihi rescribere non grauetur, si forte illius uerecundiam piguerit istum ueluti conflictum quamuis ex aliena praesumptione suscipere, aut certe id efficiat caritas tua, ut illi, qui hoc sentiunt et ea passim spargere atque conculcare non desinunt, mihi rescribant ad ista, quae scripsi, ut cum eis deinceps agatur, quod de hac re agi oportere sancta prudentia tua peruidet mecum. [...]
Ago autem gratias dilectioni tuae, quod mihi ea, quae poposci, legenda misisti.
 
(ed. Goldbacher 1898: 444-445)
Letter 92A
 
To his rightly most sincere lord, holy brother, and fellow presbyter, Cyprian, Augustine sends greetings in the Lord.
 
I have written a letter to our blessed daughter, Italica, and I ask that you be so kind as to deliver it to her yourself. [...]
But let Your Holiness not hesitate to write me what those who hold that view, which we have tried to refute in a few words, say against my  position, if her modesty perhaps keeps her from taking up this sort of conflict, which stems from the pride of others. Or at least may Your Charity make those who hold this view and do not cease from spreading and teaching these ideas here and there write back to me in reply to what I have written. [...]
I thank Your Charity that you sent me to read those things I asked for.
 
(trans. R. Teske 2001: 375, slightly modified)
 

Discussion:

We know from another letter of Augustine (ep. 99.1) that Italica lived in Rome. We can presume that Cyprian was a presbyter from Hippo, but this is not certain.

Place of event:

Region
  • Latin North Africa
  • Rome
City
  • Hippo Regius
  • Rome

About the source:

Author: Augustine of Hippo
Title: Letters, Epistulae
Origin: Hippo Regius (Latin North Africa)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian
The letters of Augustine of Hippo cover a wide range of topics: Holy Scripture, dogma and liturgy, philosophy, religious practice and everyday life. They range from full-scale theological treatises to small notes asking someone for a favour. The preserved corpus includes 308 letters, 252 written by Augustine, 49 that others sent to him and seven exchanged between third parties. 29 letters have been discovered only in the 20th century and edited in 1981 by Johannes Divjak; they are distinguished by the asterisk (*) after their number.
The preserved letters of Augustine extend over the period from his stay at Cassiciacum in 386 to his death in Hippo in 430.
Edition:
A. Goldbacher ed., S. Augustini Hipponiensis Episcopi Epistulae, Pars 2, Ep. 31-123, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 34/2,  Prague-Vienna-Leipzig 1898.
Translation:
Saint Augustine, Letters 1-99, trans. R. Teske, New York 2001.

Categories:

Writing activity - Correspondence
Travel and change of residence
Ecclesiastical administration - Ecclesiastical envoy
Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
Relation with - Woman
Described by a title - Conpresbyter
Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER688, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=688