Martyrs' shrines and relics in the early church

Honour paid to martyrs and saints: their feasts, shrines, and relics. Part of Worship.

Martyrdom of Polycarp 17.1Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The devil, envious of Polycarp's victory, tried to keep the Christians from recovering his body.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 18.2Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The Christians gathered Polycarp's bones and laid them to rest.
Martyrdom of Polycarp 18.3Anonymous · ca. 156–160 · The church planned to gather yearly on the anniversary of Polycarp's martyrdom.
Acts of Thomas 169Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas appears to Siphor and Vazan and to the women, who resist the king; the believers gather under Siphor, whom Thomas made presbyter, and Vazan, deacon; later Misdaeus resolves to heal his demon-possessed son with the apostle's bone.
Acts of Thomas 170Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas's bones are gone, taken to Mesopotamia, but dust from his tomb heals the king's son; Misdaeus believes and joins the brothers under the presbyter Siphor; the Acts close with a doxology.
Church History 4.15.41Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Martyrdom (quoted): Nicetes, urged by the Jews, asked that the body not be released lest Christians worship Polycarp; but Christians worship Christ alone.
Church History 4.15.42Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Martyrdom (quoted): Christians worship Christ the Son of God, but love the martyrs as his disciples and imitators.
Church History 4.15.43Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Martyrdom (quoted): the centurion burned the body; the Christians gathered the precious bones and laid them to rest.
Church History 4.15.44Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Martyrdom (quoted): the church will gather there yearly to celebrate the “birthday” of his martyrdom.
Church History 5.1.62Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · After six days the martyrs' bodies were burned and their ashes thrown into the Rhône.
Church History 8.6.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The emperors had the buried palace martyrs dug up and thrown into the sea so that no one would venerate their graves.
Martyrdom of Ignatius 6.5Anonymous · 4th–5th century (disputed) · Only the harder bones of Ignatius remain; they are taken to Antioch and kept as a treasure of the church.
Martyrdom of Ignatius 7.3Anonymous · 4th–5th century (disputed) · The writers praise God for the visions and send the day of the martyrdom so that the churches may gather on it each year in fellowship with Ignatius.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.11.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Eusebius applies Plato’s honors for the noble dead to Christian veneration of the martyrs’ tombs.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 12.4Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The martyr does not boast, knowing his strength is God's gift; he is honoured with lasting memory, hymns and psalms.
Oration to the Assembly of the Saints 12.5Constantine the Great · ca. 325 (dated variously 317–325) · The martyrs are honoured with a bloodless thanksgiving, lamps for prayer, and sober feasts for the relief of the poor.
Martyrdom of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste 13Anonymous · 4th–5th century · The remains, thrown into the river, are recovered by Bishop Peter.
Testament of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste 1Anonymous · ca. 320 · The Forty ask to be buried together at Sarein and that their relics not be divided.
Theophany 4.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Demonstration 8.8Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 8.9Aphrahat · 337-345
Life of Constantine 4.61.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Falling ill, Constantine went to the hot baths and then prayed at a martyrs' shrine in Helenopolis.
Canon 20Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · Anyone who scorns the gatherings and services at the martyrs' shrines is anathematized.
Canon 9Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Church members who visit heretics' cemeteries or martyr-shrines to pray or seek healing are excommunicated until they repent.
Canon 34Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Christians who leave the true martyrs to honor heretics' martyrs are anathematized.
Canon 51Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Martyrs' feasts falling in Lent are to be kept on Saturdays and Sundays.
On Saint Athanasius 2.12Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer likens the emperor, who honours martyrs' shrines while killing Christians, to those who built the prophets' tombs, and warns him that he stands outside the narrow door.
Letter 155Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil answers an officer in Scythia who had accused him of neglect, assures him that he is remembered in the church's prayers, and asks him to send home relics of martyrs from the persecution there.
Letter 165Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil thanks Ascholius for sending to Cappadocia the relics of a martyr newly crowned among the Goths.
Letter 176Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil invites Amphilochius to the annual festival of the martyrs at Caesarea on 5 September and to the poorhouse's commemoration.
Letter 197Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil welcomes Ambrose's election as bishop of Milan from the governor's office and reports the sending of the relics of bishop Dionysius of Milan from Cappadocia, vouching for their genuineness.
