Two previously unpublished sermons by St. Augustine Discovered in Germany
More than sixteen centuries after his death, St. Augustine of Hippo’s name is again in the spotlight as two previously unknown sermons have been identified in a twelfth‑century manuscript kept in Poland. The discovery was announced by the University of Würzburg and was made by Latin scholar Professor Christian Tornau, who is collaborating with the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum to produce a critical edition. The manuscripts offer fresh insight into Augustine’s theology and into a biblical passage that has long challenged interpreters. The critical edition is expected to be published before the end of 2026.
3 months ago
St. Augustine’s literary legacy has expanded with the identification of two previously unknown sermons found in a twelfth‑century manuscript now housed in Poland, a discovery announced by the University of Würzburg and slated for publication before the end of 2026. 1
The manuscript, originally part of the Bad Doberan Monastery collection, was examined in 2024 at the Pelplin monastery in northern Poland. It contains six sermons attributed to Augustine, but close textual analysis revealed two that had never been recognized by scholars. 1
Latin scholar Professor Christian Tornau leads the project, working with the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL) to prepare a critical edition. He partnered with Clemens Weidmann and convened about twenty international patristic specialists in Vienna to verify authenticity. 1
Both homilies address the Old Testament episode of King Saul’s visit to the Witch of Endor (1 Samuel). The first sermon, delivered on a Sunday, presents several possible explanations for the event without committing to a single interpretation. The second, given the following Wednesday, revisits the topic, weighing competing views before moving the discussion forward. 1
Augustine uses the narrative to explore divine providence, questioning how believers should understand events that seem to challenge God’s sovereignty. His method invites listeners to engage in careful scriptural interpretation rather than accepting simple answers. 1
Given the history of spurious Augustine works, the team analyzed language, literary style, theological content, and rhetorical features. The consensus among the international experts was that the sermons are genuinely Augustinian. 1
The codex likely descends from an older copy once kept at Amelungsborn Abbey in Lower Saxony, though the Thirty Years’ War destroyed the original library, leaving the transmission history incomplete. 1
Authentic discoveries of Augustine’s writings are exceptionally rare; the last major find was a cache of thirty unknown texts uncovered in Mainz in 1990. Adding two sermons represents a notable contribution to Augustinian scholarship. 1
The find underscores the role of medieval monasteries as custodians of Christian intellectual heritage, preserving works that would otherwise have been lost before the printing press. 1
The critical edition of the sermons is expected before the close of 2026, offering scholars fresh material to examine Augustine’s pastoral approach and his handling of complex biblical questions—an approach that continues to resonate in contemporary theological discourse. 1
Investigate Augustine’s unpublished sermons for insights into his Christology
Augustine’s newly identified previously unpublished sermons are genuinely interesting for Christology, but the material provided here does not include the text of those specific unpublished sermons themselves. What it does contain are multiple Augustine writings—especially a sermon excerpt—where his Christology is stated in a form very close to what you’d expect to find in preaching. So the most faithful “investigation” possible from these sources is: what Christological emphases characterize Augustine’s preaching, and therefore what themes likely appear in the discovered sermons as well.
In a sermon on the New Testament, Augustine gives a compact “either/or” test for orthodoxy:
“Whoever denies that Christ is God is a Photinian; whoever denies that Christ is man is a Manichæan… Whoever confesses that Christ is God equal with the Father and very man… is a Catholic… Very Man, Very God; God and man whole Christ.”
This is a very sermonic way of doing Christology: not abstract metaphysics first, but pastoral boundaries—both divinity and humanity must be affirmed, and together in “the whole Christ.”
Elsewhere Augustine insists on the same pattern, but with more dogmatic precision:
Christ is “true God… born of God the Father without any beginning of time,” and also “very man… born of human mother in the certain fullness of time,” and “both of them are One Christ.”
This matters for interpreting sermons: Augustine’s Christology is incarnational and temporal (the birth “in the fullness of time”) while still anchoring everything in the eternal Son.
In addressing objections to the incarnation, Augustine frames the Incarnation using the “form” language:
So in Augustine’s theological imagination, the incarnation is addition to the Person (assumption of human nature) without collapse of what the Son is (divinity).
Augustine also uses a “voice of Christ” pattern in Scripture and ties it directly to Incarnation:
Christ speaks in prophecy “because He makes Himself one with us,” but this does not mean “one divinity.” “One flesh, because of our mortality He took flesh; not one divinity, for He is the Creator, we the creature.”
This is Christology with an ecclesial-pastoral aim: the believer is drawn into unity with the Word made flesh, while preserving the Creator/creature distinction.
Augustine’s Christological “likeness/unlikeness” comparisons strongly suggest that sermons could mirror this same technique:
Christ is unlike man because He is God… and also like man because He is man… “the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”
So Augustine’s Christology repeatedly works by controlled analogy: Christ is truly like us (real humanity) and truly unlike us (sinlessness and divinity).
In disputing over prophecy and typology, Augustine argues that Adam, marriage imagery, and other Old Testament “figures” point to Christ:
This matters for “unpublished sermons”: Augustine’s preaching frequently reads Scripture Christologically—Christ is the interpretive center.
Given Augustine’s consistent homiletic pattern in the sources above, the unpublished sermons—if authentic and genuinely Augustinian—would most plausibly include at least these Christological emphases:
The supplied sources contain Augustine’s Christological teaching from other works and sermons, but they do not provide the actual text of the “previously unpublished sermons” you’re asking about. Therefore, it isn’t possible—using only these materials—to:
Still, these sources do give a reliable window into the Christological “signature” Augustine used when he preached: very God and very man, one Christ, true incarnation without diminution of divinity, and Scripture read toward the Incarnation and redemption.