Two previously unknown sermons by Augustine of Hippo on the Old Testament story of King Saul and the Witch of Endor have been authenticated by an international team of scholars, adding a surprising new chapter to one of Christian history’s most studied voices.
The discovery traces back to Latin professor Christian Tornau of the University of Würzburg, who in 2024 was asked to examine a 12th-century manuscript of six sermons attributed to Augustine held in a monastery in Pelplin, Poland. Four of the texts matched already known sermons, but Tornau identified two as previously unrecorded works that had gone unnoticed for centuries.
To test the finding, Tornau and colleagues subjected the texts to detailed stylistic and philological analysis, comparing language, humor, and theological themes with Augustine’s established corpus. Around 20 Latin specialists then gathered at a Vienna summer school in autumn 2025, and the group reportedly reached a unanimous judgment that the sermons are genuine Augustine. A critical edition is now in preparation, with publication planned by the end of 2026.
Both sermons focus on 1 Samuel 28, the account in which a desperate King Saul, facing battle with the Philistines and receiving no answer from God, seeks out a medium in Endor to summon the prophet Samuel. The narrative poses a sharp theological question: how a necromancer could appear to call forth a prophet of God, and why an omnipotent God would permit such an event. Augustine’s newly uncovered preaching wrestles directly with this tension, treating the episode as a test case for divine sovereignty, human disobedience, and the reality of spiritual powers.
Reports from Catholic and ecumenical outlets note that Augustine considers more than one possibility about what Saul actually witnessed—whether it was truly Samuel or a deceptive spirit—and weighs the advantages and difficulties of each view. According to Tornau, the sermons ultimately argue that the medium has no independent power and that any appearance of Samuel would occur only by God’s permission, not by occult force. Perhaps most striking, several commentators highlight Augustine’s suggestion that after hearing Samuel’s prophecy of doom, Saul still could have repented and found redemption, a nuance that appears to be absent from Augustine’s previously known treatments of the passage.
The find is significant not only for filling in gaps in Augustine’s extensive preaching ministry but also for mapping how early Christian exegesis of 1 Samuel 28 developed over time. An Oxford study of patristic interpretations of the Witch of Endor has already noted that Augustine’s views on the passage shifted across his career, and the new sermons give scholars fresh material for tracing that trajectory in relation to questions of prophecy, magic, and divine agency.
For the monastery in Pelplin, the manuscript’s newfound importance brings global attention to a collection that had largely served local devotional and archival purposes. Media reports indicate that other accounts place the manuscript’s earlier provenance at Bad Doberan Abbey in Germany, suggesting that its journey through medieval and modern Europe is still being reconstructed. As editors finalize the critical edition and translations, patristics scholars and pastors alike are watching for how Augustine’s long-hidden reflections on Saul’s necromancy will reshape ongoing discussions about the interpretation of one of Scripture’s most enigmatic episodes.