Letter 200Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil, ill through the winter, asks Amphilochius to pray for him, to care for his churches after his death, and to come early to the festival of the martyr Eupsychius.
Letter 252Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil invites the bishops of the Pontic diocese to the annual festival of the martyrs Eupsychius and Damas at Caesarea.
Letter 282Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil chides a bishop who complained of not being invited and then ignored an invitation, and urges him to come at least for the martyrs' festival.
Homilies on the Psalms 114.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · Preaching at midday in a martyrs' shrine, where the people had sung hymns since midnight, Basil excuses his delay (he had been serving another church) and comments on Ps 116:1: only the perfect, freed from servile fear, can say “I have loved” God, the supreme good, and they love even the sufferings borne for him, as Paul did, knowing that God watches their contest.
Letter 335Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory protests to a kinsman who has settled women next to his retreat at Karbala: in effect he is driven out, and he warns him to respect the martyrs' shrine there.
Against Constantius 8Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–361 · The martyrs' relics work wonders, but Constantius's flattering persecution leaves neither the excuse of torture nor the crown of martyrdom.
Oration 4.24Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gallus's shrine for a martyr rose, but Julian's would not stand, a sign of his later impiety.
Oration 5.29Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory prays for the persecutors' conversion and celebrates the end of their outrages against churches, clergy, virgins, and martyrs' relics.
Oration 11.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory calls for spiritual rather than self-indulgent celebration of the martyrs, confesses the Trinity, and closes with a prayer for peace.
Oration 24.3Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory praises Cyprian: his learning, his former life as a magician, his conversion through a virgin he tried to seduce by magic, his episcopate, his encouragement of martyrs from exile under Decius, his martyrdom, and the discovery of his relics.
Oration 35.1Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The preacher rejoices that peace has returned to the city, so that the martyrs are honoured again with festivals after a long war.
Oration 44.12Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory ends with the feast of the martyr Mamas, the shepherd of Caesarea, whose festival coincides with New Sunday, and prays that the visible spring may lead to the spiritual spring of the new life.
Homilies 5.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Basil introduces the feast of the martyr Julitta: when a powerful man seized her property, he had her lawsuit barred unless she sacrificed and denied Christ.
Homilies 5.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Julitta went joyfully to the fire, encouraging women to equal men in piety; Basil then explains unceasing prayer as a life directed to God and thanksgiving even in bereavement.
Homilies 14.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · On Easter evening women danced drunk at the martyrs' shrines; Basil, though discouraged, denounces drunkenness, which makes people more irrational than beasts and deranges body and mind.
Homilies 17.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Panegyric on the martyr Barlaam, an unlettered rustic who endured scourging and held still the burning incense on his outstretched right hand rather than let it fall on the pagan altar.
Homilies 18.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Panegyric on Gordius, a centurion of Caesarea: biblical praise rests on deeds, not homeland; in the persecution Gordius fled to the desert, then came down into the crowded stadium and declared himself a Christian.
Homilies 18.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Gordius urges the crowd to confess Christ, since death is inevitable and martyrdom rare; he signs himself with the cross, is beheaded, and his memory remains ever fresh.
Homilies 19.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · No praise can match the forty martyrs, one soul in forty bodies; to honor them sincerely is to share their will and their reward.
Homilies 19.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · The martyrs' praise lies not in homeland or family but in their deeds; their city is the heavenly Jerusalem; they were soldiers renowned for strength and valor.
Homilies 19.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · The forty are burned and their ashes thrown into the river; their relics, though divided among many places, remain forty and help all who pray with them; the mother of the youngest lifts him onto the cart herself.
Homilies 23.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · On the feast of the martyr Mamas, Basil asks the congregation to praise him themselves by recalling the dreams, prayers, healings and other benefits they have received through him.
Homilies 23.2Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · A martyr is praised for his own virtue, not his ancestry; Mamas was a poor shepherd, a calling shared by Abel, Moses, Jacob and David, and by Christ, who is both shepherd and king.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 1.16Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The schism began with Lucilla, a wealthy woman rebuked by the archdeacon Caecilian for kissing the relic of an unrecognized martyr before receiving communion.
