St. AUGUSTINE

Charles P. Poole, Jr.

October 17, 2007

1. Early Life

2. Academic Career

3. Conversion

4. Baptism

5. Monica

6. Confessions

7. Priest and Bishop

8. Geography

9. Heresies

10. City of God

11. Other Writings

12. Final Days and Concluding Comments

Acknowledgment

Bibliography

1. EARLY LIFE

1. Aurelius Augustine was born at the small town of Tagaste, in Numidia, North Africa, in the year 354.and he died at Hippo, in the year 430. We know a great deal about his life from his autobiographical work called the Confessions which covers the period until the death of his mother Monnica in 387. Not long after this he became a public figure and prolific writer, so his later activities were well documented. In addition an associate of his Bishop Possidius of Calama wrote a biography (Vita) of his shortly after his death.

Augustine’s father Patricius was a decurio or municipal official, and a confirmed pagan who converted to Christianity shortly before his death in 371. His mother Monica was of Berber stock, and a committed Christian. Augustine called his family poor, but they did own some land, and perhaps had domestic servants. They sent their son from age 12 to 16 to school at a town Madaura, about 20 miles away. He studied the Latin poet Virgil which he liked, and Greek which he did not do well in. He was a bright student, but exhibited some rebellious tendencies, and detested the floggings that he received. Augustine always appreciated the sacrifices that his father made for his education.

After finishing school and a short stay in Thagaste, at age 17 Augustine went to the metropolis Carthage in 373 to continue his studies. While there he studied rhetoric, and when he read Cicero’s Hortensius which praised the study of philosophy he became very anxious to acquire a philosophical foundation for his life. Following up on this he joined the Manichean religion and stayed with it for nine years. This religion had many adherents at that time. He also took a mistress whose name he never mentions, but to whom he remained faithful for 15 or 16 years. She bore him a son Adeodatus in 372 who was baptized together with him by St. Ambrose in Milan fifteen years later, only to die a year later.

2. ACADEMIC CAREER

After completing his studies at Carthage he returned to Thagaste to teach liberal arts, and his mother would not allow him to stay with her because of his pagan lifestyle. Later he returned to Carthage and opened a school of rhetoric. In 383 the Manichean bishop Faustus came to Carthage and Augustine got to know him. He was impressed at first, but then became disillusioned. Some time later he decided to cross the Mediterranean and visit Rome , leaving behind a very disappointed mother overwhelmed with grief. In Rome he had an unfortunate teaching experience, and he was disillusioned by the way the Manicheans lived, so he ceased to believe in them. Then in 384 he decided to go to Milan, and teach there. Once in Milan he went to hear St. Ambrose preach to find out whether or not his reputation for eloquence was justified, without caring what Ambrose would preach about. His mother Monica arrived in Milan several months later, and was thrilled to find out the her son, although not yet a Catholic, had forsaken Manichaeanism eanism,

While in Milan he befriended some important people in the pagan high society there. In particular he became friends with Symmachus, the prefect of Milan, who soon afterwards became prefect of Rome. Symmachus hired him as a professor of rhetoric for Milan. One of his duties as the rhetorician was to pronounce the official panegyrics or praise for the emperor and the consuls at the imperial court located in Milan, and this gave him entree into the company of high state officials. He also became involved with a group of students interested in philosophy, asceticism, and Christianity. He was impressed by the successes that Ambrose had in dealing with the Arians, and with the government when they tried to encroach on rights of the Church.

3. CONVERSION

Augustine began to attend Mass at the Cathedral in Milan every Sunday and listen to Ambrose’ sermons. They impressed him for two reasons. First, for a long time Augustine had been scandalized by Old Testament passages which seemed to uphold themes like brutality in war, and Ambrose showed how such passages become acceptable when they are interpreted in a spiritual or allegorical manner. Second, the Manicheans had been accusing the Church of viewing God and the soul in very human terms, while Ambrose insisted on emphasizing the spirituality of God and the soul. For example, the invocation in Genesis (1:26) “Let us make man in our image and likeness” does not suggest God being material like human beings, but rather it refers to human beings being spiritual like God. Ambrose covered other themes of interest to Augustine, such as human freedom and the world as the creation of God, but it was the first two themes that especially influenced Augustine. Catholic teachings no longer seemed indefensible to Augustine, but he still had not reached the point of believing them. He previously considered reason and faith to be in conflict, but now he sought to bring them into harmony with each other in accordance with the motto “Reason and Faith” foreshadowing the title of Pope John Paul II’s 1998 encyclical Fides et Ratio. He gradually began to accept the the authority of Scripture, the authority of the Church, and the validity of the Old Testament, which was rejected by the Manicheans,

