Thursday, June 26
Prayers to Martyrs?
something else I noted at the end of Book 8, section 27.
Augustine states that sacrifices are offered at the tombs of martyrs not for the martyr but for God, as "honuors rendered to their memory." This is interesting because I remember Dwight bringing up prayers to saints and what Augustine would think of those. Well, this at least suggests to me that saints would not be prayed to unless it were to invoke God to aid us as He aided that saint, but the prayers not going to the saint him/herself... what do you think? Augustine seems to stress the memory, remembrance of the saints/martyrs, nothing more. Of course, Augustine only specifes "sacrifices"- "we do not ordain priests and offer sacrifices to our martyrs as they do to their dead men, for that would be incongruous, undue, and unlawful, such being due only to God..." I wonder if prayers would be in the same vein as sacrifices or acceptable if they are something completely different. Prayers however are more than honour and remembrance, these two things being what Augustine seems to 'approve' of here.