Epigram 12Damasus I of Rome · 366–384 · Damasus's inscription for the crypt of the bishops in the cemetery of Callistus, where he would have wished to be buried but feared to disturb the saints.
Epigram 27Damasus I of Rome · 366–384 · Epigram on the martyr Eutychius, tortured, starved, and thrown into a pit, whose hidden grave was revealed to Damasus in a dream.
Epigram 49Damasus I of Rome · 366–384 · Damasus's epigram on the brother martyrs Protus and Hyacinth, whose hidden tomb he brought to light.
Letter 108.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome briefly lists more places Paula visited: Achor, Bethel, the tombs of Joshua and Eleazar, Shiloh, Jacob's well, Samaria with its possessed crowds at the saints' tombs, Nazareth, Galilee, Tabor, and Nain.
Letter 109.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers Riparius that Vigilantius wrongly calls the veneration of martyrs' relics idolatry: Christians honor the relics in order to adore Christ, and dead saints' bodies are not unclean.
Letter 109.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Vigilantius's bishop to discipline him and argues from Scripture that the bodies of the saints are honored, not unclean.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.8.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Martyrs are to be honored, as James and Stephen are honored by the apostles.
Apostolic Constitutions 5.8.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Scripture praises the death and memory of the righteous.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.30.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Elisha's bones raised a dead man, showing that the remains of saints are holy.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.33.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Slaves rest on the feasts of Stephen and the martyrs.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 20.5Egeria · ca. 381-395 · They arrive for the feast of the martyr Helpidius, when the monks gather.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 37.1Egeria · ca. 381-395 · On Good Friday the wood of the cross is brought out before the bishop.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 37.2Egeria · ca. 381-395 · The people kiss the wood of the cross under the deacons' guard.
Pilgrimage (Itinerarium) 37.3Egeria · ca. 381-395 · They also venerate the ring of Solomon and the anointing horn.
Letter 16.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Maximus mocks the Christian veneration of African martyrs with Punic names and their tombs.
Letter 22.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine complains that drunken feasts are tolerated, even held daily at the martyrs' shrines, while sexual sin is rightly punished by exclusion from communion.
Letter 22.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Aurelius to abolish the feasts, as most churches overseas have done, by the authority of a council or by the example of Carthage.
Letter 29.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explained that the feasts at martyrs' shrines had been tolerated after the persecutions to ease the conversion of pagans, but must now be given up.
Letter 78.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains how the case arose and why he sent Boniface and Spes to the shrine of St Felix at Nola, where God might reveal the guilty party.
Letter 212.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine commends the widow Galla and her daughter, the virgin Simpliciola, to Bishop Quintilian, noting that they carry relics of the martyr Stephen.
On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 1.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · Augustine challenges the Manichaeans to compare their life with that of true catholics, not with nominal Christians, such as those who venerate tombs and pictures or feast over the dead, whom the Church condemns and tries to correct until the final separation.
Life of Hilarion 46Jerome · ca. 390–392 · Hesychius secretly takes Hilarion's incorrupt body from Cyprus to his old monastery at Majuma.
Sermon 4.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christians honor the martyrs by imitating them in daily struggle against the devil, relying on Christ, who has conquered the world.
Sermon 64.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Doves live in fellowship and quarrel peacefully, as Paul’s discipline corrects a brother without enmity; martyrs’ feasts should be kept soberly, in praise of the God who crowns them.
Sermon 273.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The deacon Eulogius said he worshiped not Fructuosus but Fructuosus’s God; so Christians honor martyrs but worship God, unlike pagans, who worship as gods the dead kings of old.
Sermon 273.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christians honor the martyrs, naming them at the altar, but offer sacrifice only to God; the saints themselves, like Paul and Barnabas at Lystra and the angel in the Apocalypse, refused worship, and the martyrs hate the drunken feasting at their shrines.
Sermon 273.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs were men like us and are to be imitated; even Christ, God equal to the Father, as man chose to be priest and sacrifice rather than receive them, so we honor the martyrs and worship their God.
Sermon 275.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God honored Vincent’s body with a miracle so that what the enemy tried to hide was found and venerated; such miracles at the saints’ remains show that nothing that dies perishes for God.
Sermon 277.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The miracle that preserved Vincent’s body added nothing to his glory but gave the Church a memorial for prayer, as God fed Elijah through a widow for her blessing rather than his need.
