Augustine of Hippo

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Augustine", "Saint Augustine", and "Augustinus" redirect here. For other uses, see Augustine
(disambiguation), Saint Augustine (disambiguation), and Augustinus (disambiguation).

Saint

Augustine of Hippo

Saint Augustin by Philippe de Champaigne, c. 1645

Bishop of Hippo Regius

Doctor of the Church

Born Aurelius Augustinus

13 November 354

Thagaste, Numidia Cirtensis, Roman Empire

Died 28 August 430 (aged 75)

Hippo Regius, Numidia Cirtensis, Western Roman Empire

Resting place Pavia, Italy

Venerated in All Christian denominations which venerate saints

Canonized Pre-Congregation

Major shrine San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia, Italy

Feast

28 August (Latin Church, Western Christianity)

15 June (Eastern Christianity)

4 November (Assyrian)

Attributes Crozier, mitre, young child, book, small church, flaming or pierced heart[1]

Patronage
BrewersPrintersTheologiansPhilosophersSore eyesBridgeport, ConnecticutCagayan de OroSan
Agustin, IsabelaMendez, CaviteTanza, CaviteBaliwag, BulacanLubao, PampangaIba, Zambales

Philosophy career

Notable work

Confessions

On Christian Doctrine

On the Trinity

The City of God

Era

Ancient philosophy

Medieval philosophy

Region Western philosophy

School

Augustinianism

Notable students Paul Orosius[19]

Prosper of Aquitaine

Main interests

Christian anthropology

Biblical criticism

Epistemology

Ethics

Metaphysics

Pedagogy

Philosophy of religion

Theodicy

Theology

Notable ideas
Ordination history

History

Source(s):[20][21]

Augustine of Hippo (/ɔːˈɡʌstɪn/ aw-GUST-in, US also /ˈɔːɡəstiːn/ AW-gə-steen;[22] Latin: Aurelius

According to his contemporary, Jerome of Stridon, Augustine "established anew the ancient Faith".
[a] In his youth he was drawn to the Manichaean faith, and later to the Hellenistic philosophy of
Neoplatonism. After his conversion to Christianity and baptism in 386, Augustine developed his own
approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives.[24]
Believing the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine
of original sin and made significant contributions to the development of just war theory. When the
Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine imagined the Church as a spiritual City of
God, distinct from the material Earthly City.[25] The segment of the Church that adhered to the
concept of the Trinity as defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople[26]
closely identified with Augustine's On the Trinity.

Augustine is recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran
churches, and the Anglican Communion. He is also a preeminent Catholic Doctor of the Church and
the patron of the Augustinians. His memorial is celebrated on 28 August, the day of his death.
Augustine is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, and a number of cities and dioceses.
[27] His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview. Many Protestants, especially
Calvinists and Lutherans, consider him one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation
due to his teachings on salvation and divine grace.[28][29][30] Protestant Reformers generally, and
Martin Luther in particular, held Augustine in preeminence among early Church Fathers. From 1505
to 1521, Luther was a member of the Order of the Augustinian Eremites.

In the East, his teachings are more disputed and were notably attacked by John Romanides,[31] but
other theologians and figures of the Eastern Orthodox Church have shown significant approbation of
his writings, chiefly Georges Florovsky.[32] The most controversial doctrine associated with him, the
filioque,[33] was rejected by the Eastern Orthodox Church.[34] Other disputed teachings include his
views on original sin, the doctrine of grace, and predestination.[33] Though considered to be
mistaken on some points, he is still considered a saint and has influenced some Eastern Church
Fathers, most notably Gregory Palamas.[35] In the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches, his feast
day is celebrated on 15 June.[33][36]

The historian Diarmaid MacCulloch has written: "Augustine's impact on Western Christian thought
can hardly be overstated; only his beloved example, Paul of Tarsus, has been more influential, and
Westerners have generally seen Paul through Augustine's eyes."[37]

Life

Background

Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine or Saint Austin,[38] is known by various
cognomens throughout the many denominations of the Christian world, including Blessed Augustine
and the Doctor of Grace[20] (Latin: Doctor gratiae).

Hippo Regius, where Augustine was the bishop, was in modern-day Annaba, Algeria.[39][40]

Childhood and education

Saint Augustine Taken to School by Saint Monica, by Niccolò di Pietro, 1413–15

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Augustine was born in 354 in the municipium of Thagaste (now Souk Ahras, Algeria) in the Roman
province of Numidia.[41][42][43][44][45] His mother, Monica or Monnica,[b] was a devout Christian;
his father Patricius was a pagan who converted to Christianity on his deathbed.[46] He had a brother
named Navigius and a sister whose name is lost but is conventionally remembered as Perpetua.[47]

Scholars generally agree that Augustine and his family were Berbers, an ethnic group indigenous to
North Africa,[48][49][50] but were heavily Romanized, speaking only Latin at home as a matter of
pride and dignity.[48] In his writings, Augustine mentions in passing his identity as a Roman African.
For example, he refers to Apuleius as "the most notorious of us Africans,"[48][51] to Ponticianus as
"a country man of ours, insofar as being African,"[48][52] and to Faustus of Mileve as "an African
Gentleman".[48][53]

