I Confess!
St. Augustine- Greatest thinker of early Christianity, inventor of the autobiography, reformed party guy.
It is impossible to over state the impact of St. Augustine on the formation of Christian ideals during the late fourth century. His writings still serve as inspiration and instruction to Christians and non-Christians today. The two books for which his is remembered are Confessions and City of God. Confessions is the very first autobiography ever written and lays bare the saint's evolution from dissolute youth to religious icon. City of God is theological comparison of religious versus secular life. I leave the validity of the theology to those more qualified. While I find Confessions extremely beautiful and funny neither should be taken on an empty stomach and may cause drowsiness.
St. Augustine was born in Roman Africa, Numidia to be exact, in 354. His mother, Monica, was a woman of great faith and virtue who would eventually be made a saint herself. His father not so much. Augustine's father was a wastrel and a philanderer.
In his famous autobiography St. Augustine admits to a youth badly misspent. Games of chance, sexual misconduct with married women, and drunkenness all competed to fill the future saint's time.
He was schooled in Carthage, a city repeatedly described as a cesspool. He studied Latin, what passed for the sciences at the time, and made a pass at Greek. After completing his education he worked as an educator for a little while.
About this time he began keeping a concubine he was very fond of. She helped the saint become a teenage father when she gave birth to a son called Adeodatus when Augustine was only eight-teen years old. By all account he was a good father and loved his little son to distraction.
It should be remembered that St. Augustine was not yet a Christian more less a saint at this time. His religion wasn't quite Roman paganism but it certainly was not Christian.
At age twenty-nine St. Augustine decided to go to the center of western civilization Rome. His mother was appalled. If Carthage was a cesspool then Rome was cess-ocean and St. Monica feared for the immortal soul of her son who was just starting to show signs of moral reform. She insisted on going along and to his lasting shame St. Augustine pretended to go along with the idea but then ditched her at the docks and sailed away leaving her weeping on the shore. Eventually she caught up with him and presumably laid the longest guilt trip know to motherhood on him.
At age 32 he finally settled down and married; to a ten year old girl. Augustine was however a gentleman and waited until she was twelve to take her into his house.
St. Augustine's conversion was not the blinding light and sudden awakening type. He battled for many years with doubt. Doubt that incompassed both the old ways and the new. He struggled with all the questions that plague the thoughtful but religious mind. Whether it was to simple patient spirituality of St. Monica or the mazes of theology we cannot say but on Easter Sunday 387 Augustine along with his son was baptized by yet another future saint Ambrose. Monica, her work done perhaps, died soon after.
Not long after his conversion Augustine returned to Africa, sold all his worldly goods and retired to a monastic lifestyle with Adeodatus and few friends.
In 389 tragedy struck in the form of the death of his seventeen year old son. Despite the saint's belief in the immortality of the soul and of heaven it broke his heart.
Although Augustine lived as a monastic he engaged in very public debates including the bishop Fortunatus. The two men argued publicly on the finer points of Christianity until beaten and shamed Fortunatus fled from the battlefield a broken man.
In 396 Augustine was elected to the amusingly named office of Bishop of Hippo. We are told he hated the idea and begged to be allowed his old life. Once he was moved in he shocked everyone by keeping his old habits and vegetarian diet. Incidentlly St. Augustine had never been a priest before this moment and took his orders in order to wear the bishop's hat.
As one might expect he became less tolerant of unconventional views once he became bishop. He publicly declared his belief that Donatist were damned and encouraged their arrest. He stopped short of wishing them dead and actively tried to prevent their executions. By the way all of this took place because the Donatists believed that a priest had to be virtuous in order for their sacraments to actually work.
While Bishop of Hippo St. Augustine wrote his two great works as well as many, many sermons that do not survive but were well thought of in his time.
At age seventy-six he died in his bed his world on the edge of disaster. The city of Hippo was in the midst of a lengthy siege by the barbarian Vandals who were in the midst of their conquest of North Africa. The old saint had rallied a populace stricken with fear and starvation for months but did not live to see his city pillaged, burned, and raped by the invaders.
It is impossible to over state the impact of St. Augustine on the formation of Christian ideals during the late fourth century. His writings still serve as inspiration and instruction to Christians and non-Christians today. The two books for which his is remembered are Confessions and City of God. Confessions is the very first autobiography ever written and lays bare the saint's evolution from dissolute youth to religious icon. City of God is theological comparison of religious versus secular life. I leave the validity of the theology to those more qualified. While I find Confessions extremely beautiful and funny neither should be taken on an empty stomach and may cause drowsiness.
St. Augustine was born in Roman Africa, Numidia to be exact, in 354. His mother, Monica, was a woman of great faith and virtue who would eventually be made a saint herself. His father not so much. Augustine's father was a wastrel and a philanderer.
In his famous autobiography St. Augustine admits to a youth badly misspent. Games of chance, sexual misconduct with married women, and drunkenness all competed to fill the future saint's time.
He was schooled in Carthage, a city repeatedly described as a cesspool. He studied Latin, what passed for the sciences at the time, and made a pass at Greek. After completing his education he worked as an educator for a little while.
About this time he began keeping a concubine he was very fond of. She helped the saint become a teenage father when she gave birth to a son called Adeodatus when Augustine was only eight-teen years old. By all account he was a good father and loved his little son to distraction.
It should be remembered that St. Augustine was not yet a Christian more less a saint at this time. His religion wasn't quite Roman paganism but it certainly was not Christian.
At age twenty-nine St. Augustine decided to go to the center of western civilization Rome. His mother was appalled. If Carthage was a cesspool then Rome was cess-ocean and St. Monica feared for the immortal soul of her son who was just starting to show signs of moral reform. She insisted on going along and to his lasting shame St. Augustine pretended to go along with the idea but then ditched her at the docks and sailed away leaving her weeping on the shore. Eventually she caught up with him and presumably laid the longest guilt trip know to motherhood on him.
At age 32 he finally settled down and married; to a ten year old girl. Augustine was however a gentleman and waited until she was twelve to take her into his house.
St. Augustine's conversion was not the blinding light and sudden awakening type. He battled for many years with doubt. Doubt that incompassed both the old ways and the new. He struggled with all the questions that plague the thoughtful but religious mind. Whether it was to simple patient spirituality of St. Monica or the mazes of theology we cannot say but on Easter Sunday 387 Augustine along with his son was baptized by yet another future saint Ambrose. Monica, her work done perhaps, died soon after.
Not long after his conversion Augustine returned to Africa, sold all his worldly goods and retired to a monastic lifestyle with Adeodatus and few friends.
In 389 tragedy struck in the form of the death of his seventeen year old son. Despite the saint's belief in the immortality of the soul and of heaven it broke his heart.
Although Augustine lived as a monastic he engaged in very public debates including the bishop Fortunatus. The two men argued publicly on the finer points of Christianity until beaten and shamed Fortunatus fled from the battlefield a broken man.
In 396 Augustine was elected to the amusingly named office of Bishop of Hippo. We are told he hated the idea and begged to be allowed his old life. Once he was moved in he shocked everyone by keeping his old habits and vegetarian diet. Incidentlly St. Augustine had never been a priest before this moment and took his orders in order to wear the bishop's hat.
As one might expect he became less tolerant of unconventional views once he became bishop. He publicly declared his belief that Donatist were damned and encouraged their arrest. He stopped short of wishing them dead and actively tried to prevent their executions. By the way all of this took place because the Donatists believed that a priest had to be virtuous in order for their sacraments to actually work.
While Bishop of Hippo St. Augustine wrote his two great works as well as many, many sermons that do not survive but were well thought of in his time.
At age seventy-six he died in his bed his world on the edge of disaster. The city of Hippo was in the midst of a lengthy siege by the barbarian Vandals who were in the midst of their conquest of North Africa. The old saint had rallied a populace stricken with fear and starvation for months but did not live to see his city pillaged, burned, and raped by the invaders.
posted by Josephus Crum at 10:29 AM
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