SAINT AGUSTIN OF HIPPO

Remarl U. Patriarca III-St. Mark

SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO

Research Paper

March 2013

Introduction
Augustine of Hippo (pron.: /stn/[1][2] or /stn/;[2] Latin: Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis;[3] 13 November 354 28 August 430), also known as St. Augustine, St. Austin,[4] or St. Augoustinos, was bishop of Hippo Regius (presentday Annaba, Algeria). He was a Latin philosopher and theologian from the Africa Province of the Roman Empire and is generally considered as one of the greatest Christian thinkers of all time. His writings were very influential in the development of Western Christianity and translations remain in print.According to his contemporary Jerome, Augustine "established anew the ancient Faith."[5] In his early years he was heavily influenced by Manichaeism and afterward by the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus.[6] After his conversion to Christianity and his baptism in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and different perspectives.[7] He believed that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom and he framed the concepts of original sin and just war.When the Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Catholic Church as a spiritual City of God (in a book of the same name), distinct from the material Earthly City.[8] His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview.

Augustine's City of God was closely identified with the Church, the community that worshiped the Trinity.[9] In the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, he is a saint, pre-eminent Doctor of the Church, and the patron of the Augustinians. His memorial is celebrated 28 August, the day of his death. He is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, the alleviation of sore eyes, and a number of cities and dioceses.[10] Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider him to be one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation and divine grace. In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is also considered a saint, his feast day being celebrated on 15 June.[11] He carries the additional title of Blessed. Among the Orthodox, he is called "Blessed Augustine" or "St. Augustine the Blessed".

History
Early childhood Augustine at the school of Taghaste by Benozzo Gozzoli.Augustine was born in 354 in the municipium of Thagaste (now Souk Ahras, Algeria) in Roman Africa.[13][14] His father, Patricius, was a pagan, and his mother, Monica, was Christian. Scholars believe that Augustine's ancestors included Berbers, Latins and Phoenicians.[15] Augustine's family name, Aurelius, suggests that his father's ancestors were freedmen of the gens Aurelia given full Roman citizenship by the Edict of Caracalla in 212. Augustine's family had been Roman, from a legal standpoint, for at least a century when he was born.[16] It is assumed that his mother, Monica, was of Berber origin, on the basis of her name,[15][17] but as his family were honestiores, Augustine's first language is likely to have been Latin.[15] At the age of 11, he was sent to school at Madaurus (now M'Daourouch), a small Numidian city about 19 miles south of Thagaste. There he became familiar with Latin literature, as well as pagan beliefs and practices.[18] While at home in 369 and 370, he read Cicero's dialogue Hortensius (now lost), which he described as leaving a lasting impression on him and sparking his interest in philosophy.[19] Studying at Carthage At age 17, through the generosity of fellow citizen Romanianus,[19] Augustine went to Carthage to continue his education in rhetoric. Although raised as a Christian,

Augustine left the church to follow the Manichaean religion, much to the despair of his mother, Monica.[20] As a youth Augustine lived a hedonistic lifestyle for a time, associating with young men who boasted of their sexual exploits with women and urged the inexperienced boys, like Augustine, to seek out experiences or to make up stories about experiences in order to gain acceptance and avoid ridicule.[21] It was during this period that he uttered his famous prayer, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet" (Latin: da mihi castitatem et continentiam, sed noli modo).[22] At a young age, he began an affair with a young woman in Carthage. She was his lover for over thirteen years and gave birth to his son Adeodatus,[23] who was said to have been extremely intelligent.[24] Teaching rhetoric During the years 373 and 374, Augustine taught grammar at Thagaste. The following year he moved to Carthage to conduct a school of rhetoric, and would remain there for the next nine years.[19] Disturbed by the unruly behavior of the students in Carthage, in 383 he moved to establish a school in Rome, where he believed the best and brightest rhetoricians practiced. However, Augustine was disappointed with the Roman schools, where he was met with apathy. Once the time came for his students to pay their fees, they simply fled. Manichaean friends introduced him to the prefect of the City of Rome, Symmachus, who had been asked to provide a professor of rhetoric for the imperial court at Milan.[25]"Saint Augustine and Saint Monica" (1846), by Ary Scheffer.

