BORN 354; DIED 430 contrary to his Christian upbringing and so pro- AND DOCTOR OF THE duced in him many questions. Nevertheless, he FEAST DAY: AUGUST 28 Au�u stineremained o� a Manichean Hi��o for nine years, his spiri- �t. tual life in confusion. UMAN BROKENNESS has many faces. Left to Yet during these years in , his career ourselves, the human situation is hopeless. as a teacher of was taking off and he be- HHuman nature left to itself is in a of came well-known for and poetry. In slavery — “slaves of ” (Rom 6:17) is how 383 at the age of twenty-nine, Augustine left for St. Paul describes those who have not respond- Rome to open a new school of rhetoric. Howev- ed to the promptings of ’s grace. St. Au- er, he soon was offered a teaching post in . gustine was painfully familiar with the slavery His mother, now a widow, followed him to Mi- of sin, especially of the flesh. lan, continually praying for his conversion. Augustine was born in the small Numidian town Augustine soon heard about St. , the of Tagaste, not far from (respectively, mod- bishop of Milan. St. Ambrose was a powerful ern Souk-Ahras and modern in ). speaker who delivered eloquent in the ca- His father Patritius was a pagan and his mother thedral, was an eminent interpreter of Sacred Scrip- Monica was a Christian who did her best to raise ture, tenaciously fought heresy, and lived a live of Augustine in the , although his father would not deep prayer and . Under St. Ambrose’s in- allow him to be baptized. (Patritius himself eventu- fluence, the power of God’s Word began to work ally accepted shortly before his death.) on Augustine. He was more and more convinced At the age of sixteen, Augustine left for Carthage about the of the , but could not see a (in modern Tunisia) to study law, rhetoric, and phi- way out of his sin. One day while walking through losophy. He got involved with a young woman (we a garden, he cried out to the Lord, “How long, O do not know her name) and, as many young men Lord? you be angry with me forever? Re- sadly do, got her pregnant. His son Adeodatus member not my past sins!” He then heard a voice (“Gift of God”) was born in 372, when Augustine saying, “Take and read!” He quickly picked up was eighteen. Even more irresponsibly, Augustine his , and it fell open to the following passage: did not marry the woman but merely kept her for “[L]et us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not several years as his mistress (she eventually in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and li- entered a cloistered religious life, leaving centiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But Adeodatus with his father). put on the Lord Jesus , and make no Shortly thereafter, Au- provision for the flesh, to gratify gustine fell in with a reli- its desires” (Rom 13:13-14). gious sect called the Man- As he read these words, his icheans, which taught heart filled with joy as he that God was the accepted the Lord into cause of all his life. but that there was Many years an equally pow- later, Augustine erful force wrote one of the that was the cre- great spiritual ator of the mate- masterpieces of rial world. This all , his Con- kind of dualist fessions. He de- , which ap- scribed in this pears again and book the wrench- again in human ing struggle he

, was KERRIS PAUL experienced

The Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) grants the original purchaser (, local parochial institution, or individual) permission to reproduce this handout. in his at the time of his con- same time. Augustine returned to version. He was drawn to Tagaste in 388 and formed a reli- a total change of life but was not gious community. Three years lat- sure if he could put the past be- er, he was ordained — against his hind him. The attraction of past desire — a , and in 396, for- sins kept haunting him. “They ty-two years old, he was named the plucked,” he wrote, “at my fleshly bishop of Hippo. garment, and they whispered soft- During his thirty-four years as ly: ‘Do you cast us off?’ and ‘From bishop of Hippo, he gave his entire that moment we shall no more be being to his people, and put with you forever and ever!’ and his powerful intellect to the ser- again, ‘From that moment no lon- vice of the Church. He developed ger will this thing and that be al- and philosophy, tirelessly lowed to you, forever and ever.’” defended the Church against nu- The same question, he said, kept merous heresies, and wrote a cat- recurring: “Do you think that you echism for catechumens. As he can live without them?” had done both before and after

DAVID CHARLES PHOTOGRAPHY With God’s help, Augustine Stained glass window of St. his as a priest, he made was finally able to break with his Augustine and St. Monica his own residence into a monas- past, learning from his own battle in St. Augustine Parish in tery, which provided exception- with sin the saving power of grace. Washington, DC al formation for and fu- In his later writings, this brilliant man never failed ture ; this monastery and several of his to emphasize the absolute necessity of grace — that written works together form the basis of what is no one can “make it” unaided. On Easter in 387, at now known as the rule of St. Augustine, one of the age of thirty-three, Augustine, together with fif- the foundational forms of governance of commu- teen-year-old Adeodatus, was baptized by St. Am- nal monastic life. He wrote prolifically, and many brose and received into the Church. In his Confes- of his sermons survive as well. He is considered sions, Augustine expressed his passionate regret for the father of and his writings the wasted years, those years when his heart was are among the most influential of all the Doctors closed to grace: “Late have I loved you, O Beau- of the Church. ty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! This was also a time of great barbarian inva- You were within me, but sions from the north. It I was outside, and it was “With God’s help, Augustine was during the period of there that I searched for these invasions, follow- you. In my unloveliness was finally able to break ing a horrifying sacking I plunged into the lovely with his past, learning from of Rome, that he wrote things which you created. his phenomenal book The You were with me, but I his own battle with sin , which con- was not with you. Cre- saving power of grace.” trasted the impermanent ated things kept me from city of man with the im- you; yet if they had not been in you they would perishable city of God. In 430, when Augustine have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and was seventy-six, the laid siege to Hippo. you broke through my deafness. You flashed, Within a few months, he came down with a fever you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You and died. As the siege continued, the population breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath of Hippo nearly starved to death, and after eigh- and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I teen months the city fell and was completely de- hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I stroyed by the barbarian invaders. Yet the legacy burned for your .” This is a heartfelt cry that of its great bishop remains as a gift to all whose every adult who finds God can echo. hearts are weighed down by sin and who yearn After his Baptism, Augustine never turned away for God. No sin is too great for forgiveness; ev- from God. His mother died shortly thereafter, her ery sin can yield to God’s grace; and every sinner work in her son’s life completed, and his much- can find his heart’s desire in God, who alone can loved, brilliant son Adeodatus died around this satisfy the longings of the human heart.

St. Augustine of Hippo ~ Page 2