L'inno al Mare della Passio Fabii

The Passio Fabii is about the martyrdom of uexillifer Fabius and was composed
in the first years of the fifth century, by an anonymous hagiographer
of Mauretania Caesariensis. In the ninth and tenth chapter of the hagiographical
text there is an account of the miraculous recomposition and restitution
of Fabius’ corpse, made by the sea. To this natural element, which is
a visible expression of God, the hagiographer raises a thanksgiving hymn in
prose. Particularly elaborated in its style, the piece presents hymnody characteristics,
both classical and patristic biblical. The hymn allows the hagiographer
to expound in a concise way the principles of faith and to convey them to a culturally heterogeneous audience through suauitas of poetic prose