No big deal, just the discovery of new sermons delivered by one of the Early Church Fathers.
It's apparently true.
More on the discovery from the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg:
One day in 2024, the telephone of Professor Christian Tornau, a Latin scholar at the University of Würzburg, rings: an employee of the Bad Doberan Monastery Association in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania asks him to decipher a manuscript from the 12th century that originally belonged to Bad Doberan Abbey but is now kept in its daughter monastery in Pelplin, Poland. The manuscript contains six sermons by the Christian church scholar Augustine of Hippo (354-430).
Augustine lived 1,600 years ago in the Roman Empire (in modern-day Algeria, specifically).
He is one of the most influential theologians and philosophers in Western Civilization.
What initially looks like a normal philological assignment turns into a discovery: 'Two of the six sermons are previously undiscovered writings by Augustine,' says Professor Tornau, delighted with the unexpected find. He is currently working with Professor Dorothea Weber and Dr Clemens Weidmann from the edition company CSEL (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum) on an edition of the two Latin sermons.
If you thought other authors and musical acts went a long time between releasing new material, ol' Augustine has them beat.
Here's a picture:
So, what were the sermons about? Do they disprove that modern Christians believe the exact same thing that Christians did at the very beginning?
Far from it.
They show that the Christian faith is continuous, constant, and reliable:
The newly discovered sermons deal with the Old Testament story of the Witch of Endor from the First Book of Samuel. ‘Saul believes himself to be in a hopeless situation shortly before a battle against the Philistines. God does not listen to his prayers. He turns to a witch,' explains Tornau. At Saul's request, she conjures up the supposed spirit of the deceased prophet Samuel, who predicts his death in battle.
The story raises a theological question: ‘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?' says the Latin scholar. There are two interpretations in theology: Either it must be a deception on the part of the witch, or God allowed the incantation to warn Saul of certain death.
The sermons play with these interpretations. ‘The first was preached during the Sunday service and ends with the theodicy question and the interpretations. It was not until the second sermon on the following Wednesday that the options were weighed up,' says Tornau. The church audience was therefore given a certain amount of freedom to form their own thoughts on the biblical passage.
Augustine's congregation studied and wrestled with the same questions in the same Bible that we do today.
As for the authenticity of the new sermons…
There have already been cases in which supposed Augustine writings turned out to be forgeries. The Latin studies professor therefore proceeded with caution: He analysed the text together with expert Clemens Weidmann, carried out meticulous research and organised a summer school in Vienna in autumn 2025. Twenty other Latin scholars attended to discuss and verify the authenticity of the text. In the end, everyone agreed: the sermons are genuine.
Now that there are two previously unreleased Augustine sermons about to go live, your pastor is going to have some serious competition.
What's next? The discovery of St. Augustine's podcast?
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