Augustine won the job and headed north to take up his position in late 384. At the age of thirty, he had won the most visible academic position in the Latin world, at a time when such posts gave ready access to political careers. During this period, although Augustine showed some fervor for Manichaeism, he was never an initiate or "elect", but remained an "auditor", the lowest level in the sect's hierarchy.[25] While Augustine was in Milan, his life changed. While still at Carthage, he had begun to move away from Manichaeism, in part because of a disappointing meeting with the Manichean Bishop, Faustus of Mileve, a key exponent of Manichaean theology.[25] In Rome, he is reported to have completely turned away from Manichaeanism, and instead embraced the scepticism of the New Academy movement. At Milan, his mother pressured him to become a Christian. Augustine's own studies in Neoplatonism were also leading him in this direction, and his friend Simplicianus urged him that way as well.[19] But it was the bishop of Milan, Ambrose, who had most influence over Augustine. Like Augustine, Ambrose was a master of rhetoric, but older and more experienced.[26] Augustine's mother had followed him to Milan and he allowed her to arrange a society marriage, for which he abandoned his concubine. It is believed that Augustine truly loved the woman he had lived with for so long. In his "Confessions," he expressed how deeply he was hurt by ending this relationship, and also admitted that the experience eventually produced a decreased sensitivity to pain over time. However, he had to wait two years until his

fiance came of age, so despite the grief he felt over leaving "The One", as he called her, he soon took another concubine. Augustine eventually broke off his engagement to his eleven-year-old fiance, but never renewed his relationship with "The One" and soon left his second concubine. It was because of otium that Alypius of Thagaste steered Augustine away from marriage. He said that they could not live a life together in the love of wisdom if he married. Augustine looked back years later on the life at Cassiciacum, a villa outside of Milan where he gathered with his followers, and described it as Christianae vita otium - the Christian life of leisure.[27] Augustine had been awarded a job of professor of rhetoric in Milan at the time he was living at Cassiciacum around 383. In 388, he returned to Africa and his home country and pursued a life of aristocratic otium at his family's property.[28][29] In 391 he was ordained bishop of Hippo Regius (hence obtaining the name "Augustine of Hippo") and gave his property to the church of Thagaste.[30] Christian conversion In the summer of 386, after having heard the story of Placianus about his and his friends' first reading of the life of Saint Anthony of the Desert, which greatly inspired him, Augustine underwent a profound personal crisis, leading him to convert to Christianity, abandon his career in rhetoric, quit his teaching position in Milan, give up any ideas of marriage, and devote himself entirely to serving God and to the practices of priesthood, which included celibacy. According to Augustine his conversion was prompted by a childlike

voice he heard telling him in a sing-song voice, "Take up and read" (Latin: tolle, lege): I threw myself down somehow under a certain figtree,[31] and let my tears flow freely. Rivers streamed from my eyes, a sacrifice acceptable to you [Ps 50:19] and (though not in these words, yet in this sense) I repeatedly said to you: 'How long, O Lord? How long, Lord, will you be angry to the uttermost? Do not be mindful of our old iniquities.'[Ps 6:4]. For I felt my past to have a grip on me. It uttered wretched cries: 'How long, how long is it to be?' 'Tomorrow, tomorrow.'[32] 'Why not now? Why not an end to my impure life in this very hour?' As I was saying this and weeping in the bitter agony of my heart, suddenly I heard a voice from the nearby house[33] chanting as if it might be a boy or a girl (I do not know which), saying and repeating over and over again 'Pick up and read, pick up and read.' At once my countenance changed, and I began to think intently whether there might be some sort of children's game in which such a chant is used. But I could not remember having heard of one. I checked the flood of tears and stood up. I interpreted it solely as a divine command to me to open the book and read the first chapter I might find. For I had heard how Antony happened to be present at the gospel reading, and took it as an admonition addressed to himself when the words were read: 'Go, sell all you have, give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me'[Matt 19:21].[34] By such an inspired utterance he was immediately 'converted to you' (Ps. 50.15). So I hurried back to the place where Alypius was sitting. There I had put down the book of the apostle when I got up. I seized it, opened it

