Hidden for Centuries: How the Recently Identified Sermons of St. Augustine Were Discovered

– OSV News / Katarzyna Szalajko

Two previously unknown sermons by St. Augustine have been identified in a 12th-century manuscript preserved in Poland, offering researchers a rare and 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 in the diocesan library in Pelplin, in northern Poland, following nearly two years of research by experts from Germany and Austria. The sermons, which will be published in a critical edition in late 2026, address Saul’s encounter with the witch of Endor in the Book of Samuel.

The manuscript had long been cataloged in the library’s collection, but no one had studied it in depth prior to the recent collaboration with researchers from Germany and Austria, Father Jan Walkusz, director of the Pelplin Diocesan Library, explained to OSV News.

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

How the Rigorous Academic Research Began

The story began with a phone call.

“In 2024, Paul Nebauer from Bad Doberan contacted me… who had found a medieval manuscript containing sermons attributed to Augustine in the diocesan library in Pelplin,” Christian Tornau, a Latin scholar and professor at Julius-Maximilians University in Würzburg, told OSV News.

“He asked me for help identifying and translating the texts,” the professor added.

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

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

Two keywords caught the researcher's attention

“At first, the brief table of contents offered little information about 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 (diviner) of Endor.”.

In the First Book of Samuel, chapter 28, King Saul consults a medium who summons the prophet Samuel before his final battle against the Philistines. This episode has long posed a challenge for Christian interpreters, as 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. Realizing that the manuscript required expert analysis, he contacted Tornau. The 12th-century manuscript was copied in Bad Doberan, possibly from a now-lost manuscript from Amelungsborn Abbey.

Two new sermons that have never been identified before

Father Walkusz explained that the manuscript arrived in Pelplin through the Cistercian monks. When the monks of Bad Doberan established a daughter abbey in Pelplin in the 13th century, “it was customary among the Cistercians to provide the new community with the necessary liturgical and theological books,” he told OSV News. “That is how this volume containing the sermons of St. Augustine, along with other manuscripts from Bad Doberan, came to Pelplin.”.

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

“We were, of course, fascinated by the idea of having discovered new sermons by Augustine,” Tornau told OSV News, “but we soon became skeptical because in some passages the sermons did not seem to have been written by Augustine.” The team, which was joined by researchers Dorothea Weber and Clemens Weidmann from the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL) in Vienna, spent nearly two years transcribing and analyzing the texts, including during a summer school in 2025 attended by about 20 specialists.

“Ongoing philological work” for nearly 2 years

“Our final conclusion that they are indeed authentic is the result of nearly two years of ongoing philological work,” Tornau said.

The experts based their conclusion on liturgical, linguistic, and theological evidence that consistently points to St. Augustine as the author. Clemens Weidmann of the CSEL, who also worked on the edition, noted that attributing the manuscript to St. Augustine was only the starting point. “However, this alone is not enough to prove Augustine’s authorship, because many inauthentic sermons are falsely attributed to him in the manuscripts,” he told OSV News.

“Since the preacher is thus indistinguishable from Augustine, we consider it methodologically sound to attribute the work to Augustine rather than invent an anonymous ‘student’ or ‘follower,’” Tornau explained to OSV News. “No disciple or later author would have been so familiar with Augustine’s style and thought as to compile an ‘Augustinian sermon’ that brings together so many stylistic features found throughout his entire body of work,” Weidmann added to OSV News.

Cultural and Religious Treasures from the Pelplin Collection

Father Walkusz stated that the discovery also highlights the importance of the Pelplin collection itself. “The discovery of these sermons proves beyond a doubt that the meticulously preserved collections in Pelplin hold immense cultural and religious treasures, 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 scholar of Augustine at the CSEL, told OSV News. The newly identified sermons also offer an unusually personal glimpse of St. Augustine as a preacher, she emphasized.

“It’s extremely fascinating to see how Agustín explained to the congregation why he hadn’t had a chance to prepare 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 usual stylistic brilliance and a clear structure in his complex argument,” he added.

The sermons focus on one of the most debated episodes in the Old Testament. According to Tornau, early Christian interpreters generally proposed two explanations for Saul’s encounter with Samuel: either God allowed the prophet to appear despite the sorceress’s actions, or Saul was deceived by an evil spirit posing as Samuel. Rather than insisting that only one interpretation is correct, St. Augustine carefully examines both.

What St. Augustine Addresses in His Sermons

“In his new sermons, Augustine analyzes both options—their pros and cons—and concludes that both are acceptable because neither runs counter to the Christian faith,” Tornau explained to OSV News.

“This openness to differing interpretations of Scripture is characteristic of Augustine in general.”.

Weber pointed out that this approach sets St. Augustine apart from many other early Christian authors.

“Augustine’s goal is not to prescribe a single ‘correct’ interpretation, but rather to explore the range of possible interpretations that remain within the framework of Church doctrine,” he said. “There aren’t many of Augustine’s sermons that take such a systematic approach to an exegetical problem and that, therefore, demand a high level of intellectual engagement from the audience.”.

St. Augustine “resolves the issue in a very elegant way”

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

“It presents several possible interpretations, refrains from passing a definitive judgment, and allows its listeners to draw their own conclusions.” Researchers note that the most surprising theological insight appears near the end of the newly identified texts. “The most notable element of the new sermons is the idea that Saul, after hearing Samuel’s prophecy, may have repented and been redeemed,” Tornau explained to OSV News.

“It is indicative of Augustine’s independence of judgment and his willingness to consider that everyone—even those who seem most wicked—is capable of being saved through God’s grace,” Tornau told OSV News. “This combines intellectual honesty and episcopal humility in a remarkable and deeply Augustinian way.”.

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This article was first published in OSV News. We are reprinting it on Omnes with permission. You can read the original article in English. HERE.