4. BAPTISM

Toward the end of his conversion he had a mystical experience. He heard a child repeatedly calling to him ”tolle et lege, ...”, or “Take and read, take and read, ...”. He went to his friend Alypius, picked up a Bible, it opened to Rom 13:13, and he read “ Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, ...”. He was converted! During the summer of 386 he withdrew to a secluded place at Cassiciacum with his mother, his son Adeodatus, his friend Alypius, and several other friends and relatives. They engaged in many lengthy religious-philosophical discussions with much time for prayer, which helped to prepare his mind and spirit for baptism. He, Adeodatus, and Alypius returned to Milan early in Lent 387, and he resigned his post as Public Orator. All three were baptized together by Ambrose at Easter.

5. MONICA

Monica, the mother of Augustine, is sometimes referred to by her Berber name Monnica. She was born in c331 and died 387, shortly after seeing her son baptized. She had at least three children: Navigius, Perpetua, and the oldest Augustine. Most of what we know about her comes from the writings (dialogues, lettters, De Beata vita) and especially from the Confessions of her son. When Augustine was living in Thagaste with his mistress and son she refused to let him stay with her. Later when he went to Rome she followed him there, but he had already departed. She then followed him to Milan where they both fell under the influence of the bishop of the city St. Ambrose. Up to that time she had spent many years praying and hoping for his conversion from the Manichean religion to Catholicism. She witnessed the baptism of Augustine and his son Adeodatus by Ambrose at Easter 387. Later that year they embarked on a journey back to Africa via Rome, and Monica died at Ostia near Rome. She is revered as a mother who spent much of her life praying for the conversion of her illustrious son, and being rewarded by witnessing his baptism shortly before her death at 56. Her feast day August 27 comes the day before the feast of her son. She is “A the model of the virtuous mother, who nourished the faith by her prayers, and witnessed it by her deeds¹³.” The Office of Readings for her feast day¹³ has a selection from her son’s Confessions which begins “The day is now approaching when my mother Monica will depart from this life; you know the day Lord, though we do not.”

6. CONFESSIONS

The Confessiones, which Gary Wills¹³ says is a title more properly translated as The Testimony, is a work containing 13 short books written between 397 and 401. The first nine books recount his life from infancy until the death of his mother Monica in 387. They are written in the style of a dialogue or conversation between Augustine and God with Augustine reporting and lamenting the sins of his life. He unsparingly lays bare the turmoil of his soul, which is experiencing much guilt and little consolation. In book 10 he analyzes the psychology of his moral and religious state of mind at the time of writing. In the remaining three books he praises and glorifies God for giving him such a keen insight into his religious convictions.

7. PRIEST AND BISHOP

After Monica passed way in 387 Augustine remained in Rome for a year doing some writing. Then he went to his native town of Thagaste where he lived in monastic seclusion with Alypius, Adiodatus, and several others for about three years. In 391 he made a trip to Hippo hoping to establish a monastery there. When he entered the church Bishop Valerius and his congregation asked him to become a priest. They were upset by the dilapidated condition of their church compared to the more imposing edifice of the Donatists. After some reluctance because he preferred a monastic life to the priestly ministry, Augustine consented and was ordained. The bishop assigned to him the ministry of the word, so he did all the preaching, much to his liking. He soon established a monastery near the church, and lived there with the monks. Four years later in 395 Valerius had him consecrated as his co-adjutor bishop, and when Valerius died soon thereafter Augustine succeeded him at age 41 as the bishop of Hippo.

8. GEOGRAPHY

Carthage was a major North African city of antiquity that had challenged the supremacy of Rome several times. The Carthaginian general Hannibal is famous for bringing elephants across the Alps Mountains to attack Rome during the Second Punic War (218-201 BC). Carthage is now a residential suburb of Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. Hippo (Hippo Regius), situated near the modern town of Annaba in Algeria, was a port city on the Mediterranean in ancient Numidia. Thagaste (Tagaste) and Madaura (Madauros) were smaller towns located, respectively, about seventy and ninety miles south of Hippo, in what is now Algeria.

