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LSU Master's Theses

2007

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Reclaiming Martyrdom: Augustine's Reconstruction Of Martyrdom In Late Antique North Africa, Collin S. Garbarino Jan 2007

Reclaiming Martyrdom: Augustine's Reconstruction Of Martyrdom In Late Antique North Africa, Collin S. Garbarino

LSU Master's Theses

The cult of martyrs existed throughout the Mediterranean world in late antiquity, but local communities venerated the martyrs in their own ways and for their own reasons. During the fourth and fifth centuries, two factions of Christianity existed in North Africa. Catholicism and Donatism competed for the souls of North African Christians, and this competition influenced the development of the cult of martyrs in that region. The sermons on the martyrs by Augustine of Hippo (354-430) illuminate the milieu of North African Christianity's cult of martyrs and demonstrate that Augustine viewed "possessing" the martyrs as a key component in overcoming …