Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin — The Enchiridion. — Chapter 87 (St. Augustine)

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin · Saint Augustine of Hippo · the golden age of the Fathers · part 179 of 214

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin — The Enchiridion. — Chapter 87 (St. Augustine)

Chapter 87.—The Case of Monstrous Births. The Case of Monstrous Births. We are not justified in affirming even of monstrosities, which are born and live, however quickly they may die, that they shall not rise again, nor that they shall rise again in their deformity, and not rather with an amended and perfected body. God forbid that the double limbed man who was lately born in the East, of whom an account was brought by most trustworthy brethren who had seen him,—an account which the presbyter Jerome, of blessed memory, left in writing;—God forbid, I say, that we should think that at the resurrection there shall be one man with double limbs, and not two distinct men, as would have been the case had twins been born. And so other births, which, because they have either a superfluity or a defect, or because they are very much deformed, are called monstrosities, shall at the resurrection be restored to the normal shape of man; and so each single soul shall possess its own body; and no bodies shall cohere together even though they were born in cohesion, but each separately shall possess all the members which constitute a complete human body.