Hidden for centuries: How newly identified St. Augustine sermons were found

WARSAW, Poland (OSV News) — Two previously unknown sermons by St. Augustine have been identified in a 12th-century manuscript preserved in Poland, giving scholars a rare new window into the mind of one of Christianity’s greatest theologians more than 1,600 years after he preached them.

The discovery was made in a 12th-century manuscript preserved at the diocesan library in Pelplin in northern Poland after nearly two years of research by scholars from Germany and Austria. The sermons, to be published in a critical edition by the end of 2026, address Saul’s encounter with the Medium of Endor in the Book of Samuel.

The manuscript had long been catalogued in the library’s collection, but no one had studied it in depth before the recent collaboration with scholars from Germany and Austria, Father Jan Walkusz, director of the diocesan library in Pelplin, told OSV News.

“Only the recent research by scholars from Bad Doberan, Würzburg and Vienna showed that the manuscript contains two previously unknown sermons by the Bishop of Hippo,” the priest said.

How the careful academic research started

The story began with a phone call.

“In 2024 I was approached by Paul Nebauer from Bad Doberan … who had found a medieval manuscript with sermons attributed to Augustine in the diocesan library of Pelplin,” Christian Tornau, a Latin scholar and professor at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, told OSV News.

“He asked me for help with the identification and translation of the texts,” the professor said.

Nebauer, a member of the Bad Doberan Monastery Association, has spent years tracing medieval manuscripts from the former Cistercian abbey. Its library was destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War in the 17th century.

During research visits to Pelplin in 2024 and 2025, Nebauer identified six manuscripts that clearly originated from Bad Doberan. One volume immediately drew his attention.

“At first, the brief table of contents offered little insight into the content,” Nebauer told OSV News. “It was only the keywords ‘Phytonissa’ and ‘Resuscitatio Samuelis’ that drew my attention to the biblical story of the Witch (Medium) of Endor.”

In the first Book of Samuel, chapter 28, King Saul consults a medium who summons the prophet Samuel before his final battle with the Philistines. The episode has long challenged Christian interpreters because it appears to show a medium exercising power over one of God’s prophets.

Nebauer “found the text very unusual — words like that from St. Augustine?” he recalled. Recognizing that the manuscript required expert analysis, he contacted Tornau. The 12th-century manuscript was copied at Bad Doberan, possibly from a now-lost manuscript at Amelungsborn Abbey.

Two new sermons never before identified

Father Walkusz said the manuscript reached Pelplin through the Cistercian monks. When monks from Bad Doberan established a daughter abbey in Pelplin in the 13th century, “it was customary for Cistercians to equip the new community with the necessary liturgical and theological books,” he told OSV News. “That is how this volume containing St. Augustine’s sermons, together with other manuscripts from Bad Doberan, came to Pelplin.”

Of the six sermons preserved in the manuscript, four were already known to scholars, while two had never been identified.

“We were fascinated, of course, by the idea of having found new sermons of Augustine,” Tornau told OSV News, “but soon turned skeptical because at some places the sermons did not seem to read like Augustine.” The team, joined by scholars Dorothea Weber and Clemens Weidmann of Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum — Corpus of Latin Ecclesiastical Writings in English, or CSEL, in Vienna — spent nearly two years transcribing and analyzing the texts, including during a 2025 summer school with about 20 specialists.

“Our final verdict that they are indeed authentic is the result of continuous philological work over almost two years,” Tornau said.

The scholars based their conclusion on liturgical, linguistic and theological evidence pointing consistently to St. Augustine’s authorship. Clemens Weidmann of CSEL, who also worked on the edition, said the manuscript’s attribution to St. Augustine was only the starting point. “This alone, however, is not enough to prove Augustine’s authorship because many inauthentic sermons are attributed in manuscripts to him falsely,” he told OSV News.

“As the preacher is thus indistinguishable from Augustine, we found it methodically safe to accept Augustine’s authorship rather than to invent an anonymous ‘pupil’ or ‘follower,'” Tornau told OSV News. “No disciple, no author of later times would have been so familiar with Augustine’s style and thinking to compile an ‘Augustinian sermon’ by putting together so many stylistic features found across his writings,” Weidmann told OSV News.

Cultural and religious riches of the Pelplin collection

Father Walkusz said that the discovery also highlights the significance of the Pelplin collection itself. “The discovery of these sermons proves beyond doubt that the carefully preserved collections in Pelplin conceal enormous cultural and religious riches, accessible to researchers from around the world,” he told OSV News.

“New discoveries of works from Late Antiquity are always a sensation,” Weber, a retired professor and longtime Augustine scholar with CSEL, told OSV News. The newly identified sermons also offer an unusually personal glimpse of St. Augustine as a preacher, she emphasized.

“It is extremely fascinating to see how Augustine explained to the congregation why he did not have a chance to prepare for the Bible passage he was supposed to preach on,” Weber told OSV News. “He initially tried to buy some time to organize his thoughts, and yet, despite improvising, he achieved his typical stylistic brilliance and a clear structure in his complex argumentation,” she said.

The sermons focus on one of the most debated episodes in the Old Testament. According to Tornau, ancient Christian interpreters generally proposed two explanations for Saul’s encounter with Samuel. Either God permitted the prophet to appear despite the medium’s actions, or Saul was deceived by an evil spirit impersonating Samuel. Rather than insisting that only one interpretation is correct, St. Augustine carefully considers both.

What St. Augustine discusses in the sermons

“In the new sermons, Augustine discusses both options with pros and cons and concludes that they are both acceptable because neither is against Christian faith,” Tornau told OSV News.

“This openness for divergent interpretations of scripture is characteristic of Augustine in general.”

Weber said that approach distinguishes St. Augustine from many other early Christian writers.

“Augustine aims not at prescribing a single ‘correct’ interpretation, but rather at exploring the range of possible interpretations that remain within the framework of the doctrine of the Church,” she said. “There are not many of Augustine’s sermons that take such a systematic approach to an exegetical problem and thus demand a high level of intellectual engagement from the audience.”

Nebauer believes that openness is precisely what makes the newly discovered sermons relevant today. “The subject of the ‘Witch of Endor’ poses a challenge for belief in God,” he told OSV News. “However, St. Augustine resolves the issue very elegantly.”

“He presents several possible interpretations, refrains from making a final judgment, and allows his listeners to draw their own conclusions.” The researchers say the most surprising theological insight appears near the end of the newly identified texts. “The most remarkable element of the new sermons is the idea that Saul after hearing Samuel’s prophecy may have repented and been redeemed,” Tornau told OSV News.

“It is indicative of Augustine’s independence of mind and his willingness to think of everyone, even those who appear most evil, as capable of salvation through the grace of God,” Tornau told OSV News. “This combines intellectual honesty and episcopal humility in a remarkable and very Augustinian way.”

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