Letter 161: Evodius asks Augustine how to defend the miracle of the virgin birth without weakening another theological claim.

To holy Augustine, venerably beloved brother and fellow bishop, and to the brothers with you: Evodius and the brothers with me send greetings in the Lord. Through Iobinus, who had been sent to the estate at Marcianum, I recently asked one question in a letter about reason and God, but I have not yet deserved an answer. Meanwhile we have had in our hands and read letters of Your Holiness, one to the illustrious man Volusianus and the other to Italica, an illustrious woman in Christ. In the first letter, when speaking about the bodily conception of our Lord Jesus Christ our God in the Virgin and his birth from her, you wrote, "If a reason is sought, it will not be wonderful; if an example is demanded, it will not be unique." It seemed that something like this could be said about every birth, whether of a human being, any animal, or any seed. If the reason for it is sought, it will not be tracked down, and certainly it will be wonderful; and if an example is demanded, since nothing like it exists among examples, it will be unique. For what meeting of male and female, or what conception of any kind, can ever explain by reason what is formed in secret? Or what reason will be found for seeds springing from the earth, first decaying and then bearing fruit? Is it not also wonderful, if one is looking for something unique, that a single worm, without any parent, is found formed and complete inside an apple by a virgin conception? I think this is why the example says, "I am a worm and not a man." So I do not know what reason can be given for conceptions, whether of things joined or single. I think that a reason cannot be fully supplied not only for the Virgin's conception, but for any conception at all. If an example is demanded, mares are said to bear offspring from the wind, hens from ash, ducks from water, and some other animals to produce their proper young without male seed. Even if they do not give birth while whole, they can conceive while unviolated. How then is it stated, "If an example is demanded, it will not be unique," when so many examples come forward? It is also known to everyone that certain animals are born inside bodies, and I mean not only female bodies but male bodies too. Is seed responsible for conception there? Here are examples; here are wonders for which no reason can be given. Or if the answer is that nothing like this ever happens in a human virgin, still there are examples in other natures of things, because creatures born without seeds are conceived, and no reason can be fully given for them. Yet even in generation one can find something that produces offspring without violating the integrity of its nature. I have often heard that the spider, without any male conception or corruption in giving birth, wonderfully produces according to its kind all those threads on which it usually hangs, and shows that this has been granted to itself alone, as it were uniquely. So if this too is asked about, it is not only wonderful, but no such examples can be given among things. I am afraid that perhaps these things have come first as examples so that those who did not believe a virgin could conceive might be convinced that it is indeed wonderful, but still not unique. For all God's works are wonderful, because they were made in wisdom. If this is objected to us, then, what shall we answer? Another matter presses me very strongly. The same kind of thing could be said about the substance of the Lord's glorified body: that it too will be able to see the substance of God. You said in the letter to Italica that it cannot, and that is certain. But when we begin to give the reason why it cannot, this may be objected to us: if what happened in that conception and birth is wonderful and unique, and people do not want a reason sought or an example demanded because this unique thing was granted to him alone, then in the same way, concerning his seeing, no reason should be given and no example required, but it should be allowed to him alone, uniquely, to see the substance of divinity with his body. If we answer that a reason can be given, because a corporeal thing cannot see an incorporeal thing, I fear the reply that the conception also can be explained by reason and confirmed by examples. Either reason will fail in human cases, examples will cease, and they will maintain that the Only-Begotten can see God with his body; or, if a reason has been given here, it will follow that a reason could also be given by some exceedingly wise people for that conception and the birth that followed. So I ask what should be answered to such people. I am not sowing quarrels; I am asking how to answer the treacherous. For my part, I believe the Virgin's conception and birth as I always have, and I gather by whatever reasoning I can that God cannot be seen even by a glorified body. Still, I think we must meet people who are accustomed either to stir up disturbances from questions or to wake up with burning zeal to learn. Pray for us. May the peace and charity of Christ make Your Holiness mindful of us, holy lord and venerably Most Blessed brother.

