Letter 258. To Marcian

In Letter 258 (5 chapters) to Blessed Marcian. Aurelius Augustine expresses his position on the issue of friendship: the community of Christian faith makes friendship between people true. Definition of friendship Augustine connects it with the Gospel commandments about love for God and neighbor: “agreement in divine and human affairs with mutual benevolence and love.” From the translator: The letter of Blessed Augustine to Marcian (Ep. 258) belongs to the type of messages that are of interest not as a historical source, but as evidence of the development of Augustine’s views on any issue, in this case, the issue of friendship. There is already a lot of research on this topic; the most important of them are given in the bibliographies under the articles “Amicitia” (I. Hadot) and “Caritas” (D. Dideberg) in Augustinus-Lexicon (Augustinus-Lexicon. V. I. Basel. 1986–1994. Sp. 293, 741–3), including special studies on the theme of friendship in the letters of St. Augustine and on the influence of Augustine’s writings Cicero. These bibliographies can be supplemented with a meaningful article by L. F. Pizzolato on the interaction and interpenetration of friendship and Christian love in St. Augustine (Pizzolato L. F. Interazione e compenetrazione di amicizia e carita in sant'Agostino // Forma Futuri. Studi in onore del cardinale Michele Pellegrino. Torino, 1975. P. 856–867). All that is known about Marcian is what is contained in this letter. The letter is undated. The main idea of ​​the letter: only the commonality of the Christian faith makes friendship between people true. Blessed Augustine’s reasoning is strictly logical and is based on Cicero’s definition of friendship, which at the end of the letter is unexpectedly connected with two Gospel commandments (about love of God and neighbor): according to Cicero’s definition, friendship is based on agreement in matters divine and human, and the two main Gospel commandments precisely require love for God and neighbor. The ability to make such comparisons largely explains the originality and persuasiveness of St. Augustine’s argumentation in his exegetical sermons, where, on the basis of subtly noticed structural similarities, he compares both statements and images. Noteworthy is the reference to Virgil’s fourth eclogue, which St. Augustine perceives in the general mainstream of early Christian thought as a messianic prophecy (more precisely, not the eclogue itself, but the prophecy of the Sibyl). Augustine greets the venerable sir, much beloved and desired brother Marcianus in Christ in the Lord. 1. I tore away, or rather kidnapped and, as it were, even stole myself from my many activities in order to write to you, my oldest friend, who, however, became my friend only when I found you in Christ. You, of course, know how “the glorious creator of the Roman Tullius” defined friendship (as someone called him 1). He said, and he said it extremely correctly: “Friendship is agreement in human and Divine affairs with mutual benevolence and love” 2. You, my dearest, agreed with me in human affairs in the old days, when I sought to enjoy them as is characteristic of the low crowd, and with your approval you set my sails to achieve what I am now ashamed of, and even in the first ranks of my then admirers you inflated the sails of my lusts with the wind of praise. Moreover, in terms of Divine affairs, in which the truth had not yet dawned on me, that is, from the side of a much more important part of its definition, our friendship was lame: only in human, but not in Divine affairs, did we have agreement with mutual benevolence and love. 2. And after I fell behind those passions, you, firm in your benevolence, wished me to be healthy in mortal health and happy with that earthly well-being to which the world usually strives. Thus, even then you maintained a benevolent and friendly agreement with me. Therefore, in what words can I explain to you my joy now that the one who has been my friend for a long time has become my true friend! For now there has been increased agreement in Divine affairs, because you, who spent a temporary life with me in the most pleasant favor, have joined me in the hope of eternal life. Now in human affairs there is no disagreement between us, since we evaluate them according to our knowledge of Divine affairs, so as not to devote more to human affairs than a fair measure requires, and so as not to offend their Creator, the Lord of all things heavenly and earthly, by unjust neglect of them. This is precisely why it turns out that if there is no agreement between friends in Divine matters, there cannot be complete and true agreement between them in human affairs either: he who despises the Divine inevitably evaluates the human differently than it should, and he who does not love the Creator of man has not learned to love man correctly. Therefore, I do not say: “You are now a complete friend to me, but then you were only partly,” - as reasoning shows, and partly you were not my friend then, when you did not have true agreement with me even in human affairs. Indeed, you were not my ally in Divine affairs, according to which human beings are judged, neither when I myself was far from them, nor when I had already developed some kind of taste for them, and you still had a strong aversion to them. 3. However, I don’t want you to be angry with me and for it to seem absurd to you that at a time when I was inflamed with desire for the vanity of this world, although you seemed to love me very much, you were not my friend: I was not my own friend, but rather an enemy. I loved untruth then, and the Holy Scripture truly (for it is inspired by God) says: “He who loves untruth hates his own soul” 3 . And since I hated my soul, how could someone who wished for me what I suffered from myself, as from an enemy, be a true friend to me? When the love of mankind and the grace of our Savior shone in me not according to my merits, but according to His mercy, 4 could you be my friend if you completely did not know the source of the bliss I expected and did not love me in that in which I became at least a little friend to myself. 4. Therefore, thanks be to God that He deigned to finally make you my friend: now between us there is “agreement in matters Divine and human with mutual benevolence and love” in Christ Jesus our Lord, our truest Peace. He concluded all Divine preachings in two commandments when he said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” and again: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; All the law and the prophets are based on these two commandments.”5 In the first of them there is agreement with goodwill and love in Divine affairs, in the second - in human affairs. If you and I stubbornly adhere to both, our friendship will be true and eternal and will unite us not only with each other, but also with the Lord Himself. 5. And in order for this to be fulfilled, I urge your honor and prudence to now also accept the sacraments of the faithful: this is appropriate for your age 6 and, I am sure, in accordance with your morals. Remember how you admonished me with a verse from Terence, albeit comedic, but very apt and appropriate: “The day brings a different life, demands different morals” 7. If you said these words sincerely (and I have no reason to doubt your veracity), then, of course, you lead your life in such a way that you are worthy to accept the remission of past sins in saving baptism. For only to the Lord Jesus Christ can the human race say: “To your kingdom, if a trace of our crimes remains, they will lose their power and deliver the lands from fear” 8 . According to Virgil, he borrowed these words from the Cumaean Broadcast 9, that is, from the Sibyl; for perhaps this prophetess also heard in the spirit something about the only Savior, which she had to announce. This is what I, you never know, was able to write to you in my busyness, venerable sir, much-beloved and desired brother in Christ. I am eagerly awaiting your response and am now eager to hear that you have added your name to the list of applicants for baptism or are planning to add it. May the Lord God, in whom you have believed, protect you here and in the next century, venerable sir and much-beloved and desired brother in Christ. Lucan. Pharsalia, 7, 62–63. Per. L.E. Ostroumova. Cicero. On friendship (Laelius), 4, 20. Ps. 10 (Augustine quotes from an Old Latin translation made from the Greek text of the Septuagint). As is known, in the time of St. Augustine, baptism in infancy was not a universally accepted rule in the Empire, and it was often postponed until adulthood. Terence. Girl from Andros, Art. 189. Virgil. Bucolics, 4, 13–14. At the beginning of verse 13, in Latin, te duce means “under your leadership.” You might be interested in: