St.

Augustine
(354 – 430 A.D.)

PRE-FINAL PERIOD NOTES

THE END OF THE BEGINNING
(Milan – Cassiciacum – Rome – Carthage)
385 – 386 Dismissal of his concubine
Conversion to Platonism through reading the books of
the Platonists (CF VII,913) [31 yrs. old] Augustine
talks with Simplicianus; PONTICIANUS NARRATED
TO HIM & ALYPIUS ABOUT ANTHONY OF EGYPT
386 Conversion to Christianity in the garden in Milan
(autumn) (32 yrs. old) [CF VIII,8,12]; “Tolle, lege” scene
Resigned his appointment as public teacher of
Rhetoric [CF IX,2,4]
Retired to Cassiciacum with a group of friends
[CF IX,3,5]
Against the Academics (Contra Academicos)
The Happy Life (De Beata Vita) P.L. 32.
Cassiciacum
The Principle of Order (De Ordine) Dialogues
387 The Soliloquies (Soliloquia)
387 Returned to Milan (CF IX,6,14)
385-386 Dismissal of his concubine

 Augustine ended his relationship with his lover in order

to prepare himself to marry a ten-year-old heiress.
 He had to wait for two years because the legal age of
marriage for women was twelve. (wikipedia)

 Although Augustine accepted this marriage, for which he

had to abandon his concubine, he was deeply hurt by
the loss of his lover. He wrote,

"My mistress being torn from my side as an impediment

to my marriage, my heart, which clave to her, was
racked, and wounded, and bleeding."
 Augustine confessed that he was not a lover of wedlock
so much as a slave of lust, so he procured another
concubine since he had to wait two years until his
fiancée came of age.
 However, his emotional wound was not healed, even
began to fester.
 There is evidence that Augustine may have considered
this former relationship to be equivalent to marriage.
 In his Confessions, he admitted that the experience
eventually produced a decreased sensitivity to pain.
 Alypius of Thagaste steered Augustine away from
marriage, saying that they could not live a life together in
the love of wisdom if he married.
 Augustine eventually broke off his engagement to his
eleven-year-old fiancée, but never renewed his
relationship with either of his concubines.
385-386 Conversion to Platonism through reading the
books of the Platonists (CF VII,913) [31 yrs. old]
Augustine talks with Simplicianus

 Augustine was given Platonic books' in a Latin

translation by Marius Victorinus (7.9.13, 8.2.3), and, he
says, they changed his life.
 The Platonism Augustine encountered at Milan, in books
and discussion groups and Ambrose's preaching, was
New Platonism' (Neoplatonism), which set out to
explicate Plato in the belief that he had understood the
eternal truth and had expounded it in a consistent
philosophical system.
 Milanese Neoplatonism was very much influenced by the
third-century philosopher Plotinus, an impressive ascetic
who refused to give formal philosophical lectures, and by
his pupil Porphyry, who revised Plotinus' brief written
records of his thinking and organized them into groups of
nine, the Enneads...
 The Platonic books' may have included writings by
Plotinus and Porphyry: certainly, by the time he wrote
the Confessions, Augustine had read some Plotinus and
had been profoundly impressed.
 Plotinus' style, as well as his arguments, is heard in
the Confessions, both in the tenacious strings of
questions with which Augustine pursues a difficult
problem (as in 1.3.3-4.4) and in occasional flashes of
exhortation (as at 1.18.28).
 Plato's philosophy contrasts the uncertain, transitory
world we perceive with the senses, and the unchanging
reality, grasped by reason, from which the world derives
its existence.
 The dominant Neoplatonist image was of the One, the
highest level of being, from which emanates (literally,
flows out), or radiates, all else that there is, as if in
concentric circles.
 The circles of being turn back towards the original unity,
and thereby define themselves in relation to it, but the
outermost circle, the material world, turns away from
unity into multiplicity and fragmentation, and finally into
nothingness.
 But even in this material world there is the human mind,
which is connected with the centre.
 Augustine found in this image a powerful expression of
his own choice between focusing on God and dispersing
himself among the concerns of the world (2.1.1, 2.3.3,
3.8.16).
 It also allowed him to challenge the Manichaean account
of evil as a substance, an independent and invasive
power: instead, evil could be understood as distance
from the One which is the source of all being, so that
complete alienation from the One is non-existence
(2.6.12; 7.12.18).
 But what Augustine found most important was that
Platonism helped him to think of God as spirit.
 The Manichaeans attacked what they said was crude
Christian anthropomorphism, but themselves taught in
terms of very subtle bodies (3.6.10, 5.10.20); this caused
Augustine great difficulties in explaining how God can be
present throughout the universe (1.2.2-3.3).
 He tried (7.1.2) to imagine God permeating the universe
like sunlight, but this suggests that some parts of the
universe would have more of God than others, can
elephant's body would have more of you than a
sparrow's'.
 Later (7.5.7) he imagined the universe as a great but
finite sponge, saturated by an infinite ocean.

 The Platonist books made him think in terms of his own

thought, the mental power which forms images of
everything yet occupies no space (7.1.2), and which can
aspire to union with God.

 His friend Simplicianus all urged him towards

Christianity.
PONTICIANUS NARRATED TO HIM &
ALYPIUS ABOUT ANTHONY OF EGYPT

 In late August of 386,[at the age of 31,

Ponticianus and Alypius, his friends‘, told him
the story of the life of St. Anthony of the
Desert.
 Saint Anthony of Egypt was born c. 251,
Koma, near al-Minyā, Heptanomis [Middle
Egypt],- died January 17, 356.
 Religious hermit and one of the earliest
monks, considered the founder and father of
organized Christian monasticism.
 Anthony began to practice an ascetic life at the age of 20 and
after 15 years withdrew for absolute solitude to a mountain by
the Nile called Pispir, where he lived from about 286 to 305.
 During the course of this retreat, he began his legendary
combat against the Devil, withstanding a series of
temptations famous in Christian theology and iconography.
 The early monks who followed Anthony into the desert
considered themselves the vanguard of God’s army, and, by
fasting and performing other ascetic practices, they
attempted to attain the same state of spiritual purity and
freedom from temptation that they saw realized in Anthony.
 Anthony’s spiritual combats with
what he envisioned as the forces
of evil made his life one long
struggle against the Devil.
 According to St. Athanasius, the
bishop of Alexandria, the Devil’s
assault on Anthony took the form
of visions, either seductive or
horrible, experienced by
the saint.
 For example, at times the Devil
appeared in the guise of a monk
bringing bread during his fasts or
in the form of wild beasts,
women, or soldiers, sometimes
beating the saint and leaving him
in a deathly state.
 Anthony endured many such attacks, and those who
witnessed them were convinced they were real.
 Every vision conjured up by Satan was repelled by
Anthony’s fervid prayer and penitential acts.
 From these psychic struggles Anthony emerged as the
sane and sensible father of Christian monasticism.
 The rule that bears his name was compiled from
writings and discourses attributed to him in the Life of
St. Antony (by Athanasius). (Britannica.com)
386 Conversion to Christianity in the garden in Milan
(32 yrs. old) [CF VIII,8,12]; “Tolle, lege” scene
(Autum) Resigned his appointment as public teacher of
Rhetoric [CF IX,2,4]
Retired to Cassiciacum with a group of friends
[CF IX,3,5]

 After having heard and been inspired and moved by the

story of St. Anthony of the Desert, Augustine converted to
Christianity.
 As Augustine later told it, his conversion was prompted
by a childlike voice he heard telling him to "take up and
read" (Latin: tolle, lege), which he took as a divine
command to open the Bible and read the first thing he
saw. Augustine read from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans –
the “Transformation of Believers" section, consisting of
chapters 12 through 15 – wherein Paul outlines how the
Gospel transforms believers, and the believers' resulting
behavior.
 The specific part to which Augustine opened his Bible
was Romans chapter 13, verses 13 and 14, to wit:
“Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and
wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the
lusts thereof.”
 He later wrote an account of his conversion – his very
transformation,– in his Confessions. The following is taken
from that work:
Late have I loved Thee, O Lord; and behold,
Thou wast within and I without, and there I sought Thee.
Thou was with me when I was not with Thee.
Thou didst call, and cry, and burst my deafness.
Thou didst gleam, and glow, and dispell my blindness.
Thou didst touch me, and I burned for Thy peace.
For Thyself Thou hast made us,
And restless our hearts until in Thee they find their ease.
Late have I loved Thee, Thou Beauty ever old and ever
new.
 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 vitae otium – the Christian life of
leisure.
 387 The Immortality of the Soul (De Immortalitate Animae)
(March) [Augustine was 33 yrs. old] P.L.32.
April 24/25 Baptised by Bishop Ambrose together with Alypius,
387 Adeodatus [CF IX,6,14]; (Augustine was 33 yrs. old)
387 - 389 On Music (De Musica)
March 387 Left Milan for Rome (CF ic,8,17); Death of Monica at
Ostia at the age of 54 (Augustine was 33 yrs. old)
387 Second sojourn in Rome – OBSERVED
MONASTERIES; “THE CONFESSIONS” ends
388 The Greatness of the Soul (De Quantitate Animae)
(spring) P.L. 32.
388 - 390 The Practices of the Catholic Church and the Practices
of the Manicheans (De Moribus Ecclesiae
Catholicae et De Moribus Manichaeorum)
388 Returned to North Africa (Letter 126,7)
(autumn) SET UP A COMMUNITY FOR LAY MONKS AT
THAGASTE (Letter 126,7; Possidius,4)
[Augustine was 34 yrs. old]
April 24/25 Baptized by Bishop Ambrose together with
387 Alypius, Adeodatus [CF IX,6,14]; (Augustine
was 33 yrs. old)

 Ambrose baptized Augustine, along with his son

Adeodatus and Alypius, in Milan on Easter Vigil, April 24–
25, 387.
 A year later, in 388, Augustine completed his
apology On the Holiness of the Catholic Church.
 That year, also, Adeodatus and Augustine returned
home to Africa.
 Augustine's mother Monica died at Ostia, Italy, as they
prepared to embark for Africa.
 Upon their arrival, they began a life of aristocratic
leisure at Augustine's family's property.
 Soon after, Adeodatus, too, died.
 Augustine then 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 - first community of friends…
Reflection:

1. Integrate your experienced of realizing your intentional

sin/s with its contradiction to the truth?
Elaborate it’s effects on yourself, to your dignity and
philosophy of life.

2. Identify the instances that lead you to conversion.

3. How did you feel being renewed from sinfulness.
4. Express your solemn promise not to commit such
intentional sin/s.
 An Act of Contrition
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having
offended Thee and I detest all my sins, because I
dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell;
but most of all because they offend Thee, my
God, Who are all good and deserving of all my
love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace,
to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend
my life. Amen.
388 - 391 1st MONASTERY AT THAGASTE
388 - 395 The Free Will (De Libero Arbitrio)
388 On Genesis Against the Manicheans
(De Genesi Contra Manichaeos)
389 The Teacher (De Magistro)
P.L. 32.
389 Death of Adeodatus (CF IX,6,14)
[Augustine was 35 yrs. old]

390 True Religion (De Vera Religione)

P.L. 34.
380 - 395 83 Various Questions
(De Diversis Questionibus LXXXIII)
P.L. 40.
 A year later, in 388, Augustine completed his
apology On the Holiness of the Catholic Church.
 That year, also, Adeodatus and Augustine returned
home to Africa.
 Augustine's mother Monica died at Ostia, Italy, as they
prepared to embark for Africa.
 Upon their arrival, they began a life of aristocratic
leisure at Augustine's family's property.
 Soon after, Adeodatus, too, died.[
 Augustine then 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 - first community of friends…
THE PRIEST
391 Ordained Priest at Hippo (Letter
126,7); [Augustine was 37 yrs. old]
392 Against the Manichean Conception
of Two Souls (Contra Manicheao
de Duabus Animabus)
394 The Sermon of our Lord on the
Mount (De Sermone Domini in
Monte) P.L. 35.
 In 391 Augustine was ordained a priest in Hippo Regius
(now Annaba).
 For 4 or 5 years, Augustine carried out his ministry as
priest together with Bishop Valerius.
 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.
BISHOP OF HIPPO
395 - 396 Coadjutor Bishop of Hippo (Sermon 339,3)
396 Succeeded Bishop Valerius as Bishop of
Hippo (Letter 31) [Augustine was 42 yrs. old]
SET UP A MONASTERY FOR CLERICS
The Christian Struggle (De Agone Christiano)
397 AUGUSTINE WRITES THE RULE

Christian Education (De Doctrina Christiana)

[in part] P.L.
Against the Letter of The Manichean
(Contra Epistolam Manicheai) P.L. 42
Seven Various Questions in reply to
Simplicianum
(De Diversia Questionibus VII ad
Simplicianum) P.L. 40
397 - 401 The Confessions (Confessiones) P.L. 32
 In 395 he was made coadjutor
Bishop of Hippo, and became
full Bishop shortly thereafter,
he gave his property to the
Church of Thagaste.
 He remained in that position
until his death in 430.
 He wrote his
autobiographical Confessions
in 397–398.
BISHOP OF HIPPO
397 - 398 Against Faustus the Manichaean
(Contra Faustum Manichaeum) P.L. 43
399 The Instruction of the Uninstructed
(De Catechizandis Rudibus) P.L. 40
399 - 416 The Trinity (De Trinitate) P.L. 42
401 - 414 The Literal Interpretation of Genesis
(De Genesi ad Litteram) P.L. 34
400 - 402 Against the Letter of Petilian
(Contra Litteras Petiliani) P.L. 43
405 - 406 Against Cresconius the Donatist Grammarian
(Contra Cresconium Grammaticum Partis
Donati) P.L. 43
405 On the Nature of the Good (De Natura Boni)
P.L. 42
407 Communion on Psalm 132
Against Faustus the Manichaean
 Augustine's great writing against him was the publication of
Faustus' attack on the Old Testament Scriptures, and on the
New Testament.
 The incarnation of Christ, involving his birth from a woman, is
one of the main points of attack.
 He makes the variations in the genealogical records of the
Gospels a ground for rejecting the whole as spurious.
 He supposed the Gospels, in their present form, to be not the
works of the Apostles, but rather of later Judaizing falsifiers.
 The entire Old Testament system he treats with the utmost
contempt, blaspheming the Patriarchs, Moses, the Prophets,
etc., on the ground of their private lives and their teachings.
 Most of the objections to the morality of the Old Testament that
are now current were already familiarly used in the time of
Augustine.
Against Donatists Heresy
 Donatism, Named after the Berber Christian bishop
Donatus Magnus , flourished in the 4th and 5th centuries.
 Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless
for their ministrations to be effective and for the prayers
and sacraments they conduct to be valid.
 The Donatists were rigorists, holding that the church
must be a church of saints, not sinners, and that
sacraments, such as baptism, administered by traditores
or apostates were invalid.
 In 313, Pope Miltiades condemned the Donatists. They
continued to exist, viewing themselves and not the other
Christians as the "true Church," the only one with "valid
sacraments."
 Augustine campaigned against Donatism throughout his
tenure as Bishop of Hippo, and through his efforts the
Catholic position gained the upper hand.
 According to Augustine, held also by the majority within
the Church, the validity of the celebration of sacraments
was assigned by the office of the priest, the validity of
the sacrament depends upon the holiness of God, and
not by the personal character of the priest (ex opera
operato).
Against Pelagian Heresy
 Pelagius ( c. 360 – 418 AD) was a British or
Irish lay monk who made his way to Rome in
the time of St. Augustine. He spent time as an
ascetic, focusing on practical asceticism.
 He was so shocked by the moral depravity of
the people that he began to preach and teach
a very strict, rigid moralism, emphasizing the
natural, innate human ability and autonomy to
attain salvation.
 Augustine saw that Pelagius relied upon innate
human ability, not God's grace, in order to
attain salvation.
 Augustine strongly affirmed the existence of
original sin, the need for infant baptism, the
impossibility of a sinless life without Christ, and
the necessity of Christ's grace.
BISHOP OF HIPPO
413 - 427 The City of God (De Civitate Dei) P.L. 41
414 The Excellence of Widowhood
(De Bono Viduitatis) P.L. 40
415 Letter 166 to Jerome, On The Origin of the Soul
P.L. 33
416 - 417 Tracts on St. John’s Gospel
(In Joannis Evangelium Tractus) P.L. 35
418 Visited Caesarea in Mauretania (Letters 190-193)
On the Grace of Christ and Original Sin
(De Gratia Cristi et Peccato Originali) P.L. 44
419 The Soul and its Origin
(De Anima et eius Origine) P.L. 44
420 Against the Two Letters of the Pelagians Heresy
(Contra Julianum Haeresis Pelagianae
Defensorem) P.L. 44
Enchiridion P.L. 40
Roman Empire Falls: Political &
Cultural Chaos
 His work The City of God was written to console his
fellow Christians shortly after the Visogoths had
sacked Rome in 410.
BISHOP OF HIPPO
422 The Eight Questions of Dulcitius
(De Octo Dulcitti Questionibus) P.L. 40
423 Letter 211 to Nuns at Hippo
425 Grace and Free Will
(De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio) P.L. 44
426 Named his Successor to the See of Hippo
(Letter 213; Sermon 355)
Christian Education (De Doctrina Christiana
[completed]) P.L. 34
426 - 427 Review Retractationes P.L. 32
428 - 429 The Predestination of Saints
(De Praedestinatione Sanctorum) P.L. 44
May 430 Hippo besieged by the Vandals
(Possidius 29)
On Grace and Free Will
 Augustine teaches us to beware of maintaining grace by
denying free will, or free will by denying grace; for that it
is evident from the testimony of Scripture that there is in
man a free choice of will; and there are also in the same
Scriptures inspired proofs given of that very grace of God
without which we can do nothing good.
 Afterwards, in opposition to the Pelagians, he proves that
grace is not bestowed according to our merits.
 He explains how eternal life, which is rendered to good
works, is really of grace.
 He then goes on to show that the grace which is given to
us through our Lord Jesus Christ is neither the
knowledge of the law, nor nature, nor simply remission of
sins; but that it is grace that makes us fulfil the law, and
causes nature to be liberated from the dominion of sin.
BISHOP OF HIPPO
386 - 430 Letter (Epistulae) P.L. 33
(270 in number chronologically arranged by the
Benedictine editors in four Books: Book 1,
A.D.386-395; Book 2, A.D.396-410; Book 3, A.D.411-
430; Book 4, undated letter.

391 - 430 Sermons (Sermones) [arranged in groups

according to topics] P.L. 38-39
391 - 430 Expositions of the Psalms
(Enarrationes in Psalmos)
426 - 427 Grace and Free Will
Admonition and Grace sent to Abbot Valentine and
the monks at Hadrumentum
Note: The probably spurious treaties on Grammar
(De Grammatica), Principles of Dialectic (Principia
Rhetorices) are printed in the Appendix to Vol. 32
of Migne’s Patrilogia Latina, cols. 1383ff.
430 Aug. 28 DEATH of Augustine in HIPPO (Annaba)
[Augustine was 75 yrs. old]
 Shortly before the death of
Augustine, the Vandals
a Germanic tribe that had
converted to Arianism (heresy,
denying the divinity of Jesus,
originating with the Alexandrian
priest Arius) invaded Roman
Africa.
 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, the healing of an ill
man, took place during the siege.
 According to Possidius, Augustine spent his final days
in prayer and repentance, requesting that the
penitential Psalms (51) of David be hung on his walls
so that he could read them.
 PSALM 51
1Be merciful to me, O God,
because of your constant love.
Because of your great mercy
wipe away my sins!
2Wash away all my evil and make me
clean from my sin!
3I recognize my faults;
I am always conscious of my sins.
4I have sinned against you —
only against you —
and done what you consider evil.
So you are right in judging me;
you are justified in condemning me.
5I have been evil from the day I was
born; from the time I was
conceived, I have been sinful.
6Sincerity and truth are what you
require; fill my mind with your
wisdom.
7Remove my sin, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter
than snow.
8Let me hear the sounds of joy and
gladness; and though you have
crushed me and broken me,
I will be happy once again.
9Close your eyes to my sins 5Help me to speak, Lord, and I
and wipe out all my evil. will praise you.
10Create a pure heart in me, O God, 16You do not want sacrifices, or I

and put a new and loyal spirit in me. would offer them; you are not
11Do not banish me from your
pleased with burnt offerings.
17My sacrifice is a humble spirit, O
presence; do not take your Holy
God; you will not reject a
Spirit away from me.
12Give me again the joy that comes
humble and repentant heart.
18O God, be kind to Zion and help
from your salvation, and make me
her; rebuild the walls of
willing to obey you.
13Then I will teach sinners your ways
Jerusalem.
19Then you will be pleased with
and they will turn back to you. proper sacrifices and with our
14Spare my life, O God, and save me,
burnt offerings; and bulls will be
and I will gladly proclaim your sacrificed on your altar.
righteousness.
 He directed that the library of the Church in Hippo and
all the books therein should be carefully preserved.
 He died (75 years old) on 28 August 430.
 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.
 History tells that a group of African bishops
took the body of Augustine with them while
fleeing from the Vandals.
 It was deposited in Sardinia on payment of
gold' equaling the weight of Augustine's body.
 A king of Lombardy brought it to Pavia, Italy
where it was buried in the Church of Ciel
D'oro.
 A relic of his right forearm is retained in the
Cathedral of Hippo, present-day Annaba,
Algeria.
 Augustine was canonized by popular
acclaim, and later recognized as a
Doctor of the Church in 1298
by Pope Boniface VIII.

 His feast day is 28 August, the day

on which he died.

 He is considered the patron saint of

brewers, printers, theologians, sore
eyes, and a number of cities and
dioceses.