EPISTOLA 161 Scripta a. 414 aut 415. Evodius Augustino de eo quod ille scripserat in Ep. 137 ad Volusianum: Si ratio quaeritur, non erit mirabile etc., quo dicto abuti eos posse ostendit qui vellent corporeis oculis a Christo Deum videri (nn. 1-2) contra quam docuit Augustinus in epistola 92 ad Italicam (n. 3). DOMINO SANCTO, VENERABILITER DILECTISSIMO FRATRI ET CONSACERDOTI AUGUSTINO, ET FRATRIBUS QUI TECUM SUNT, EVODIUS, ET FRATRES QUI MECUM SUNT, SALUTEM IN DOMINO. Nullius conceptionis posse inveniri rationem. 1. Per Iobinum qui ad possessionem Marcianensem missus erat, dudum unam quaestionem de ratione et Deo missa epistola mea interrogavi; cuius adhuc responsum non merui. Sed quia epistolas Sanctitatis tuae, unam ad illustrem virum Volusianum, et alteram ad Italicam illustrem in Christo feminam, in manibus legentes habuimus; occurrit quod in priore epistola de Domini Iesu Christi Dei nostri carnali in Virgine conceptione, et ex ea nativitate posuisti, "Si ratio quaeritur, non erit mirabile; si exemplum poscitur, non erit singulare", et visum est posse de omni nativitate, et hominis vel cuiuslibet animantis vel seminis tale aliquid dici. Si ratio enim eius quaeratur, non indagabitur, et utique erit mirabile; et si exemplum poscatur, quia nihil tale sit in exemplis, erit singulare. Neque enim quis conventus viri et feminae, vel cuiuslibet conceptionis aliquando, quod in secreto formatur, ratione poterit exponi: aut vero seminum ex terra nascentium, primitus putrescentium, postea fructificantium ulla ratio invenietur. Non enim et hoc mirabile non est vermem unum sine ullo parente, si ad singularitatem aliquid requiratur, intra pomum virgineo conceptu formatum, perfectum inveniri: unde ad exemplum arbitror dictum: Ego vermis, et non homo 1. De conceptionibus ergo sive coniunctorum, sive singularium, nescio quaenam possit ratio exhiberi. Non ergo de conceptione Virginis tantum non redditur, sed de nulla quidem arbitror conceptione posse persolvi rationem. Virginales conceptiones in rerum natura. 2. Si exemplum poscitur: ecce et de vento dicuntur equae, et de cinere gallinae, et de aqua anates, et alia nonnulla animalia, sine virili semine, fetus proprios edere. Certe si integrae non reddunt, tamen possunt illibatae concipere: quomodo ergo ponitur, "Si exemplum poscitur, non erit singulare," quando tot exempla procedunt? Nasci etiam in corporibus, non solum femineis, verum etiam virorum, intrinsecus dico, quaedam animalia, notum est omnibus: numquid et ibi semen facit conceptionem? Ecce exempla, ecce miracula, de quibus ratio nullatenus redditur. Aut si ad hoc redditur, quia in virgine homine nihil tale umquam contingit; tamen sunt exempla in aliis rerum naturis, quia nata et sine seminibus concipiuntur, ex quibus penitus ratio reddi nequaquam potest. Tamen et in generatione est aliquid tale invenire quod sic edat partus, ut integritas naturae non violetur. Soleo enim audire quod aranea sine ulla virili conceptione et partus corruptione, illa omnia fila ex quibus tentis haerere solet, secundum naturae suae modum proferat mirabiliter, et sibi tantum quasi singulari praestitum esse demonstret. Ergo si et hoc quaeratur, non tantum mirabile est, sed exempla talia rerum dari nullatenus possunt. Metuo enim ne ob hoc ipsa praecesserint in exemplis, ut qui non credidissent virginem concipere posse, his exemplis convincerentur esse quidem mirabile, sed tamen non erit singulare: nam omnia Dei opera mirabilia; quia in sapientia facta sunt. Si ergo hoc nobis obiciatur, quid respondebimus? Corpus Christi gloriosum quoad Dei visionem. 3. Illud etiam me urget vehementissime, quod sic potest dici de corporis ipsius Domini clarificati substantia, quia et ipsa poterit videre Dei substantiam (aisti enim in epistola ad Italicam non posse; et certum est): ut cum rationem reddere coeperimus quia non potest, hoc nobis obiciatur, quia si quod in illa conceptione et nativitate factum est, mirabile est et singulare, nec rationem quaeri nolunt, nec exemplum, quia unico hoc praestitum est: ut quemadmodum eis ratio non redditur de conceptione et generatione, sed in illo solo invenitur singulare; sic de eius visione ratio non reddatur, nec exemplum requiratur, sed soli illi singulariter licere divinitatis substantiam corpore videre. Si respondebitur rationem posse reddi, quia corporea re incorpoream rem nequaquam cernere liceat; metuo ne respondeatur quia et conceptio illa ratione exponi, et exemplis possit firmari. Aut enim in hominibus ratio deficiet, et exempla cessabunt, et confirmabunt corpore suo Unigenitum videre posse Deum: aut si ratio hic reddita fuerit, consequetur rationem reddi posse ab aliquibus nimis sapientibus viris, et illius conceptionis, et consequentis generationis. Quid ergo talibus respondeatur, percunctor. Non enim certamina semino, sed quemadmodum insidiosis respondeatur interrogo. Ego tamen sic credo Virginis conceptionem et partum, quomodo semper credidi: et corpore quoque clarificato Deum videri non posse, utcumque ratione colligo. Obviandum tamen censeo hominibus qui aut seditiones ex quaestionibus solent excitare, aut ferventi studio ad discendum evigilare. Ora pro nobis. Pax et Caritas Christi Sanctitatem tuam nostri memorem perficiat, domine sancte, venerabiliterque beatissime frater.