Abstract
[...]analysis of the editorial maneuvers made in the composition of the sermon allows us insight into the monastic vision of Caesarius. Since it is a well-known fact that Caesarius of Aries, in his eagerness to supply his flock with wholesome material to reflect upon, often recycled the sermons of others, particularly Saint Augustine, it is not surprising that he used pre-existing monastic sermons, now contained within the EG collection, as source material for his own composition aimed at a monastic audience. If one accepts such a Lérinian origin, perhaps Caesarius first encountered the HM as a fervent, young monk at Lérins under the tutelage of his abbot Porcarius and was sufficiently impressed by these homilies to re-use them later in his career. Since the standard English translation of Caesarius's sermons is based on Morin's edition27 and since there is no English translation of the Eusebius "Gallicanus" collection, this monastic sermon newly and critically ascribed to Caesarius has been inaccessible in English. The security offered by the monastery makes it incumbent upon the monk to be fervent about attaining Christian perfection, about winning salvation. [...]the monastery is primarily a place for spiritual combat, for a ceaseless interior combat against vices and the devil. For although that extremely rich friend of God48 may have carried whatever he possessed with himself without any diminishment, nonetheless it is in fact to us, if we should desire it, that he has left everything. [...]as we pursue his goods, let us live in such a way that the one who will be brought back to life at the end of the ages in order to, as he must, be raised to eternal glory, may at this point in time rise again even now through the church's meritorious actions that make him alive again in the person of his sons.