Bryson Sewell has now translated for us Severian of Gabala’s sermon on repentance, De paenitentia et compunctione (CPG 4186). This is another rather splendid ancient sermon, as most of those attributed to Severian seem to be (so far!). Whether they are really by Severian may reasonably be doubted a lot of the time, I admit.
Anyway here it is. It’s also at Archive.org. As ever, these are public domain. Use them however you like.
Don’t doubt about the authenticity of De paenitentia, since its style is pretty much Severian’s and the homily enjoys some lateral tradition under Severian’s name.
PD. There was a typo in one of my previous comments: whereas De paenitentia (PG 49) is undoubtedly authentic, De fide (PG 60) should be ranged among the spuria, for absolute lack of convincing stylistical similarities with the authentic corpus (the rather ancient attribution to Severian in Ethiopic notwithstanding).
Thank you very much for this clarification on De Paenitentia and De Fide! Much appreciated.
De Paenitentia is a powerful sermon, and I suspect that it could be preached today with little modification.
Bryson is thinking about translating De Spiritu Sancto next. 🙂
I do agree that the “de fide” is not at all in the style of Severian. I wrote, presenting this homily in the little “corpus” i am preparing : “Une remarque toutefois s’impose : quoique cette homélie soit expressément attribuée à Sévérien de Gabala dans le texte éthiopien, elle dénote curieusement par le style et la manière : Sévérien nous a habitué à des développements certes prolixes mais souvent – sinon toujours – surprenants ; dans cette homélie, l’auteur se contente d’aligner de lassantes répétitions, sans génie.”
Thank you. I had not read the sermon, so it is interesting to see that it omits this feature of Severian’s style.