Feast of St. Augustine
Augustine was born to a lower middle class family in Tagaste in Algeria on November 13, 354. His father was a pagan, his mother a Catholic, in fact an over-trained Catholic one at that. From early on he was destined for an academic career. He set out for Carthage, the most populous Roman city of Africa in his day. He began teaching at the age of 19. But Africa, even Carthage, was a backwater of the Roman empire. His pupils didn't share Augustine's appetite for learning. Besides, drank the fees their parents gave them and stole Augustine's money for more drink. University students haven't changed a great deal since! Augustine was a serious-minded ambitious man. He was intent on reaching the top of whatever ladder he might chose to ascend. There was no academic ladder available in Africa, so Augustine plucked up his tent again and set out for the centre of the world, Rome. But when he arrived at Rome, he soon discovered that the centre of the world had now moved north to Milan. There the Emperor now held court and Augustine was determined to get in on the act.
By the time he was 30 years of age he had secured the most prestigious academic position in the Roman world, the chair of rhetoric at the university of Milan. He was living with a girlfriend at this stage and they had a son, (or three children, depending on who you read) Adeodatus together. (Gift form God). But this didn't prevent Augustine from frequenting the many brothels of Milan in his spare time. He had meanwhile attached himself to what we would call today religious cults or new age groupings, called the Manichean sect. Ominously, the mother Monica comes knocking on the door: 'I'm moving in with you, she announced, I too have had my fill of Africa.' We can only imagine Augustine's reaction! Immediately she began to find fault with the girlfriend: 'Now that he has this good job, could he not do better for himself romantically. Could he not get himself someone more respectable!'
Augustine was blessed with a curious mind, a restless mind. This curiosity led him to the lectures of St. Ambrose where he was enthralled with Ambrose's explanation of Sacred Scripture. In 356 Augustine heard a voice while he was embroiled in abandoned tears of helplessness searching for answers. The child-like voice chanted, "Take and read." Without thinking Augustine opened the Bible to the words of Saint Paul in Romans 13:13-14 which said, "Let us walk becomingly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and as for the flesh, take no thought for its lusts." He was so moved that he asked Ambrose if he could be baptized and then immediately told his mother Monica that he wanted to be baptized. Monica firmly insisted that in order to be in full union with the Church he had to abandon his Manichean beliefs and forsake living with his girl friend and their three children illegitimately conceived. Augustine agreed, was baptized. He and Monica headed south for Rome and the port of Ostia. There Monica died as her son prayed with her. "Lay this body where you will; all I ask is that you should remember me at the altar of God." Shortly after Monica's death he returned to Africa and was ordained a priest at the age of 36.
During this time he dedicated full time to mediating in disputes, and writing. At the young age of 41 Augustine was consecrated the Bishop of Hippo where he preached and served the people for the rest of his life, defending the Church against all types of heresies. Even though a bishop, he still lived in community with fellow priests and wrote constantly beginning with his major works Confessions which was basically a catechism for all catechumens along with his great work Christian Doctrine.
In 410, as the Goth Alaric was laying siege to Rome Augustine wrote his most famous opus - City of God. His great words, "Too late have I loved You, O Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! Our hearts were made for You, O Lord, and they are restless until they rest in you" show how God became the end-all and be-all in his life which ended at the age of 76 on August 28, 430 as the Vandals were storming the gates of Hippo. To preserve his body from the Vandals, the Augustinians stole him away to Sardinia where he was laid to rest, and later transferred to Pavia. Though Augustine's works were appreciated during his lifetime, it wasn't until after his death that his words really took root and was celebrated as a Doctor of the Church from the eighth century on, becoming official in the eleventh century. Today St. Augustine is revered as one of the greatest and learned scholars of the Church. His conversion proves the power of God's love and the power of the Word of God.