and in silence read the first passage on which my eyes lit: 'Not in riots and drunken parties, not in eroticism and indecencies, not in strife and rivalry, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in its lusts'[Rom 13:13-15]. I neither wished nor needed to read further. At once, with the last words of this sentence, it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart. All the shadows of doubt were dispelled. The Confessions of Saint Augustine, Book VIII, Paragraphs 28 and 29.[35] The volume Augustine read was Paul's Epistle to the Romans. He wrote an account of his conversion in his Confessions (Latin: Confessiones), which became a classic of Christian theology. Ambrose baptized Augustine, along with his son Adeodatus on Easter Vigil in 387 in Milan, and a year later they returned to Africa.[19] Also in 388 he completed his apology On the Holiness of the Catholic Church.[25] On the way back to Africa, Augustine's mother Monica died,[36] and Adeodatus soon after.[37] Priesthood The Consecration of Saint Augustine by Jaume Huguet Upon his return to north Africa Augustine sold his patrimony and gave the money to the poor. The only thing he kept was the family house, which he converted into a monastic foundation for himself and a group of friends.[19] In 391 he was ordained a priest in Hippo Regius (now Annaba, in

Algeria). He became a famous preacher (more than 350 preserved sermons are believed to be authentic), and was noted for combating the Manichaean religion, to which he had formerly adhered.[25] In 395 he was made coadjutor Bishop of Hippo, and became full Bishop shortly thereafter.[38] He remained in this position until his death in 430. Augustine worked tirelessly in trying to convince the people of Hippo to convert to Christianity. He left his monastery, but continued to lead a monastic life in the episcopal residence. He left a regula his monastery that has led him to be designated the "patron saint of regular clergy"[39] Much of Augustine's later life was recorded by his friend Possidius, bishop of Calama (present-day Guelma, Algeria), in his Sancti Augustini Vita. Possidius admired Augustine as a man of powerful intellect and a stirring orator who took every opportunity to defend Christianity against its detractors. Possidius also described Augustine's personal traits in detail, drawing a portrait of a man who ate sparingly, worked tirelessly, despised gossip, shunned the temptations of the flesh, and exercised prudence in the financial stewardship of his see.[40] Death Tomb in San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro Basilica, Pavia. Shortly before Augustine's death, Roman Africa was invaded by the Vandals, a Germanic tribe that had converted to Arianism. The Vandals besieged Hippo in the spring of 430, when Augustine entered his final illness. According to

Possidius, one of the few miracles attributed to Augustine took place during the siege. While Augustine was confined to his sick bed, a man petitioned him that he might lay his hands upon a relative who was ill. Augustine replied that if he had any power to cure the sick, he would surely have applied it on himself first. The visitor declared that he was told in a dream to go to Augustine so that his relative would be made whole. When Augustine heard this, he no longer hesitated, but laid his hands upon the sick man, who departed from Augustine's presence healed.[41] Possidius also gives a first-hand account of Augustine's death, which occurred on 28 August 430, while Hippo was still besieged. Augustine spent his final days in prayer and repentance, requesting that the penitential Psalms of David be hung on his walls so that he could read them. He directed that the library of the church in Hippo and all the books therein should be carefully preserved.[42] Shortly after his death, the Vandals lifted the siege of Hippo, but they returned not long thereafter and burned the city. They destroyed all of it but Augustine's cathedral and library, which they left untouched.[43] According to Bede's True Martyrology, Augustine's body was later translated to Cagliari, Sardinia, by the Catholic bishops expelled from North Africa by Huneric. Around 720, his remains were translated again by Peter, bishop of Pavia and uncle of the Lombard king Liutprand, to the church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, in order to save them from frequent coastal raids by Muslims. In January 1327, Pope John XXII issued the papal bull Veneranda Santorum Patrum, in which he appointed the Augustinians guardians of the tomb of