9. HERESIES

Throughout his life Augustine spent a great deal of time and effort combating several heresies, so it will be helpful to day a few words about each of them. In his youth he was a Manichee or Manichean so after joining the Church he wrote extensively refuting the beliefs and practices of the Manichees. The Arian heresy was more widespread during the century before Augustine lived, but some Arian influence was still around in his era. During his lifetime Donatist churches were as numerous and as influential as Catholic Churches in North Africa. Toward the end of his life the Pelagians became strong and Augustine sought to refute them.

a. Arianism Arius (250-336) was a monk from Alexandria who taught that Jesus was a created being, and therefore was not divine. This proposition was condemned at the First ecumenical council held at Nicaea in 325, where the Nicene Creed proclaimed that Christ is the Son of God, and of the same substance as the Father. Even after the Council some bishops and some church congregations remained Arian. Later in his life (418-428) Augustine wrote against the Arians.

b. Donatism. Donatus was the schismatic bishop of Carthage from 317 to 347, and he had many parishes affiliated with him as bishop. He taught that the validity of a sacrament depended on the worthiness of the minister, whereas the orthodox position is that the validity depends on the power of Christ. While Augustine was bishop he had to contend with the fact that many of the Christian parishes in his region of North Africa were Donatist. In his anti-Donatist writings Augustine emphasized that the Church is a visible community comprising both saints and sinners, and the validity of a sacrament does not depend on the moral state of its minister. Several anti-Donatist books were written between the years 400 and 422.

c .Manichaeanism. Mani, sometimes referred to as Manes (216-277) taught a dualistic doctrine concerning God. He claimed tht there are two eternal and equal principles, one which is light, good and spirit, and a second which is darkness, evil, and matter. A Manichee who belongs to the elect should practice extreme asceticism, and abstain from all sexual activity. Lower ranking Manichees called hearers serve the elect, live less disciplined lives, and hope to eventually attain salvation by being reborn later in the body of an elect. Mani claimed to propose a true universal religion which superceded previous ones proposed by Jesus, Zoroaster, and Buddah. Manichaeanism spread by adapting itself to the cultures of Christianity in the Near East and North Africa, to Zoroastrianism in Persia, and to Buddahism in India. Manichaeansm experienced much opposition form Roman civil authorities. Augustine spent nine years of his life as a Manichee. In his anti-Manichaen writings Augustine emphasized that only the good existed from the beginning since evil has no substance. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are equally the work of God, and Jesus Christ is both truly human and truly divine. Th anti-Manichean works were written between the years of 387 and 428.

d. Pelagianis. Pelagius (350-418) was a monk who taught that the human will is completely free to choose between good and evil, without the need of grace, although grace can be of assistance. Perfection and salvation can be attained on one’s merits alone. The impacts of original sin and the redemption of Christ were thereby diminished. He was excommunicated in 417, and then later restored to communion. His ideas were condemned at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431. Augustine described Pelagius as a saintly man, but in later life wrote several polemical writings against him. Augustine’s writing against Pelagianism, written between 412 and 430, concerned themselves with infant baptism, original sin, the nature of man, grace, and justification.

e. Nestorianism. Nestorius (c381-451) was the patriarch of Constantinople from 428 to 431. He taught that there are two persons in the incarnate Christ, in contrast to the orthodox doctrine of the one person of Christ possessing two natures. He was also unwilling to call Mary Theotokos, or the Mother of God. Nestorianism was condemned in 431 at the ecumenical Council of Ephesus Nestorius accepted the decrees of the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451) before his death.

10. CITY OF GOD

The Visigoth chief Alaric crossed the Rhine river in 406 and went on to sack the city of Rome in the year 410. This event symbolized the end of the Western Roman Empire, and had a strong psychological impact on Augustine. Many pagans blamed Christianity for all the misfortunes of the Empire, and in particular they charged that it had weakened the Empire to such and extent that it could no longer defend itself. Augustine saw fit to respond to them by writing his masterpiece Civitas Dei, the City of God. It compares the characteristics and the fates of two cities, one founded on the love of God, and the other founded on the love of self. Augustine worked on and published this work in installments during the thirteen year period from 413 ro 427.

The overall work is divided into two main parts, Part I which emphasizes the sterility of paganism, and Part II which discusses the struggle between the City of God and the Earthly City. Part I has two sections of five books each, and Part II has three sections of four books each^1,2,7. A theme that runs through the entire work is that of divine providence illuminating and guiding human history.

The first five books 1-5 of Part Ia provide proofs that the worship of pagan gods cannot bring material happiness. They emphasize that various calamities suffered by the Romans have been a result of their paganistic culture. The next five books 6-10 of Part Ib emphasize the spiritual sterility of paganism, that it cannot contribute to the happiness of the future life. Socratic, Platonic, and other philosophies are refuted.

The four books of Part IIa discuss the origin of the two cities. Book 11 treats the Hexaemeron or the six days of creation, Book 12 discusses the creation of angels and men, Book 13 the origin of death through man’s first sin, and Book 14 the punishment and results of man’s first sin.

The next four books, Part IIb, treat the progress of the earthly and heavenly cities. In Book 15 the progress of the two cities is traced by sacred history. Book 16 traces the history of the City of God from Noah to the kings of Israel. Book 17 continues this history from the times of the prophets to Christ. Book 18 provides a parallel history of the two cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world.

