the key to heaven

[ursula]

I'm trying to figure out whether a seventeenth-century motto, "Crux Christi clavis coeli," is a quotation from someone else. Web-surfing suggests that it may be an adaptation from St. Augustine; can anyone confirm this? Did Augustine ever write that the cross of Christ is the key to Heaven, and if so, where did he do so?

Comments

[ursula]

Continuing to play the "similar remarks by Augustine" game:

Oratio justi, clavis est coeli. Ascendit precatio, et descendit Dei miseratio.

The prayer of the just is the key of heaven. Prayer ascends, and the compassion of God descends.

He also discusses the Matthew quote that glasseye mentions at length, but largely in the context of justification of the Church as the descendant of Peter.

(This game is harder than it looks, since "key" and "with nails" are the same word in Latin ;) )