When he was barely twelve years old Augustine was sent to a grammar school at Madaura. At this time it was a common practice for Christians to defer baptism until they were well on in years, for fear of the greater guilt they would incur by sinning after baptism.Īugustine himself later condemned this custom, and the Church has long since forbidden it. Once, when ill, the boy asked for baptism, but he suddenly got well and the rite was postponed. In infancy Augustine was marked with the sign of the cross and enrolled among the catechumens, and later instructed in the tenets of the Christian religion. With a copy of the book which he sent to a friend, he wrote: "See now what I am from this book believe me who bear testimony against myself, and regard not what others say of me." With the utmost candor Augustine divulges the sins and follies of his youth, and at the end enumerates the weaknesses which still beset him. He wrote the book, he says, for "a people curious to know the lives of others, but careless to amend their own," to demonstrate God's mercy as shown in the life of one sinner, and to make sure that no one should think him any better than he really was. Of this union there were three children: Augustine, another son, Navigius, and a daughter, Perpetua, who became an abbess.Īugustine's youth and manhood, up to and including his conversion and the death of his mother, is described fully in his great spiritual autobiography, the. The father was one Patricius, a hot-tempered man and a pagan, who, under the influence of his Christian wife, the saintly Monica, learned patience and humility and was baptized shortly before his death. His parents were citizens of good standing, though not wealthy.
Augustine was born on November 13, 354, at Tagaste, a small town of Numidia, North Africa, not far from the episcopal city of Hippo.
In every succeeding age his memory has been held in the highest veneration and his writings have been an inspiration to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Pope Leo I, during whose pontificate Augustine was canonized, ordered that the feast of this saint should be observed with the same honors as that of an Apostle. SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO BISHOP, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH≳54-430A.D.
0 kommentar(er)
