St. Augustine. Sermon “On the Creed to the Catechumens”

Abstract

The present paper is the first Russian translation of Augustine’s sermon “On the Creed to the Catechumens”. The sermon comments on the Creed and was delivered on the occasion of so-called “traditio symboli”. It was a rite of Early Church during which baptism candidates (“competentes”) heard first the exact text of the Creed, which was kept in secret and never written down in those times. The “competentes” were to memorize the Creed with the assistance of their godparents and to “give it back” before their baptism, which means to recite it by heart in the presence of the congregation of the faithful. Bishops used this rite as an occasion for commenting each article of the Creed. The sermon contains a lot of references and hints at the details of Augustine’s catechetical practice, which fact makes it an important source on the history of catechesis. The present translation is based on the critical edition by R. Vander Plaetse (CCSL 46. Turnhout, 1969). The translation is annotated and prefaced by the translator in order to provide the readers with information necessary to understand the sermon.

Keywords

• patristic studies
• history of catechesis
• augustine’s catechumenate
• translation
• creed
• the rites of “handing-over” and “handing-back” of the creed
• traditio et redditio symboli