Sermon 286.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs’ blood was the seed of the Church; Augustine recalls the finding of Protasius and Gervasius by Ambrose at Milan, which he witnessed, and the healing of a well-known blind man.
Sermon 296.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · When people ask why Rome, holding the apostles’ tombs, is laid waste, Augustine answers that the memorials are there but not in their hearts, and urges patient obedience to God’s will, after Christ’s example in Gethsemane.
Sermon 300.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At the cross, when all the prophecies were fulfilled, the veil was torn and the hidden Christ was revealed; the Maccabees died for Christ veiled in the law as later martyrs for Christ revealed, so Christians rightly keep their feast and should imitate them and their mother.
Sermon 302.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · On the feast of Lawrence, Augustine notes that temporal favors granted through the martyr are like toys for children; he describes the misery of this life, which is still loved so much, and asks his hearers to love eternal life at least as much as worldlings love this one.
Sermon 304.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lawrence, deacon at Rome, who ministered Christ’s blood and shed his own, fulfilled the proverb about the mighty man’s table; but not only martyrs follow Christ: married people, widows and virgins too have their place in the Lord’s garden.
Sermon 310.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At the place of Cyprian’s martyrdom in Carthage, where a crowd once shed his blood, a crowd now drinks Christ’s blood; the altar there, God’s table, is called ‘Cyprian’s table’ because he was sacrificed there.
Sermon 312.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine praises Cyprian in the Lord rather than in himself: the gentle martyr who sang “let the gentle hear and be glad” now possesses the land of the living and awaits at rest with Christ the redemption of his body.
Sermon 312.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even now, in this world, the martyrs plainly have won: their memorials are honored everywhere while the demons' idols and altars have fallen.
Sermon 313.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Cyprian's soul was God's great sword, winning enemies over and conquering at his death with God present to him; his body, the sword's sheath, lies here beneath the altar until it is restored to his soul in the resurrection.
Sermon 316.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen, first among the deacons as Peter among the apostles, worked wonders through the name of Christ, and the miracles now done at his memorial are likewise done in Christ's name, so that he should be loved in Christ.
Sermon 317.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen's relics, now in Africa, bring many benefits, but his faith is what is to be imitated, above all his love of enemies; God, who gives sun and rain to good and bad alike, keeps for the good what he gave Stephen.
Sermon 318.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · At the deposition of relics of Stephen, found recently by revelation as Gervasius and Protasius were found at Milan in Augustine's youth, Augustine explains that the altar is built not to Stephen but to God, since the death of his saints is precious to him.
Historia monachorum, chapter 19Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · The deacon Apollonius, martyred with the converted pipe player Philemon, the judge, and their guards, who were drowned at Alexandria; miracles occur at their tomb.
Life of Saint Martin 11Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · Doubting a local martyr's shrine, Martin prays at the tomb; the ghost of an executed robber reveals itself, and Martin removes the altar.
Confessions 6.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica obediently gave up the African custom of bringing food and wine to martyrs' shrines when she learned Ambrose had forbidden it, and Ambrose often praised her to Augustine.
Confessions 9.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Ambrose, by a vision, finds the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius; a blind man is healed and the persecution ceases.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 20.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that Christians honor the martyrs with love and imitation, but offer sacrifice only to God at their shrines, tolerating but not approving drunkenness there.
Tractates 17Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · At the dedication of his basilica of the 'Assembly of the Saints' in Brescia, Gaudentius lists its relics (John the Baptist, Andrew, Thomas, Luke, Gervasius and Protasius, Nazarius, the martyrs of Anaunia, and the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, received from Basil's nieces at Caesarea) and retells the martyrdom of the Forty.
Tractates 20Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · A short sermon for the feast of Peter and Paul (29 June), given at another bishop's request: the three births (natural, baptismal, and martyrdom), the deaths of Peter by inverted crucifixion and Paul by the sword under Nero, and their equality as brothers in faith.
On the Work of Monks 36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Augustine appeals to the monks to work so as to answer the wandering hypocrites in monks' habit, who peddle relics and beg, and whose conduct brings the monastic life into disrepute.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 28Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Corpses are shunned for their stench, not their deadness, as the use of animal parts shows; the uncleanness of the dead signifies a soul dead in sin; and Christ, no longer under the law after his baptism, was not defiled by touching the dead.
