St. Augustine of Hippo (August 28th)

Of the various saints to consider this week:

Aug 25th - Saint Louis

Aug 25th - Saint Joseph Calasanz, Priest

Aug 27th - Saint Monica

Aug 28th - Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Aug 29th - The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

Aug 31st - TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year C)


I’ve chosen to write about St. Augustine:   


St. Augustine was born in 354 in the then still Roman province of Numidia in the city of Thagasta (now Sauk Ahras, Algeria) near the end of (Western) Roman Empire.  He came to be considered one of the giants of the Church’s Patristic Era and perhaps the greatest of the Western (Latin) Church Fathers.  


He has (1) had impact on western Christian theology to this day, (2) produced the Rule of Life (the Rule of St. Augustine) which continues to guide the vast majority of Catholic religious congregations and (3) inspired a religious Order, the Augustinians, among whose members have included the 16th century Martin Luther, the 19th century scientist Gregor Mendel arguably the father of modern genetics, and our current Pope Leo XIV.   


As such St. Augustine has been the guarantor, defender and patron of serious Christian thought since the time that he walked this earth 1600 years ago.


Yet he was also very human.   Born into a rich if provincial family, parents of a mixed marriage – his mother, the future St. Monica of a Christian family, his father, Patricius (meaning Patrician) a Roman, pagan, businessman (who nonetheless did convert to Christianity before he died) – as his autobiographical Confessions certainly testify, he very much enjoyed and appreciated the still very much Roman world that he was born into.  


As a young adult, extending into his early 30s, he was something of a beatnik or hippy, perhaps always searching “for meaning” (in good part on his parents’ dime), he converted to Christianity after being givenby a friend the Life of St. Anthony of the Desert to read.  Here was someone of a similar background (and from “down the coast” Egypt), who gave up everything to follow Jesus as a hermit in the Desert.


Now St. Augustine, as his Rule shows, never came to be that austere.  But he clearly recognized the authenticity of St. Anthony’s decision and subsequent life.


With his education, St. Augustine came to be made bishop.  Again he founded a religious community, and perhaps important in our time, he came to witness and make peace with the end of the (Roman) civilization that he was born into.


St. Augustine both finished writing his book The City of God and died during the Vandal conquest of North Africa and siege of Hippo (today Annaba, Algeria), where he served as Bishop.  


Today, there is a common feeling that we find ourselves nearing the end of one epoch and entering into a new and uncertain one.  Let us continue to have the faith of St. Augustine that whatever new comes will ultimately be vindicated through the action and will of God. 


St. Augustine of Hippo, pray for us!



Art: St. Augustine by Philippe de Champaigne

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All Saints (Nov. 1st) and All Souls (Nov. 2nd) Days

Image
After a good number weeks of a large number of saints and/or topics to chose  to write about, this week, this week, the selection is smaller: Oct. 28th, Sts. Simon and Jude , Apostles Nov. 1st, All Saints Nov. 2nd, All Souls Of these, I’m choosing to write about the celebrations of All Saints (Nov 1st) and All Souls (Nov 2nd) . What makes a Saint ?   In the Christian sense, a Saint is a member of the Church, hence baptized and in good standing before both God and the Christian Community (the Church). To non-Catholics this definition would naturally seem rather “parrochial” – What about Gandhi ?  What about Martin Luther King, Jr ?  What about Elie Weisal ?  What about the nice Muslim grandma on our block who, ever dressed in her hijab, would always bring us a lovely plate of baklavas at the end of her family’s celebration of Ramadan? Pretty much every religious tradition faces similar issues.  As we learn to try to live together – and between nuclear...
Read more

St. John XXIII (Oct. 11th)

Image
Of the possibilities to write about this week: October 7 - Our Lady of the Rosary October 9 - St. Denis, bishop, and companions, martyrs October 9 - St. John Leonardi , priest October 11 - St. John XXIII , Pope I’ve decided to devote this week’s reflection to St. John XXIII . Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli , the future Pope John XXIII and Saint John XXIII was born in 1881 into a poor sharing cropping family living in the town of Sotto il Monte , in the Province of Bergamo in the Region of Lombardy in Northern Italy, That he came from a poor family itself is significant, because in previous centuries from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance to the Enlightenment to the beginning of the Modern Era , priests tended to come from middle class families, and bishops, let alone Cardinals and Popes tended to come from upper-class noble families.   On the one hand, massive improvements in the education of common people across the Catholic world in the 19th century allowed their childre...
Read more

The Holy Archangels, Gabriel, Michael and Raphael (Sept. 29th)

Image
  There are plenty of worthy saints to reflect on this week: Sept 23 Saint Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) , Priest  Sept 26 Saints Cosmas and Damian , Martyrs Sept 27 Saint Vincent de Paul , Priest  Sept 28 Saint Wenceslaus , Martyr Sept 28 Saint Lawrence Ruiz and companions , Martyrs Sept 29 The Holy Archangels of Gabriel , Michael and Raphael I decided to pick the Holy Archangels . I did so in good part because the Holy Archangels of Gabriel , Michael and Rafael transcend our Catholic Christian tradition.  The three along with four others - Salathiel , Jegudiel , Barachiel , and Jeremiel - show up in Jewish (both biblical and rabinnic) , Islamic , Bah’ai and even Zoroastrian and pre-Zoroastrian traditions.  (Note that in the Islamic tradition , the Holy Qur'an was dictated to the prophet Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel ) There is even a small Middle Eastern sect,  called the Yazidis , who arguably venerate an angelic figure often portrayed...
Read more