"Primarium officium nostrum es in terra praestere quod angeli in coelo" - Augustine

Translated: "Our primary duty is to carry out on earth what the angels do in heaven"

-- David Ortiz (cyberpunk1986@hotmail.com), July 20, 2004

Answers

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-- David Ortiz (cyberpunk1986@hotmail.com), July 20, 2004.

Dave

first you need to check the Latin.

eg "es" should be "est". try "in caelis" fr "in coeli". check spelling of "praestere".

etc

then paste it straight no Google,

and then tell us the answer!!!

-- Ian (ib@vertifgo.com), July 22, 2004.

No such luck.

-- David Ortiz (cyberpunk1986@hotmail.com), July 22, 2004.

Could it be from The City of God?

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-- rod (elreyrod@yahoo.com), July 22, 2004.

Rod, you're probably right. "praestere" should be praestare. The rest same as Ian. Problem with finding it on Google is I don't know of any Latin archive for Augustine's work.

-- Vincent (love@noemail.net), July 23, 2004.

Hi Vincent,

I haven't had a chance to read the book, yet. I'm going on a hunch and the phrase would seem to fit . I've only read excerpts here and there.

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-- rod (elreyrod@yahoo.com), July 23, 2004.

Rod, you can probably get it from ccel.org I think. You can definitely read it at newadvent.org. Here's a love@noemail.net), July 23, 2004.

link = http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1201.htm

Sorry about that, two-posting wastes space..

-- Vincent (love@noemail.net), July 23, 2004.

I realized something before going to sleep. "in caelis" is plural, it's probably "in caelo", singular genitive. Google search points Father Greg Swan's (Benedictine?) obituary :O

-- Vincent (love@noemail.com), July 24, 2004.

Dave

found the answer yet!?!?

-- Ian (ib@vertfigo.com), July 25, 2004.

No, haven't found it.

-- David Ortiz (cyberpunk1986@hotmail.com), July 25, 2004.

David, I found the quote here: ETIKA on the internet. I tried reading the Spanish part of the site, but I didn't understand everything.

"El abad" means "the abbot." Who is San Benito and what is "Militaturus"? I think this quote may be continuing from his, although I'm not sure. Was San Benito an abbot? Perhaps we can get some help from our Spanish-speaking friends?

What is the purpose for which you want to know about this quote?

By the way, it seems that your quote may have had some misspellings, according to the site above. The words in bold were slightly altered.

"Primarium officium nostrum est in terra praestare quod angeli in coelo"

-- Emily ("jesusfollower7@yahoo.com), July 25, 2004.

Thanks Emily, though I am not sure what all that says. I did run into the site before though..

"What is the purpose for which you want to know about this quote?"

I was helping somebody find, I thought someone might have known here.

-- David Ortiz (cyberpunk1986@hotmail.com), July 25, 2004.

"What is the purpose for which you want to know about this quote?"

he was trying to find it for a friend who is preparing a very anti Catholic religious paper, Emily!!!!

i am not helping you anymore, David ;-)

-- Ian (ib@vertifgo.com), July 30, 2004.

He doesn't write papers ;)

-- David Ortiz (cyberpunk1986@hotmail.com), July 30, 2004.

http://www.coffeeconversations.com/index.php?p=198&c=1

www.coffeeconversations.com

-- David Ortiz (cyberpunk1986@hotmail.com), August 01, 2004.