Rosmini and St Augustine
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Talk 1 Augustine, Ignatius and Rosmini Introduction Rosmini explicitly said to his Secretary Francesco Paoli, ‘There are three founders of our Institute: St Augustine, whose spirit must be ours, shows us the practice of twofold charity in his works; St Ignatius, as regards the government of the Institute; and St Francis of Sales as regards the spirit of special mildness and pleasing conversation.’1 An early influence on Rosmini was St Philip Neri: We can mention his book Lodi di S. Filippo Neri which was drawn up in 1817 and recited in an Academy of young students in Padova. It was published in 1821. St Philip also appeared in Rosmini’s Dell’educazione Cristiana published in 1821 together with St Francis of Sales, and St Thomas. St Francis of Sales commands first place, not only for the abundance of references but for explicit assessments which show a profound assimilation of his spirituality. He hails him in one of his early letters as ‘the head of the great spiritual masters of the spirit and the most reasonable’. In chapter two of Dell’educazione cristiana he recommends him as spiritual reading and quotes him as saying that ‘spiritual reading is the oil of the lamp of prayer.2 He says we cannot always have a director gifted like St Francis with ‘learning, prudence and charity3’In the rules of Società degli amici [The Society of Friends] he lays down that ‘the chosen spirit and characteristics will be serenity and tranquillity of mind obtained through a continual exercise of interior mortification’ this, he continues ‘is the spirit of St Francis of Sales: the study of whose works will be studied especially.’4 Whereas we can show an explicit connection and influence between Augustine and Rosmini in Rosmini’s philosophical and theological work and also in the Constitutions5 and between St Ignatius and Rosmini in the latter’s general interest in the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, Constitutions and Rule, it is not to easy to show St Francis of Sales’ influence. What we can say is that perhaps he exercises a gentle, moderating influence on Rosmini’s interpretation and use of Ignatian spirituality which tends to be more severe and uncompromising. 1 Pagani, Giovanni Battista, revised by Guido Rossi, La Vita di Antonio Rosmini, (= Rossi),vol. I, p. 826. Cf. Francesco Paoli, Della Vita di Antonio Rosmini Serbati, Memorie di Francesco Paoli, (= Paoli), vol. II, Delle sue virtù, .P I, C. II, Art. III, p. 64. 2 A. Rosmini, Dell’educazione cristiana, Edizione Critica (= Ediz. Crit), (31), Roma, 1994, C.II, n.9, p. 42. 3 Ibid., c. III, n. 16, p. 45. See also pp. 46, 127, 152, 153, 178. 4 Ubaldo Pellegrino, Rosmini e De Apollonia, Marzorati, Milano, 1974, II, p. 134. 5 QuaCQuarelli states ‘the greater stress is on the rule of St Augustine in the whole spirit which pervades the Constitutions. St Ignatius is there but there is a lot of St Augustine’. Antonio QuaCQuarelli, La Lezione patristica di Antonio Rosmini (= LP), Città Nuova Editrice, Rome, 1980, Chapter 5, p. 60. 1 Rosmini and St Augustine .Rosmini’s Interest in Augustine Rosmini preferred St Augustine to all the other Fathers. He has his equal only in St Thomas. He called them ‘the two pillars on which to build any knowledge.’6Rosmini calls Augustine ‘one of the two luminaries whom I have taken as my guide’; the other is St Thomas.7 And in his Psicologia [Psychology] he refers to Augustine as ‘one of my two great masters in philosophical as well as theological speculation’, the other being St Thomas.8 It would be interesting to know what sparked off Rosmini’s interest. Maybe it was his study of St Thomas from a very early age. The thought of Thomas is entwined with that of Augustine. Rosmini thought that St Thomas was one of the most faithful interpreters of the Fathers because ‘he was always especially careful to harmonise his thought with that of ancient Christianity and the teachings of St Augustine.’9 In his Theodicy Rosmini mentions ‘these two great authorities’ and even that Augustine was the master of Thomas.10 He was reading Rayemont di Sombrenses’ Moral Reflections on the Bible taken from the Fathers when he was eleven or twelve years old, and he wrote three half pages of notes on Augustine’s Enchiridion when he was 14.11 The first mention of Plato in Rosmini’s reading lists is recorded at the same time.12 In the same year there is his Dialogo fra Cieco e Lucillo (Dialogue between Cieco and Lucillo) 40 pages long. In this work he refers to the chapter De cohabitatione clericorum in Regula ad Servos Dei of St