Augustine, which was remade in 1362 and elaborately carved with bas-reliefs of scenes from Augustine's life. By that time, however, the actual remains of Augustine could not be authenticated. Stonemasons working in the crypt altar removed paving blocks and discovered a marble box. Within it were other boxes; in the third box were fragments of wood, numerous bones and bone fragments, and glass vials. Some of the workers later claimed to have seen the name "Augustine" written in charcoal on the top of the box. A factor complicating the authentication of the remains was that San Pietro was shared by two Augustinian religious orders in bitter rivalry.[citation needed] The Augustinians were expelled from Pavia in 1700, taking refuge in Milan with the relics of Augustine, and the disassembled Arca, which were removed to the cathedral there. San Pietro fell into disrepair and was a military magazine during the Napoleonic occupation of the city. It was finally rebuilt in the 1870s, under the urging of Agostino Gaetano Riboldi, and reconsecrated in 1896 when the relics of Augustine and the shrine were once again reinstalled.

Personal Reflection
I believe that the Augustinian model of priesthood is fraternal rather than clerical, and that we are meant to take the words of Jesus very seriously, "You must not let yourselves be called Rabbi since you have only one Master and you are all brothers." (Matt. 23: 8)

Glossary
Adiaphora: Greek phrase meaning things indifferent. Antinomianism: The belief that a person already in a state of grace or salvation was not bound to follow earthly moral laws. Atonement: The reconciliation of sinful humans with God that is the result of the death of Christ for the sins of humanity. Augustinianism: Theological school based on the beliefs of St. Augustine of Hippo. Cardinals, College of: Ecclesiastical officials in Rome who were papal advisors and princes of the Church. Confession: Name for a statement of theological beliefs issued by Protestant churches, e.g., the Augsburg Confession. Consubstantiation: Name for the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist that Martin Luther advocated. Christology: Branch of theology concerned with the nature of Jesus Christ as God and man. Curia: Name for the papal court.

Devotio Moderna: Late medieval revival of spirituality and piety that originated in the Netherlands in the fourteenth century and spread to other parts of Europe. Diocese: Ecclesiastical unit of administration presided over by a bishop. Exegesis: The process of explaining, expounding, or interpreting a text in a critical manner. . Grace: Theological term for the assistance that God provides to humans in the process of sanctification. Hermeneutics: In general, the study of interpretation of texts, in theology, the study of the methods of interpreting the Bible. Iconoclasm: The breaking of sacred images because they are regarded as idols. Justification: Theological term for the process by which sinful humans are either made or declared to be righteous in the sight of God. . Nepotism: Practice of a public or ecclesiastical official employing ones relatives in a public institution or church. Necodemites: Name given to secret professors of Protestantism, i.e., those afraid or unwilling to publicly show their faith. . Nominalism: Late medieval approach to theology that emphasized anti-realism.

Original Sin: Theological doctrine that all humans are born sinful due to the first sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It means that by nature, humans are sinful and bad. Patristic: Referring to the Early Church era, the era of the Church Fathers [patri]. Pelagianism: Theological doctrine that asserts that humans can merit their own salvation through good works and exercising their free will to gain faith in God and accept salvation. St. Augustine of Hippo opposed this doctrine. Province: Unit of ecclesiastical territory presided over by an archbishop. Quadriga: Term for the four-fold interpretation of the Bible used in the Middle Agesliteral, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical. Quadrivium: Name for the subjects of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, the lesser of the seven liberal arts in the medieval curriculum.

References
1. http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=418 2. http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/people/augusti ne.htm 3. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02084a.htm 4. http://www.midwestaugustinians.org/saints/s_augustin e.html 5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo

Bibliography

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