St Augustine of Hippo - 28 August

Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church 354-430

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
27 Aug 2010

One of the foremost philosopher-theologians of early Christianity, and while serving as bishop of Hippo Regius (396-430), he was the leading figure in the church of North Africa. He had a profound influence on the subsequent development of Western thought and culture and, more than any other person, shaped the themes and defined problems that have characterised the Western tradition of Christian Theology. Among his many writings considered classics, the two most celebrated are his semi-autobiographical Confessions and City of God, a Christian vision of history.
However Augustine was not always the golden haired boy.

Augustine's Early Life

Born at Thagaste (Algeria), Augustine received a classical education and rained in rhetoric. Although his devout mother, St Monica, raised him as a Christian, Augustine is said to have lived an easy going, immoral life. Augustine also adopted a Manichaeism, a Christian heresy claiming to provide a rational Christianity on the basis of a purified text of Scripture. Nine years later his association with the Manichees ended in disillusionment. Augustine moved to Milan where he met Bishop Ambrose and it was here he experienced his dramatic conversion that led him to devote his life to the pursuit of truth, which he now identified as Christianity. With a small group of friends he returned to North Africa where he established a religious community dedicated to the intellectual quest for God.

Later Life

Augustine's ordination, unexpectedly forced upon him by popular acclamation during a visit to Hippo in 391, brought about a fundamental change in his life and thought. It directed his attention from the philosophic Christianity he had discovered in Milan to the turbulent, popular Christianity of North Africa's cities and towns. His life as a priest and then bishop was often challenged by controversy and debate. However he is often referred to as one of the architects of the unified Christianity that survived the barbarian invasions of the 5th century and emerged as the religion of medieval Europe. Often called the father of orthodox theology, St Augustine is, in the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, a saint and pre-eminent Doctor of the Church, and the patron of the Augustinian religious order.