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Where are Augustine’s bones a-moldering? To some, that has been a very significant question. It seems that by Augustine’s time, many portions of the church had begun to attach substantial religious significance to relics—ranging from supposed physical remains of the apostles and other well-known martyrs and leaders, to remains of objects associated with notable persons, such as fragments of Christ’s cross. Thus it is not surprising that the remains of a renowned figure Augustine became precious. In the condensed letter below, which to our knowledge is translated here from Latin to English for the first time, one Peter Oldrad, archbishop of Milan, is writing to the emperor Charlemagne about the whereabouts of Augustine’s remains and how they got there. Dated 796A.D., the Latin of this letter appears in the 1588 edition of Cesare Baronio, and has been reprinted in Vol. 40 of the Acta Sanctorum, pp. 366–368. The translation was done for Christian History magazine by Father Joseph Schnaubelt, O.S.A., director of the Augustinian History Institute of Villanova University.

Among other things, note the obsequious tone that Oldrad uses toward Charlemagne, the lengthy accounts of King Luitprand’s generous gifts to the church (perhaps hints to Charlemagne?), the miraculous healings attributed to Augustine’s remains, and the sleeping metaphors used to describe the actual body of the long-dead bishop.

The Epistle of Peter Oldrad, Archbishop of Milan, To Charlemagne.

On the transfer of the body of St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, from Sardinia to Pavia.

For the Most Pious King of kings, Charles the Great, Peter Oldrad, unworthy archbishop of Milan, entreats an everlasting crown in Christ.

While your Majesty was sojourning in the city of Milan, you graciously entrusted me with the task of making an inquiry into the transfer of the body of the saintly bishop Augustine from Sardinia to Pavia and of writing a trustworthy account of it for you. This has been done, so far as human frailty has permitted. Now, with the help of God, I shall briefly relate what I found in the letters and books of the Lombard Kings, along with what I garnered from many by way of oral tradition.

Blessed Augustine, the Doctor of the Churches of Christ, rendered up his soul to God, after many splendid signs and miracles in this world and after much exhausting labor against the obstinacy of heretics and the deviousness of sinners. In the course of the year 430 since the Incarnation of Christ, he was buried with honor by the faithful in the Church of St. Stephen in the City of Hippo, his episcopal seat. Thus respectfully laid to rest at the hands of his disciples, he reposed there for almost 56 years.

Thereafter, his remains were transferred to Sardinia by the faithful Catholic bishops at the time the Vandals were laying waste to Africa by force of arms. On account of the faith of Christ, these bishops, and in particular Fulgentius, the bishop of Ruspe, together with a great multitude of the faithful, had been forced to move to that island by Trasamund, the iniquitous king of the Vandals. To forestall the desecration of such a great jewel and treasure by perverse and contemptuous men, the exiles transported the relics with them, along with those of several other saints. There, in Sardinia, Augustine was renowned for many miracles for 223 years. In this we are manifestly given to understand that those whom God holds dear he distinguishes and marks with the power of miracles as a testimony to their sanctity.

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