Monday, April 8, 2024

An Example of Augustine's High Ecclesiology in His Acceptance of 2 Maccabees

  

When we read in the book of Maccabees that sacrifice was offered for the dead. But even if it were found nowhere in the Old Testament writings, the authority of the universal Church which is clear on this point is of no small weight, where in the prayers of the priest poured forth to the Lord God at His alar the commendation of the dead has its place. (Augustine, The Care That Should Be Taken of the Dead 1.3, A.D. 421, The Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens; Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1979], 3:154)

 

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