POPE John Paul II, in his apostolic letter Augustinum Hipponensem in August 28, 1986, extolled Saint Augustine as a “magnificent example in search for truth… an incomparable man whose children and disciples we all are in a certain fashion,” searching for God, in the scriptures, in the heavens, in the sea and in life.
A saint with a brilliant mind, he wrote the basis of numerous social teachings and theology in the Catholic church. It is said that by common consent, “he is the greatest of the fathers and doctors of the church.”
It is “only Saint Thomas Aquinas, in the 13th century, who surpassed [Saint Augustine] as a theologian.” A teacher, who, in his lifetime, never despaired searching for truth about spirituality, he found God after years of laborious search.
Meditating on De Trinitate, the Holy Trinity, one of great books he wrote, he met a boy while walking along the ocean shore. The boy was scooping the waters of the ocean in a hole he made on the sand. Augustine remarked that what he was doing was an impossible task. The boy replied: “It is easier to scoop all the water of the ocean into the hole than to grasp the nature of God in your mind.”
Man of the world
Saint Augustine is the son of the Saint Monica, a pious woman, and Patricius, a violent desolute pagan, a drunkard, probably unfaithful with a protective mother. Saint Monica’s gentleness and exemplary life converted Patricius to the Catholic faith a year before his death.
Born on November 13, 354, in Tagaste (Algeria, Africa), Monica taught Augustine about faith in God and enrolled him as a catechumen. He studied pagan classics and rejected the scriptures, which he considered too demanding and uncultured.
In 370 he studied in Carthage and became a Manichee. Manichean is a religious dualism, which originated in Persia in the 3rd century. It preached two Gods, a good and an evil. Goodness, which is imprisoned in evil matter, will be rescued by messengers, like Jesus and finally by Mani.
To enjoy the flesh is permitted by the doctrine so he fathered a son, Adeodatus, who died in his teens, so he sent back the mother to Africa. He went to Rome and studied the philosophy of Plato and the Bible.
He became a teacher of rhetorics in Milan, and was reunited with his mother. He became attracted to the Catholic faith, because of Saint Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, who he greatly admired.
Enlightened, he developed anxiety about his spiritual life. But unable to commit himself entirely to God, he simply reflected on his new-found spiritual insights. Thus, his famous quote: “Please make me chaste, but not just yet.”
The metamorphosis
One day, he heard a child singing in a neighboring house: “Tolle-lege [Take up and read].” He opened the Bible at random and read Saint Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome: “Let us live honorably as in daylight; not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual excess and lust, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desire of the flesh.” (Romans 13:13-14).
“I wish to read no further,” he said. “A light of confidence and security streamed into my heart, and all the dark shadows of my former hesitation were dispelled.”
The verse paved the way for his conversion. He was baptized on the Paschal Vigil in 387. He was 32 and resolved to consecrate his life to God. He went into seclusion in Tagaste for a life of prayer, fasting and study with friends. After three years, he was ordained priest.
Bishop Valerius ordered him to preach the gospel, a privilege reserved only for bishops in Africa. In 390 he moved to Hippo Regius (modern-day Annaba, Algeria), where he started another community with his friends who followed him. After five years, he was coadjutor bishop of Bishop Valerius of Hippo, whom he succeeded in 396.
Since then, until his death in 430, his life was a cadence of spiritual activities.
A great mind
In his over 50 journeys in the diocese, he revitalized the entire African church and became the Patriarch of Monasticism. His sermons animated love for God of which the church compiled more than 500 and about 300 letters and 113 books.
The “world’s most noted autobiography,” Confessions, is his spiritual biography.
Awareness of his youthful sinfulness made him an epitome of humility. “Take my heart, O Lord, for I cannot give it to You! Keep my heart for I cannot keep it for You. Send me any cross that will keep me subject to Your Cross, and save me in spite of myself!”he said.
However, Confessions is not only an autobiography. It is also a collection of praise on the goodness of God, the ultimate meaning of life in God’s divine plan.
City of God explains his theology of creation and God’s working in history. Written in 410, after the capture of Rome, “the siege was not the fault of the Christians but the just punishment of God for her vices and sins,” according to him.
Also known as “The Doctor of Grace,” he died on August 28, 430, at the age of 76, while the Vandals, a Germanic tribe that had converted to Arianism, were at the gates of the city of Hippo. His body was transferred to Sardenia to protect it from the Vandals. Since the 8th century, his relics are in Pavia.
Saint Augustine is the patron of theologians, printers and brewers. He is invoked against sore eyes.
Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris College in Calauan, Laguna.