1The opening of Ausonius’s morning prayer: God known only to the devout mind, and the Son, the Word through whom all was made, who suffered and opened the way back to eternal life.
24Ausonius prays, through the Son, for a mind proof against the serpent and for the way to heaven taken by Elijah and Enoch.
44Ausonius confesses faith in the Father, the Only-begotten and the Spirit, renounces pagan worship and divination, and asks for a blameless, modest life.
67The close of the morning prayer: Ausonius asks for health, peace and a calm death, and commends his prayer to Christ, true God from true God, light from light.
authentic · Authentic; the Christian prayer within a secular poem.
Standing
Not honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by the Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant traditions. Writer in the church of his time, not venerated by any of the three traditions.
Date
ca. 360-390 (approximate) · Part of the Ephemeris, a poem on the poet's day.
Written at
Bordeaux, Gaul (probable)
Language
Latin
Genre
poem
Reference system
line ranges (Migne, PL 19); each ref is the first line of a passage of about 20 lines. Only the Oratio (Ephemeris 3, 85 lines) is staged; the rest of the Ephemeris is secular.
SBL abbreviation
Eph. 3Not yet checked
Clavis
CPL 1427 (not yet checked)
Text from
J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, series Latina, vol. 19 (Paris), cols. 839-841 (Printed edition in the public domain; digital text CC BY-SA 4.0)
Critical editions
Decimus Magnus Ausonius, Opera, ed. Rudolf Peiper (Leipzig: Teubner, 1886); Ausonius, Opuscula, ed. Karl Schenkl, MGH Auctores antiquissimi 5.2 (Berlin, 1883) (cited, not reproduced)