Augustine
was born on November 13, 354 at Tagaste, on the northern coast of
Africa, in what is now Algeria. He was raised as a Christian by his
mother, Monica, despite his father, Patricius, being a pagan. His
mother’s example of fervent faith was a strong influence on the young
boy, one that would follow him throughout his life.
Although he
had been enrolled amongst the catechumens in his youth and had received a
Christian education in Tagaste, Augustine had nevertheless deferred the
reception of Baptism, and was as yet unbaptized when the question of
his advanced studies arose. Proud of his son’s academic prowess and
prospects, Patricius was determined to send Augustine to Carthage, but
had not the means available and thus it was that his eldest son spent
his sixteenth year in an idleness that proved fatal to his virtue.
Having
thrown himself wholeheartedly into the pursuit of pleasure and
gradually given up the practice of prayer, by the time Augustine reached
Carthage late in the year 370, he was easily won over by the seductions
of the half-pagan city. When his father died in 371, soon after he
arrived in Carthage, Augustine became the nominal head of the family and
set up a household with a concubine, the mother of his son, Adeodatus,
born about 372.
At the university Augustine studied literature
and poetry, Latin, public speaking, and rhetoric. A terrible crisis of
faith followed close upon his moral dissipation and Augustine fell into
the snares of the Manichæans, a heretical sect that believed all flesh
and matter to be evil, denied free will and attributed the commission of
a crime to a foreign principle. Once he was won over by the sect,
Augustine devoted himself to it with all the vehemence of his ardent
nature and drew into it a number of friends by his proselytizing. Over
time Augustine became disenchanted with the irresolvable contradictions
he observed in the teachings of the Manichæans, but it took nine years
for the illusion to die completely.
At the age of twenty-nine,
Augustine set off secretly for Rome, resorting to subterfuge to avoid
being followed by his mother, Monica. After a brief sojourn in Rome, he
applied for a vacant professorship in Milan, where he was soon joined by
his mother. His meeting with St. Ambrose so impressed him that he
became a regular attendant at the bishop’s sermons. Cicero’s work
Hortensius was also instrumental in Augustine’s final conversion,
inspiring him with the desire to seek the truth. His passions, however,
were to enslave him for another three years. Finally, through the
reading of the Holy Scriptures light penetrated his mind. Grace soon
followed and the thirty-three-year-old Augustine resigned his
professorship, put aside a prospective marriage arranged by his mother,
and retired to a country estate to devote himself entirely to the
pursuit of true philosophy, now inseparable in his mind from
Christianity.
With
his son, and the friends who had accompanied him into retirement, he
was baptized on Easter Sunday in 387 by St. Ambrose. His ordination to
the priesthood in 391 was followed by his consecration as Bishop of
Hippo four years later. His priestly and episcopal ministries were both
admirably fruitful: he fought heresy with lionlike tenacity, challenged
heretics to public debates, attended Church councils, and was a
prodigious writer and zealous preacher. One of the greatest theologians
of all time, among his extant works can be found more than 300 sermons,
500 letters, and numerous other writings on a wide variety of topics.
Whilst refuting a Pelagian heretic, Augustine was stricken with a fatal
illness. For three months he suffered with unconquerable patience amid
continuous prayer, and died on August 28 in the year 430.
Saturday, August 28, 2021
St. Augustine of Hippo
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