Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
“I'll be converted tomorrow”
“The day came when I stood naked before myself. And my conscience did not spare me the flogging.” - St. Augustine, 'Confessions'
We know him as a philosopher, a truth-seeker, a great convert and theologian. Saint Augustine of Hippo was a mystic in love with God, a priest concerned about the people entrusted to him, and a writer who left a very rich legacy. The paintings usually present him in the role of a teacher - as a lecturer of rhetoric, then in the bishop's chair. Recalling the life and work of St. Augustine, it must be said at the beginning that he is a pure genius, that is, someone who exceeds accepted standards, who amazes but does not push away, who leads both the great and the small to the extraordinary mystery of God and man.
Augustine was born in 354 in Tagast (now Souk Ahras in Algeria), to the family of a government official, the Patrician who was a convinced pagan. Augustine's mother Monika came from a family with a Christian tradition. She very much wanted her son to be baptized and become a member of the community of believers. This mother's wish only came true after 33 years. The development of Augustine was undoubtedly influenced by the fact that the father and mother differed in faith as to their beliefs about matters that would decide the fate of man. Augustine would remain torn between the influence of mother and father for many years; he will bear the pain of existence for a long time, finding no cure, which he will later recall with regret as priest and bishop.
He first attended school in his hometown - Tagast, to continue his studies to a greater extent in Madaura. When he was 16, he had to stop his education because his father did not have the money to pay for it. Difficult adolescence, a lot of free time, pagan customs - these and other reasons made him bond with a woman, and from this relationship, after a while, his son Adeodatus was born. He continued his studies in Carthage with the help of the wealthy Romanius. During this time, he devoted himself to search for the truth, read a lot, attended the theater, and throw himself into the vortex of discussions. He even picked up the Scriptures. He find nothing extraordinary in it - he said that the language and style weretoo simple, and God is presented too anthropomorphically, that is, too human.
Augustine waited for a miracle, for some explosion of beauty that would take him away and overwhelm him, he waited for an extraordinary revelation that would light up all his doubts. Since these things do not happen at will, his skepticism was strengthened, and remained stoic in matters of life. For many years he was associated with the then fashionable Manichaeism, reading the world as an arena for the fight between good and evil, promising young Augustine to unravel the mystery of good and evil.
In 383, the twenty-nine-year-old Augustine went to Rome, in search of a well-paid job in the capital city of the world, where he teached rhetoric for one year. Finding better employment conditions in Milan, he immediately accepted a teaching position in this subject. In Milan, Augustine was converted, was baptized with his son Adeodatus, in the presence of hishappy mother Monica. Usually, this conversion is described as sudden, least expected, as a shock. It was at that moment when St. Augustine opened the Scriptures at random and in it he found a shocking exhortation: " Let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh." (Romans 13: 13-14). If grace sometimes falls like a bolt from the sky, which happens rather rarely, then in the case of St. Augustine, God's call fell on a slightly prepared ground. On his way, the young philosopher and thinker met a man of great authority, namely St. Ambrose, a long-time bishop of Milan.
Augustine was impressed by this great man: he listened to his sermons, argued with him, admired his firmness and wisdom. Augustine quickly realized that Christianity naturally represented what was good and noble in pagan thought. In Milan, Augustine was fascinated by the Neoplatonic philosophy, which emphasized the spiritual character of man, the need for openness and the experience of love, beauty and goodness, which determines the value of human life, as it were, the fulfillment of humanity in an ideal shape. Augustine was accompanied by Monica on a daily basis with her love, faith and hope, which was reflected in her persistent prayer. In a word - Augustine was ready to accept faith, he missed it for a long time. This particular coincidence, "chance" seems to be something logical from the observer's point of view, while from the point of view of Augustine, who directed his life towards God, it became an event of grace, showing the meaning of life - an extraordinary gift from God.
He prepared for baptism with his son very carefully, in the presence of his mother and many friends. Soon after being baptized (Holy Saturday 387), he decided to return to Africa. This return was very dramatic - just before saying goodbye to Italy, his mother died, and shortly after landing in Africa, his son died. Augustine sold everything he had and livedwith people who thought like him. Prayer, work, exploring the mystery of God and man - this was the goal of the community, which wasnot at all pioneering in this field. The tradition of monastic life in Africa (Anchorite, Hermits) was over a hundred years old at that time.
Augustine's fame quickly crossed the boundaries of the improvised monastery and hometown. Valerius, the bishop of Hippo, arranged for Augustine a pastoral apprenticeship that convinced him that Augustine should be his successor, and that Augustine was completely ignorant of Scripture. By the gentle persuasion of the bishop, Augustine was convinced to be ordained priest and bishop. He served the Church of Hippo as a bishop for 35 years, until his death (in 430). Although he did not enjoy great physical strength, he made arduous pastoral journeys and presided over many synods, gave many sermons that various secretaries tried to write down, wrote many works in which he tried, as befits a genius, to clarify the greatest mysteries about God and man. He was aware that the resulting works were very imperfect. A beautiful anecdote says that St. Augustine, one fine day, while walking by the sea, Augustine met a young child frantically busy carrying water in a small shell from the sea to a small hole dug in the golden sands of an African beach, whenhe asked him what he was doing and what his intentions were. The little child replied that he was going to pour the whole sea into the small hole. It is impossible, he reasoned logically. He heard the answer: I will pour the sea into this dimple more quickly than you will finally understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity. The anecdote requires no comment. It must only be added that Augustine did not even appear to have deciphered the mystery of God and man. Before the Mystery he bowed, always listened to the Church and its traditions.
The legacy of St. Augustine is huge. His most famous work is Confessions, which summarizes the spiritual experiences after his conversion and baptism (397-401), in which the way of prayer and thanksgiving is dominant for the fact that God sought him out and invited him to serve man in the Church. "And our heart is restless until it rests in you" (Book 1: 1) - this is one of those sentences that mankind has been repeating for 1600 years, and which summarizes the life and thought of St. Augustine.
It does not seem necessary to summarize the theological thought of St. Augustine. Religion utters the whole man. Everything that surrounds him, that man created, i.e., the whole culture, has its foundations in religion. Without religion and faith, culture becomes empty, it becomes a culture of death.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george