Augustine. Rosmini says that there are three species of love. The first is profane love, of a woman, the second, friendship, and the third, is spiritual love, which is divine love.13 At this time, ‘there are observations and notes — tentative attempts at development and personal statements. But already persistent trends are appearing; the theme of charity is clearly pre-eminent and the influence of Augustine is gradually asserting itself.’14 In the years 1812–13 St Augustine’s Confessions is listed. Augustine is cited thirty four times in his Il Giorno di solitudine. This research would lead to his own characteristic attitude to and treatment of the subject. His first systematic work on charity was his Storia dell’ amore, 1821. An impelling statement of Augustine was responsible for this youthful study on Sacred Scripture. ‘Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbour, does not yet understand them as he ought.’15If we add to all this the well known incident in 1815 when, on a walk, he discovered the importance of the idea of being, we can see how all these factors would have contributed to the impact of Augustine on 6 A. Rosmini, Pro–memoria per la Società degli Amici di Udine. Cf. GianfranCo RadiCe, Annali di Antonio Rosmini Serbati (= Annali), Marzorati, Milano,1970,Vol. III, p. 184. 7 A. Rosmini, Introduzione alla filosofia (= Introduzione), Ediz. Crit., Roma, 1979, vol 2, p. 208. 8 A. Rosmini, Psicologia, Ediz. Crit., (9–10A), Roma, 1988-1989, n. 117, p. 88, [PsycHology, Durham, 1999, Vol. 1, n. 117, p. 75]. 9 A. Rosmini, Antropologia soprannaturale (= AS), Ediz. Crit. (39), Roma, 1983, p. 435. 10 A.Rosmini, Teodicea, Ediz. Crit. (22) 1977, Lib. III, n. 616, p. 363 and n 939, p. 542 [TheodiCy, Longmans, Green and Co. 1912, Vol. II, p. 97 and Vol. II, p. 394]. 11 See p. 23. 12 Annali, Vol. I, 1967 p. 64 mentions among the books read or Consulted Plato’s Phaedo; see p. 60 for Augustine’s EncHiridion. 13 Ibid., I, pp. 55–56 and pp. 93–94; Cf. Valle, op. cit., p. 113. 14 Alfeo Valle (= Valle), Momenti e valori della spiritualità Rosminiana, Città nuova editriCe, Roma,1978, p. 114. 15 Augustine, De doctrina Christiana, I. 36, 40. Cf. Valle, op. cit., p.144. 2 Rosmini’s intellectual and spiritual development.16 Picenardi points out that Rosmini owed the theory of the idea of being and feeling to this great Father.17 In 1822 he wrote Dell’ educazione cristiana [On Christian Education] in which St Augustine features explicitly in ‘areas concerned with charity proper to education, method and order in teaching, and in the organisation of knowledge and its structure’18 The number of books by Augustine which Rosmini read or consulted is far greater than those of the other Fathers. Rosmini was thoroughly conversant with Augustine’s works and quotes and refers to him in his works more than any other Father. In the Supernatural Anthropology he quotes St Augustine 140 times, second comes St Ambrose with 42 references. A quantitative survey of quotations to establish a scale of preference of the Fathers could be misleading, because this would depend on the nature of the work and whether Rosmini sees a particular Father’s work as suited to his particular argument. For instance Augustine is quoted less than some other Fathers in the Cinque piaghe, losing his priority in this respect, because of the historical context of the work and the topics dealt with. In this book he quotes St Gregory the Great 13 times and St Augustine 11 times! But certainly Rosmini’s preference for Augustine is incontrovertible, not simply because of the number of quotations, but because Rosmini explicitly refers to him as the source from which he draws doctrinal statements. He and St Thomas are the two authorities which he used to illustrate doctrines, especially controversial ones. As I said above, in 1821 he published his Del modo di catechizare gl’idioti, his translation of St Augustine’s work De Catechizandis rudibus, [Catechism for Beginners]. Apropos of this he wrote, ‘So there are very many opportune things which are appropriate even for our day and his whole method, as I see it, would be still very suitable, as it draws on Sacred Scripture, the character of Christianity, and imitates the way with which Divine Providence teaches the world.’19 Rosmini wrote a charming letter to Alessandro Paravia in this year, ‘Thank you for the cheerful face you put on my two little works (the other one is presumably Delle lodi di S. Filippo) riddled as they are, from top to bottom with enormous errors. This is not the fault of the very careful proof-readers and printers, but through the defective manuscript.