2 lost sermons by St. Augustine about Witch of Endor discovered in Polish monastery

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Saturday, June 20, 2026

A Latin scholar in Germany recently discovered two lost sermons written by fourth-century church father Augustine of Hippo about the mysterious Witch of Endor from 1 Samuel 28.

Professor Christian Tornau, a Latin scholar at the University of Würzburg, made the discovery after receiving a phone call in 2024 from an employee of the Bad Doberan Monastery Association in northeastern Germany, according to a press release from the university earlier this month.

The employee asked Tornau for his help in deciphering a 12th-century manuscript that contains six sermons by Augustine and is housed at a monastery in Pelplin, Poland.

Tornau ultimately discovered that the medieval manuscript contained work by the influential philosopher and church father that had been lost.

"Two of the six sermons are previously undiscovered writings by Augustine," he said.

Both of the newly-discovered sermons address the story of the Witch of Endor recounted in 1 Samuel 28. According to the biblical text, a desperate King Saul, facing a looming battle with the Philistines and hearing no answer from God, disobeys his own edicts against witchcraft by consulting a medium in Endor to conjure the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel.

When Samuel's supposed spirit appears in response to the witch's necromancy, which apparently terrifies her, he rebukes Saul and prophesies that he and his sons would die in battle the next day, an event recounted in 1 Samuel 31.

The story has prompted debate over whether the incident was a demonic deception or divine judgment, and Tornau explained that Augustine addressed such questions in the unearthed sermons.

"Why can a necromancer summon the spirit of a prophet? This in turn opens up the theodicy problem: how can an omnipotent God allow this or is he not really omnipotent?" he said.

"The first [sermon] was preached during the Sunday service and ends with the theodicy question and the interpretations," Tornau said. "It was not until the second sermon on the following Wednesday that the options were weighed up."

Tornau said the open-ended nature of the sermons, which offered competing interpretations without forcing a conclusion, was typical of Augustine.

"The style, humor and content also clearly indicate that the sermons in the manuscripts were actually written by Augustine," he said.

Because of past alleged Augustine writings that have turned out to be forgeries, Tornau and 20 other Latin scholars convened in Vienna last fall to assess and verify the text, and all agreed the sermons are authentic.

A 12th-century copy is relatively late for such material, and scholars believe it likely derives from an earlier manuscript from Amelungsborn Abbey in Lower Saxony, whose original library was destroyed during the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century.

"This is not a sensational find like the 30 writings of St. Augustine that were discovered in Mainz in 1990. But we are supplementing Augustine's extensive body of writings with two further exciting texts in a critical edition," Tornau said. The university noted that the edition is expected to be published by the end of the year.

Augustine of Hippo is one of the most influential figures in the history of Western Christianity, famous for his classic works such as "The Confessions of St. Augustine" and his magnum opus "The City of God." He lived during a tumultuous time in world history, which included the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in A.D. 410, and much of his work is addressed to Christians amid a crumbling civilization.