Two previously unknown sermons by St Augustine have been identified in a 12th-century manuscript preserved in Poland, giving scholars a rare new window into the mind of one of Christianity\u2019s greatest theologians more than 1,600 years after he preached them.<\/p>\n
The discovery was made in a 12th-century manuscript preserved at the diocesan library in Pelplin in northern Poland after nearly two years of research by scholars from Germany and Austria. The sermons, to be published in a critical edition by the end of 2026, address Saul\u2019s encounter with the Medium of Endor in the Book of Samuel.<\/p>\n
The manuscript had long been catalogued in the library\u2019s collection, but no one had studied it in depth before the recent collaboration with scholars from Germany and Austria, Fr Jan Walkusz, director of the diocesan library in Pelplin, told OSV News.<\/p>\n
\u2018Only the recent research by scholars from Bad Doberan, W\u00fcrzburg and Vienna showed that the manuscript contains two previously unknown sermons by the Bishop of Hippo,\u2019 the priest said.<\/p>\n
How the research started <\/p>\n
The story began with a phone call.<\/p>\n
\u2018In 2024 I was approached by Paul Nebauer from Bad Doberan … who had found a medieval manuscript with sermons attributed to Augustine in the diocesan library of Pelplin,\u2019 Christian Tornau, a Latin scholar and professor at Julius-Maximilians-Universit\u00e4t W\u00fcrzburg, told OSV News. \u2018He asked me for help with the identification and translation of the texts,\u2019 the professor said.<\/p>\n
Nebauer, a member of the Bad Doberan Monastery Association, has spent years tracing medieval manuscripts from the former Cistercian abbey. Its library was destroyed during the Thirty Years\u2019 War in the 17th century.<\/p>\n
During research visits to Pelplin in 2024 and 2025, Nebauer identified six manuscripts that clearly originated from Bad Doberan. One volume immediately drew his attention.<\/p>\n
\u2018At first, the brief table of contents offered little insight into the content,\u2019 Nebauer told OSV News. \u2018It was only the keywords Phytonissa and Resuscitatio Samuelis that drew my attention to the biblical story of the Witch [Medium] of Endor.\u2019<\/p>\n
In 1 Samuel, chapter 28, King Saul consults a medium, who summons the prophet Samuel before his final battle with the Philistines. The episode has long challenged Christian interpreters because it appears to show a medium exercising power over one of God\u2019s prophets.<\/p>\n
Nebauer \u2018found the text very unusual\u2014words like that from St Augustine?\u2019 he recalled. Recognising that the manuscript required expert analysis, he contacted Tornau. The 12th-century manuscript was copied at Bad Doberan, possibly from a now-lost manuscript at Amelungsborn Abbey.<\/p>\n
Two new sermons never before identified <\/p>\n
Fr Walkusz said the manuscript reached Pelplin through the Cistercian monks. When monks from Bad Doberan established a daughter abbey in Pelplin in the 13th century, \u2018it was customary for Cistercians to equip the new community with the necessary liturgical and theological books,\u2019 he told OSV News. \u2018That is how this volume containing St Augustine\u2019s sermons, together with other manuscripts from Bad Doberan, came to Pelplin.\u2019<\/p>\n
Of the six sermons preserved in the manuscript, four were already known to scholars, while two had never been identified.<\/p>\n
\u2018We were fascinated, of course, by the idea of having found new sermons of Augustine,\u2019 Tornau told OSV News, \u2018but soon turned sceptical because at some places the sermons did not seem to read like Augustine.\u2019 <\/p>\n
The team, joined by scholars Dorothea Weber and Clemens Weidmann of Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum\u2014Corpus of Latin Ecclesiastical Writings in English, or CSEL, in Vienna\u2014spent nearly two years transcribing and analysing the texts, including during a 2025 summer school with about 20 specialists.<\/p>\n
\u2018Our final verdict that they are indeed authentic is the result of continuous philological work over almost two years,\u2019 Tornau said. The scholars based their conclusion on liturgical, linguistic and theological evidence pointing consistently to St Augustine\u2019s authorship. <\/p>\n
Clemens Weidmann of CSEL, who also worked on the edition, said the manuscript\u2019s attribution to St Augustine was only the starting point. \u2018This alone, however, is not enough to prove Augustine\u2019s authorship because many inauthentic sermons are attributed in manuscripts to him falsely,\u2019 he told OSV News.<\/p>\n
