Saint Augustine of Hippo

Saint Augustine of Hippo Bishop and Doctor of the Church In 354 AD, a devout Christian named Monica, Monica followed Augustine to Milan, and there married to a pagan named Patricius Aurelius, gave birth Augustine met Bishop Ambrose. Ambrose, like to a son whom she named Augustine. Their family had Augustine, had become a famous orator. Despite his been Roman citizens for over a century, members of the skepticism of the Church, Augustine admired Ambrose honestiores upper class, and spoke Latin as a matter of and befriended him. With Augustine open to the faith, pride. Patricius and Monica would have two other Monica arranged a marriage for Augustine which befit his children named Navigius and Perpetua. station. Heartbroken, Augustine dismissed her in order to At the age of 11, Augustine was sent to school at become engaged to a someone who would benefit the Madaurus, 19 miles from Thagaste. There he studied station he sought. Augustine could not bear to wait the Latin literature, Greek as well as pagan beliefs and two years necessary to marry his intended, and took a practices. His Greek teacher was overbearing and concubine. He would utter his famous prayer “Lord, grant Augustine would fight him constantly, refusing to study me chastity and continence, but not yet.” the language. Rebellious, Augustine and his friends one In 386, at the age of 31, Augustine finally time stole some fruit, not because they were hungry, but converted to Catholicism. He was baptized by Bishop because they were not allowed to. Ambrose, along with his son Adeodatus at the Easter vigil Wishing to study rhetoric in Carthage, his family in 387. The next year he wrote his apology on the could not afford it. Only through the generosity of a Catholic faith, abandoned his fiancée and concubine, and fellow Roman Citizen, Romanianus, was Augustine able returned to Africa with his mother and son. Monica died to pursue his studies. Despite his Monica’s warnings, on the journey in Ostia, Italy, and upon returning to Augustine began to live a hedonistic lifestyle, bragging Thagaste, Augustine and Adeodatus began to live a life of about his sexual exploits with his friends. Augustine leisure until Adeodatus passed away later that year. began to study Cicero, gaining a love of wisdom and truth. Augustine sold his property except for his family house Augustine was drawn to philosophy, and eventually fell which he converted into a monastery for himself and some in with followers of Manicheism, founded on the Persian friends. prophet Mani in the 3rd century. In 371 AD at 17 Augustine forsook marriage and committed Augustine took on a lover who was either a slave or of the himself to celibacy. In 391, he became a priest in nearby lower class. Monica opposed the relationship due to the Hippo, and a staunch opponent of Manichaeism. In 393, difference in class, but Augustine entered into the Augustine attended the Council of Hippo, which along relationship with her which he would consider as with the Council of Carthage, defined and ratified the equivalent to marriage. The next year the two of them had oldest complete Canon of Scripture in use today, the a son whom they named Adeodatus. Catholic Canon of the Bible, ratified by Pope Damasus. Considered extremely intelligent, Augustine Augustine would become the Bishop of Hippo in 395 and continued his studies, but realizing too late the importance gave his remaining property in Thagaste to the Church of Greek, he was never able to master it. He returned to there, living the monastic life in Hippo. Thagaste in 373 where he taught grammar for two years. From 397 to 398, Augustine wrote one of his first He then returned to Carthage, where he operated a school famous works, his autobiographical Confessions. 75 of rhetoric. The students there were unruly, and when it years after the Council of Nicaea condemned Arianism, came time to pay their tuition on the last day of class as Arian German Catholics sacked Rome in 410 AD. In was custom, they would skip out. Augustine became response, Augustine wrote his second great work, The acquainted with the Manichaean Bishop, Faustus of City of God, which he used to console his fellow Milenve. Underwhelmed by Faustus, Augustine became Christians. Augustine would continue to work tirelessly skeptical of Manichaean theology. to convert the people of Hippo to Christianity. Believing that Rome is where the best and In 430 AD, another Arian Germanic Tribe, the brightest rhetoricians were, Augustine moved there in Vandals besieged the city of Hippo. Augustine had 383, but was let down by the apathetic reception he become sick and during the siege, began to entered the received. A Manichaean friend introduced Augustine to final stages of his illness. After directing the library of Symmachus, the prefect of Rome. Symmachus had been the church to be preserved, he died in August of 430. In asked to provide a rhetoric professor to the imperial court response, the Vandals lifted the siege, but returned soon of Milan, the most prestigious academic position in the after and burned the city, destroying everything except for Latin world, and a stepping stone to a political career. At Augustine’s Cathedral and Library. He was declared a 30 years, Augustine won this position, leaving Rome and doctor of the Church by Pope Boniface VIII in 1298 and Manichaeism in 384. his Feast day is August 28th. .

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