The last four books, Part Iic, delineate the destinies of the earthly and heavenly cities. Book 19 reviews various philosophical opinions regarding the supreme good, and compares them with Christian beliefs. Book 20 concerns the last Judgment, and references to it in the Old and New Testaments. Book 21 discusses the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell. The final Book 22 describes the eternal happiness of the saints in heaven, the resurrection of the body, and miracles of the early Church.

11. OTHER WRITINGS

We have already discussed the Confessions, the City of God, and many of the polemical writings. In this section we will comment on other works written by Augustine quoting numbers of works taken from Di Bernardino⁷. Most of his books had been written at the request of someone.

a. Philosophical writings. Ten works on such topics as certitude, existence of God, happiness, human freedom, immortality of the soul, and music.

b. Apologetics. Six works, including among them Civitas Dei, on topics such as the Triune God, and relations between faith and reason.

c. Dogma. Eleven works on the Creed, grace, necessity of faith being accompanied by works, and the inhabitation of the Holy Spirit in souls, included here is his principal dogmatic work The Trinity, De Trinitate

d. Moral and pastoral. Eleven works on mendacity, marriage, virginity, widowhood, and continence, as well as manuals of Christian life and catechetical instruction. .

e. Monastic. Two works, including the theology of Work and Pray or Ora et Labora..

f. Exegetical. Fourteen works on Genesis, Job, Sermon on the Mount, Beatitudes, and a collection of moral precepts from the Old and New Testaments.

g. Retractationes. This was a reexamination of the literary output of his life written mainly about three years before his death. It includes critiques, corrections of some mistakes, and updating of youthful passages on which he now has more mature reflections. In short, it is a commentary writings of his life. Di Bernardino⁷ refers to this document as “A long examination of conscience of the elderly writer on his own literary activity.”

h. Other. Over 270 letters and three treatises on Saint John, the Psalms and Sermons.

12. FINAL DAYS AND CONCLUDING COMMENTS

In 426, four years before his death, Augustine chose a successor and assigned to him the administration of the diocese, He felt that at age 72 his administrative and writing apostolates were becoming too burdensome, so he relinquished the first to continue going full speed ahead with the second. His last four years were a time of astonishing writing and other activity, including presiding over a Council of the African Churches held at Hippo in 427. Fortunately for posterity he was able to complete his masterpiece the City of God, he continued working on the Retractationes, and he started but never finished writing a book on Heresies.

When the conquering Vandals began roaming North Africa a number of Augustine’s fellow bishops took refuge in Hippo, a fortified city. The siege of Hippo lasted fourteen months, but Augustine only survived the first three of them. He died on August 28, 430, at age 76. He left behind him three great treasures: his clergy, his monasteries, and his books. Most of his over 100 written works, including in addition the bulk of his correspondence, survived the Vandal conquest, and were an inspiration for the overall Church down through the Middle Ages, and now on into modern times. Trape¹² points out the comment of Isidore of Seville (560-636): “If anyone claims to have read all of Augustine’s works that person is a liar.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author wishes to thank Doris Chrisley for her helpful comments and suggestions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Berthold Altaner, Patrology, Herder and Herder, New York, 1960, pp 487 to 534.

2. Augustine, The City of God, Modern library, New York, 1950.

3. Augustine, Confessions, Baker Publ., Grand Rapids MI, 2005.

4. Gerald Bonner, Augustine of Hippo, Canterbury Press, Norwich, 1988.

5. Leon Cristiani, Santa Monica, Ediciones Paulinas, Coyoacin, Mexico, 1988.

6. Butlers lives of the Saints, Liturgical Press, Collegeville MN, 1999; Feast Day

Aug. 28

7. Angelo Di Bernardino, Patrology, Christian Classics, Maryland, 1992, Vol. 4,

pp 342 to 465.

8. Aloys Dirksen, Elementary Patrology, B, Herder Book Co., 1969, pp 161 to 170.

9. John J, Fink, The Doctors of the Church, Alba House, New York, 2000, Vol. 1,

pp 127 to 146.

10. Enzo Lodi and Jordan Amann, Saints of the Roman Calendar, Alba House, 1992;

Feast Day Aug. 28

11. J. Tixeront, A Handbook of Patrology, B, Herder Book Co., 1957, pp 259 to 269.

12. Agostino Trape, Saint Augustine Man, Pastor, Mystic, Catholic Book Publ. Co. New York, 1986.

13. Gary Wills, Sant Augustine, Penguin Books, 1999.

14, The Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office), feast day August 27^th. ,