Presbyters Uniwersytet Warszawski
ID
ER 723
Catholic presbyters sent to convert the Donatist population of Fussala (North Africa) are badly mistreated and some of them even killed, but they eventually succeed. Augustine, Letter 209, AD 422/423 .
Letter 209
 
2. [...] Ceteras plebes illic in magna multitudine hominum constitutas Donatistarum error miserabiliter obtinebat ita, ut in eodem castello nullus esset omnino catholicus. Actum est in Dei misericordia, ut omnia ipsa loca unitati ecclesiae cohaererent; per quantos labores et pericula nostra, longum est explicare, ita ut ibi presbyteri, qui eis congregandis a nobis primitus constituti sunt, expoliarentur, caederentur, debilitarentur, excaecarentur, occiderentur. Quorum tamen passiones inutiles ac steriles non fuerunt unitatis illic securitate perfecta. [...]
 
(ed. Goldbacher 1911: 348-349)
Letter 209
 
2.  [...] The country had few Catholics; the error of the Donatists held in wretched captivity the remaining people there, who were very great in number, so that in the same townlet there was no Catholic at all. It came about through the mercy of God that all these places were brought to the unity of the Church. It would take a long time to explain the many labors and perils of ours by which this was accomplished. The presbyters who were first sent there by us to bring back the people were robbed, beaten, injured, blinded, and killed. Yet their sufferings were not useless and without fruit since unity was securely attained. [...]
 
(trans. R. Teske 2004: 393-394, slightly altered)
 

Discussion:

Letter 209 was sent by Augustine to Pope Celestine I to explain the case of Bishop Antoninus of Fussala (see [399]). Augustine presented the background of the case: Fussala (in the diocese of Hippo, but distant from it) was an entirely Donatist place, and the first missionary efforts of the Catholics (presumably after the Edict of Union in 405) were unsuccessful. It is interesting to see that the presbyters are specifically mentioned as carrying out such missionary activity. We cannot be sure about the real extent of the price that the presbyters paid; Augustine had talked in detail about mistreatment of the Catholic clerics by Donatists before ([463], [464], [550], [565], [715]), but he never mentioned Fussala as the place of such situations.

Place of event:

Region
  • Latin North Africa
  • East
City
  • Hippo Regius
  • Fussala
  • Bethlehem

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 4, Ep. 185-270, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 57, Vienna-Leipzig 1911.
Translation:
Saint Augustine, Letters 156-210, trans. R. Teske, New York 2004.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος
    Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior
      Relation with - Heretic/Schismatic
        Conflict - Violence
          Pastoral activity - Missionary work
            Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER723, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=723