Two previously unknown sermons by St. Augustine of Hippo have been identified in a 12th-century manuscript held at a monastery in Pelplin, Poland. The discovery began with a 2024 phone call seeking help deciphering the manuscript, which originally belonged to Bad Doberan Abbey in Germany. You can read Aleteia’s full report here. For scholars of patristics and anyone who loves Augustine’s writings, this is a rare glimpse into texts that have been silent for centuries.
What happened
Professor Christian Tornau, a Latin scholar, was contacted by the Bad Doberan Monastery Association to examine a manuscript now housed at the monastery’s daughter house in Pelplin. The codex dates to the 12th century and contains a collection of sermons. Among them, Tornau identified two that had never appeared in any known catalog of Augustine’s works.
The manuscript had traveled from Bad Doberan in northern Germany to Poland, likely during the upheavals of the Reformation or later historical movements that dispersed monastic libraries across Europe. The sermons themselves date to Augustine’s lifetime in the late 4th and early 5th centuries.
For the complete details of the discovery, see Aleteia’s reporting.
Why this matters
Augustine of Hippo is one of the Church’s most influential theologians. His sermons shaped Western Christianity’s understanding of grace, Scripture, and the nature of the Church. Every new Augustinian text offers scholars fresh evidence of how the Doctor of Grace preached to ordinary Christians in North Africa during the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Discoveries like this remind us that the Church’s intellectual treasury is not static. Medieval manuscripts still hide in monastery libraries and archives across Europe. Some have been cataloged but not fully studied. Others, like this one, wait for a phone call and a patient Latinist to bring them back to light.
For Catholic readers
If you’ve never read Augustine’s sermons, start with his homilies on the Gospel of John or the Psalms. They are pastoral, accessible, and alive with a preacher’s warmth. These newly discovered texts will eventually be published for scholars, but the rest of Augustine’s legacy is already at your fingertips.
Sources:
1. Aleteia — original report