Canon 83 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · False shrines of martyrs without relics or reliable tradition are to be destroyed; the emperors are asked to destroy the remains of idolatry.
Letter 15Firmus of Caesarea · early fifth century · Firmus invites a bishop to the feast of the saints at Argokna.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 84.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The ruler's table of Proverbs is the Lord's table, where Christ's body and blood are received; the martyrs repaid in kind by laying down their lives, and at the altar they are asked to pray for us, not prayed for.
Against Vigilantius 1Jerome · 406 · Jerome introduces Vigilantius as a new monster from Gaul who attacks the veneration of martyrs, vigils, and continence, reviving Jovinian's errors.
Against Vigilantius 4Jerome · 406 · Jerome mocks Vigilantius's origins and quotes his objections to the veneration of relics and the lighting of candles.
Against Vigilantius 5Jerome · 406 · Jerome denies that Christians adore martyrs and defends the honoring of relics by emperors, bishops, and people, since the saints are alive in God.
Against Vigilantius 6Jerome · 406 · Jerome argues that the martyrs are with Christ and can pray for others, and rejects Vigilantius's appeal to an apocryphal Ezra.
Against Vigilantius 7Jerome · 406 · Jerome defends the lighting of candles at vigils and in honor of martyrs as a sign of joy, not idolatry.
Against Vigilantius 8Jerome · 406 · Jerome appeals to the practice of the Roman bishop and of bishops everywhere, and links Vigilantius with Eunomius and the old heresy that Tertullian answered in the Scorpiace.
Against Vigilantius 9Jerome · 406 · Jerome defends frequent vigils at the martyrs' shrines: abuses by a few do not condemn the practice, any more than at the Easter vigil.
Against Vigilantius 10Jerome · 406 · Jerome answers Vigilantius's dismissal of miracles at the martyrs' shrines and says the demon in him is tormented by the relics.
Against Vigilantius 12Jerome · 406 · Jerome confesses his own fear of entering the martyrs' shrines with a troubled conscience and defends the faith of devout women.
City of God 1.4Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine contrasts Juno's sanctuary at Troy, used by the Greeks to hold captives and plunder, with the basilicas of the apostles, where the Goths spared refugees and restored property.
City of God 1.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine declines to judge holy women honored as martyrs who drowned themselves to escape violation, allowing that God may have commanded them, but concludes that no one may kill himself for any ordinary reason.
City of God 8.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine shows from Hermes' own words that the gods of Egypt were dead men, so that the pagans, not the Christians honoring the martyrs, are the worshippers of the dead.
City of God 8.27Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains that Christians honor the martyrs' memorials but offer sacrifice only to God, whose one sacrifice is celebrated even at the martyrs' shrines.
City of God 22.8Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues that miracles attested Christ's resurrection and ascension and still occur, and he recounts healings and raisings he witnessed or verified in Milan, Carthage, Hippo, Calama, and Uzalis, many at shrines holding relics of Stephen.
City of God 22.10Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The martyrs are not gods; Christians build memorials, not temples, for them and offer the sacrifice, which is the body of Christ, to the one God at their shrines, whereas the demons work wonders to be worshipped.
On Care for the Dead 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Augustine explains that Paulinus of Nola asked him whether burial near a saint's shrine helps the dead, prompted by the widow Flora's son Cynegius.
On Care for the Dead 19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · The martyrs' help, such as Felix's appearance at Nola, comes by divine power as a miracle, not by any natural power of the dead.
On Care for the Dead 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–422 · Augustine tells how John the monk of Egypt appeared to a woman in a dream, and lists the questions he would have asked him about how martyrs and saints appear, ending content with Sirach's counsel not to seek what is too high.
The Conferences 6.1John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Troubled by the massacre of holy monks near Tekoa by Saracen raiders, Cassian and Germanus ask Abba Theodore of the Cells why God allowed it.
Sermon on the Life of Honoratus 35Hilary of Arles · ca. 430 · At his funeral the people crowded to kiss his body and took fringes of his garments; Hilary trusts in his patronage in heaven.