Key Arguments

• He notes that he, Alypius, and Adeodatus were baptized together and that their anxiety about their past vanished: ‘We were baptized,19 and disquiet about our past life vanished from us.’
• In the days following baptism he finds intense delight in contemplating God’s salvific purpose: ‘During those days I found an insatiable and amazing delight in considering the profundity of your purpose for the salvation of the human race.’
• He says he wept during hymns and songs, as the music carried truth into his heart and produced devotional overflow: ‘How I wept during your hymns and songs! I was deeply moved by the music of the sweet chants of your Church. The sounds flowed into my ears and the truth was distilled into my heart. This caused the feelings of devotion to overflow. Tears ran, and it was good for me to have that experience.’
• He explains that this method of mutual comfort and exhortation—brothers singing together with heart and voice—had only recently been adopted at Milan: ‘The Church at Milan had begun only a short time before to employ this method of mutual comfort and exhortation. The brothers used to sing together with both heart and voice in a state of high enthusiasm.’
• He situates the origin of this practice in the tense period of Justina’s Arian persecution of Ambrose, when the congregation kept vigil to support their bishop: ‘Only a year or a little more had passed since Justina, mother of the young king Valentinian, was persecuting your servant Ambrose in the interest of her heresy.20 … The devout congregation kept continual guard in the Church, ready to die with their bishop, your servant.’
• He states that hymns and psalms were introduced ‘to prevent the people from succumbing to depression and exhaustion’, and that this usage spread widely: ‘That was the time when the decision was taken to introduce hymns and psalms sung after the custom of the eastern Churches, to prevent the people from succumbing to depression and exhaustion. From that time to this day the practice has been retained and many, indeed almost all your flocks, in other parts of the world have imitated it.’

Source Quotes

We associated him with us so as to be of the same age as ourselves in your grace. We were baptized,19 and disquiet about our past life vanished from us. During those days I found an insatiable and amazing delight in considering the profundity of your purpose for the salvation of the human race.

We were baptized,19 and disquiet about our past life vanished from us. During those days I found an insatiable and amazing delight in considering the profundity of your purpose for the salvation of the human race. How I wept during your hymns and songs!

During those days I found an insatiable and amazing delight in considering the profundity of your purpose for the salvation of the human race. How I wept during your hymns and songs! I was deeply moved by the music of the sweet chants of your Church. The sounds flowed into my ears and the truth was distilled into my heart.

I was deeply moved by the music of the sweet chants of your Church. The sounds flowed into my ears and the truth was distilled into my heart. This caused the feelings of devotion to overflow. Tears ran, and it was good for me to have that experience. vii (15) The Church at Milan had begun only a short time before to employ this method of mutual comfort and exhortation. The brothers used to sing together with both heart and voice in a state of high enthusiasm.

This caused the feelings of devotion to overflow. Tears ran, and it was good for me to have that experience. vii (15) The Church at Milan had begun only a short time before to employ this method of mutual comfort and exhortation. The brothers used to sing together with both heart and voice in a state of high enthusiasm. Only a year or a little more had passed since Justina, mother of the young king Valentinian, was persecuting your servant Ambrose in the interest of her heresy.20 She had been led into error by the Arians.

We were still cold, untouched by the warmth of your Spirit, but were excited by the tension and disturbed atmosphere in the city. That was the time when the decision was taken to introduce hymns and psalms sung after the custom of the eastern Churches, to prevent the people from succumbing to depression and exhaustion. From that time to this day the practice has been retained and many, indeed almost all your flocks, in other parts of the world have imitated it.

That was the time when the decision was taken to introduce hymns and psalms sung after the custom of the eastern Churches, to prevent the people from succumbing to depression and exhaustion. From that time to this day the practice has been retained and many, indeed almost all your flocks, in other parts of the world have imitated it. (16) This was the time when through a vision you revealed to the bishop already mentioned the place where lay hidden the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius.

Key Concepts

• We were baptized,19 and disquiet about our past life vanished from us.
• During those days I found an insatiable and amazing delight in considering the profundity of your purpose for the salvation of the human race.
• How I wept during your hymns and songs! I was deeply moved by the music of the sweet chants of your Church.
• The sounds flowed into my ears and the truth was distilled into my heart. This caused the feelings of devotion to overflow. Tears ran, and it was good for me to have that experience.
• The Church at Milan had begun only a short time before to employ this method of mutual comfort and exhortation. The brothers used to sing together with both heart and voice in a state of high enthusiasm.
• That was the time when the decision was taken to introduce hymns and psalms sung after the custom of the eastern Churches, to prevent the people from succumbing to depression and exhaustion.
• From that time to this day the practice has been retained and many, indeed almost all your flocks, in other parts of the world have imitated it.

Context

Book IX, vi–vii (14–15): Augustine links personal baptismal peace and devotion with the communal practice of hymn singing at Milan, portraying church music as a vehicle of truth and consolation that sprang from a context of persecution and has since shaped Catholic worship.