Some Notes on St. Augustine (354-430 AD)
1. Augustine was born in Tagaste, Numidia (now Souk Ahras, Algeria). His father was Patricius, a pagan who was baptized on his deathbed. His mother was Monica, a very devout Christian, who would deeply influence his life. Augustine deferred Baptism at various points of his life.
Finally in 387, he and his son, Adeodatus, were baptized by the Archbishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, to the great and tearful joy of his mother, St. Monica. His conversion had been prompted by a child’s voice saying, “Tolle, lege” (Take up and read). He opened a book of St. Paul’s letters and read, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts” (Roms. 13: 13-14).
2. Augustine had a brother named Navigius and a sister named Perpetua. Sent off by his parents to study, Augustine completed his education in Carthage, the great city of Roman Africa. After first teaching in Tagaste, he returned to Carthage to teach Rhetoric, the premier science for a Roman gentleman.
3. In 383, at the age of 28, restless and ambitious, he left Africa to make his career in Rome. He became an imperial professor of Rhetoric in Milan. But after only two years, he resigned his teaching post and made his way back to Tagaste. There he took care of the family property and raised his son, Adeodatus, born of a long-time unknown lover from the lower classes. When the adolescent Adeodatus died, Augustine sold the family property.
4. In 391, at the age of 46, Augustine was made a presbyter at Hippo. He delivered sermons with fire and fierceness in an idiom that his less cultured audience could admire. Augustine became a bishop of Hippo (now the modern Annaba, Algeria) in 395 or 396 and spent the rest of his life in that office. He founded a monastic community in his family’s house, now the Augustinian Order, to which our new Pope Leo XIV belongs.
5. Augustine was never without controversies. He wrote book after book attacking Manichaeism, which he had joined for 10 years. From the 390s to the 410s he struggled to make his brand of Christianity prevail in Africa. The native African tradition had become Donatist, a schismatic sect led by Donatus. In 411, the emperor sent an official representative to Carthage to settle the issue. Hundreds of bishops attended the debates. The ruling favored Augustine, and legal restrictions were imposed on Donatism.
6. But in his 60s, Augustine faced a last great challenge from Pelagius, a traveling preacher. His polemics against Pelagius resulted in the excommunication of Pelagius in 418. Pelagius had already been condemned in 416 by African bishops and again in 418.
7. After the Visigoths sacked Rome in 410, signalling the disintegration of the Western Roman Empire, Augustine wrote his book, The City of God. He imagined the Church as a spiritual City of God, distinct from the Earthly City.
8. Shortly after Augustine’s death, Hippo and Carthage fell to the Vandals, ending the long period of Pax Romana. The Vandals adhered to a different version of Christianity and reigned over Africa for a century until Roman forces from Constantinople overthrew them. The Islamic invasions in the 7th century finally put an end to Christian influence in North Africa.
9. Augustine survived in his writings. His mortal remains went to Sardinia and then to Pavia where a shrine was built for his remains.
10. The legacy of St. Augustine is immense. He is one of the most important Fathers of the Latin Church, and perhaps the most significant Christian thinker after St. Paul. His adaptation of the ancient Platonic tradition to Christian teaching created a theological system of great power and lasting influence.
His numerous writings, the most important of which are Confessions and the City of God, shaped the practice of biblical exegesis and helped lay the foundation of medieval and modern Christian thought. His writings display the strength and sharpness of his mind and possess the rare power to attract the attention of readers. He was formally recognized as a Doctor of the Church, the Doctor of Grace, in 1298 by Pope Boniface VIII.
“The measure of love is to love without measuring” (St. Augustine).
11. Prayer — Renew in your Church, we pray, O Lord, that spirit with which you endowed your Bishop St. Augustine that, filled with the same spirit, we may thirst for you, the sole fount of true wisdom, and seek you, the author of heavenly love. This we pray, through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Prayers, best wishes, God bless!