\u2018As the preacher is thus indistinguishable from Augustine, we found it methodically safe to accept Augustine\u2019s authorship rather than to invent an anonymous \u201cpupil\u201d or \u201cfollower\u201d,\u2019 Tornau told OSV News. \u2018No disciple, no author of later times would have been so familiar with Augustine\u2019s style and thinking to compile an \u201cAugustinian sermon\u201d by putting together so many stylistic features found across his writings,\u2019 Weidmann told OSV News.<\/p>\n
Cultural and religious riches of the Pelplin collection <\/p>\n
Fr Walkusz said that the discovery also highlights the significance of the Pelplin collection itself. \u2018The discovery of these sermons proves beyond doubt that the carefully preserved collections in Pelplin conceal enormous cultural and religious riches, accessible to researchers from around the world,\u2019 he told OSV News.<\/p>\n
\u2018New discoveries of works from late antiquity are always a sensation,\u2019 Weber, a retired professor and longtime Augustine scholar with CSEL, told OSV News. The newly identified sermons also offer an unusually personal glimpse of St Augustine as a preacher, she emphasised.<\/p>\n
\u2018It is extremely fascinating to see how Augustine explained to the congregation why he did not have a chance to prepare for the Bible passage he was supposed to preach on,\u2019 Weber told OSV News. \u2018He initially tried to buy some time to organise his thoughts, and yet, despite improvising, he achieved his typical stylistic brilliance and a clear structure in his complex argumentation,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n
The sermons focus on one of the most debated episodes in the Old Testament. According to Tornau, ancient Christian interpreters generally proposed two explanations for Saul\u2019s encounter with Samuel. Either God permitted the prophet to appear despite the medium\u2019s actions, or Saul was deceived by an evil spirit impersonating Samuel. Rather than insisting that only one interpretation is correct, St Augustine carefully considers both.<\/p>\n
What St Augustine discusses in the sermons <\/p>\n
\u2018In the new sermons, Augustine discusses both options with pros and cons and concludes that they are both acceptable because neither is against Christian faith,\u2019 Tornau told OSV News. \u2018This openness for divergent interpretations of Scripture is characteristic of Augustine in general.\u2019<\/p>\n
Weber said that approach distinguishes St Augustine from many other early Christian writers.<\/p>\n
\u2018Augustine aims not at prescribing a single \u201ccorrect\u201d interpretation, but rather at exploring the range of possible interpretations that remain within the framework of the doctrine of the Church,\u2019 she said. \u2018There are not many of Augustine\u2019s sermons that take such a systematic approach to an exegetical problem and thus demand a high level of intellectual engagement from the audience.\u2019<\/p>\n
Nebauer believes that openness is precisely what makes the newly discovered sermons relevant today. \u2018The subject of the \u201cWitch of Endor\u201d poses a challenge for belief in God,\u2019 he told OSV News. \u2018However, St Augustine resolves the issue very elegantly. He presents several possible interpretations, refrains from making a final judgment, and allows his listeners to draw their own conclusions.\u2019<\/p>\n
The researchers say the most surprising theological insight appears near the end of the newly identified texts. \u2018The most remarkable element of the new sermons is the idea that Saul after hearing Samuel\u2019s prophecy may have repented and been redeemed,\u2019 Tornau told OSV News. <\/p>\n
\u2018It is indicative of Augustine\u2019s independence of mind and his willingness to think of everyone, even those who appear most evil, as capable of salvation through the grace of God,\u2019 Tornau told OSV News. \u2018This combines intellectual honesty and episcopal humility in a remarkable and very Augustinian way.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two previously unknown sermons by St Augustine have been identified in a 12th-century manuscript preserved in Poland, giving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6866,6864,6865,6310,6868,6869,260,6867,6870,68],"class_list":["post-65441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-archbishop","tag-archdiocese","tag-catholic","tag-child-safety","tag-community","tag-jesus","tag-melbourne","tag-parish","tag-sacraments","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}