Augustine's family name, Aurelius, suggests his father's ancestors were freedmen of the gens Aurelia
given full Roman citizenship by the Edict of Caracalla in 212. Augustine's family had been Roman,
from a legal standpoint, for at least a century when he was born.[54] It is assumed that his mother,
Monica, was of Berber origin, on the basis of her name,[55][56] but as his family were honestiores,
an upper class of citizens known as honorable men, Augustine's first language was likely Latin.[55]

At the age of 11, Augustine was sent to school at Madaurus (now M'Daourouch), a small Numidian
city about 31 kilometres (19 miles) south of Thagaste. There he became familiar with Latin literature,
as well as pagan beliefs and practices.[57] His first insight into the nature of sin occurred when he
and a number of friends stole pears from a neighbourhood garden. He tells this story in his
autobiography, Confessions. He realises that the pears were "tempting neither for its colour nor its
flavour" – he was neither hungry nor poor, and he had enough of fruit which were "much better".
Over the next few chapters, Augustine agonises over this past sin of his, recognising that one does
not desire evil for evil's sake. Rather, "through an inordinate preference for these goods of a lower
kind, the better and higher are neglected".[58] In other words, man is drawn to sin when grossly
choosing the lesser good over a greater good. Eventually, Augustine concludes that it was the good
of the "companionship" between him and his accomplices that allowed him to delight in this theft.
[59]

At the age of 17, through the generosity of his fellow citizen Romanianus,[60] Augustine went to
Carthage to continue his education in rhetoric, though it was above the financial means of his family.
[61] Despite the good warnings of his mother, as a youth Augustine lived a hedonistic lifestyle for a
time, associating with young men who boasted of their sexual exploits. The need to gain their
acceptance encouraged inexperienced boys like Augustine to seek or make up stories about sexual
experiences.[62]

It was while he was a student in Carthage that he read Cicero's dialogue Hortensius (now lost), which
he described as leaving a lasting impression, enkindling in his heart the love of wisdom and a great
thirst for truth. It started his interest in philosophy.[63] Although raised Christian, Augustine became
a Manichaean, much to his mother's chagrin.[64]

At about the age of 17, Augustine began a relationship with a young woman in Carthage. Though his
mother wanted him to marry a person of his class, the woman remained his lover. He was warned by
his mother to avoid fornication (sex outside marriage), but Augustine persisted in the
relationship[65] for over fifteen years,[66] and the woman gave birth to his son Adeodatus (372–
388), which means "Gift from God",[67] who was viewed as extremely intelligent by his
contemporaries. In 385, Augustine ended his relationship with his lover in order to prepare to marry
a teenage heiress. By the time he was able to marry her, however, he had already converted to
Christianity and decided to become a Christian priest and the marriage did not happen.[66][68]

Augustine was, from the beginning, a brilliant student, with an eager intellectual curiosity, but he
never mastered Greek[69] – his first Greek teacher was a brutal man who constantly beat his
students, and Augustine rebelled and refused to study. By the time he realized he needed to know
Greek, it was too late; and although he acquired a smattering of the language, he was never eloquent
with it. He did, however, become a master of Latin.

Move to Carthage, Rome, and Milan

The earliest known portrait of Augustine in a 6th-century fresco, Lateran, Rome

Augustine taught grammar at Thagaste during 373 and 374. The following year he moved to Carthage
to conduct a school of rhetoric and remained there for the next nine years.[60] Disturbed by unruly
students in Carthage, he moved to establish a school in Rome, where he believed the best and
brightest rhetoricians practised, in 383. However, Augustine was disappointed with the apathetic
reception. It was the custom for students to pay their fees to the professor on the last day of the
term, and many students attended faithfully all term, and then did not pay.

Manichaean friends introduced him to the prefect of the City of Rome, Symmachus, who had been
asked by the imperial court at Milan[20] to provide a rhetoric professor. Augustine won the job and
headed north to take his position in Milan in late 384. Thirty years old, he had won the most visible
academic position in the Latin world at a time when such posts gave ready access to political careers.
Although Augustine spent ten years as a Manichaean, he was never an initiate or "elect", but an
"auditor", the lowest level in this religion's hierarchy.[20][70] While still at Carthage a disappointing
meeting with the Manichaean bishop, Faustus of Mileve, a key exponent of Manichaean theology,
started Augustine's scepticism of Manichaeanism.[20] In Rome, he reportedly turned away from
Manichaeanism, embracing the scepticism of the New Academy movement. Because of his
education, Augustine had great rhetorical prowess and was very knowledgeable of the philosophies
behind many faiths.[71] At Milan, his mother's religiosity, Augustine's own studies in Neoplatonism,
and his friend Simplicianus all urged him towards Christianity.[60] This was shortly after the Roman
emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity to be the only legitimate religion for the Roman Empire
on 27 February 380 by the Edict of Thessalonica[72] and then issued a decree of death for all
Manichaean monks in 382. Initially, Augustine was not strongly influenced by Christianity and its
ideologies, but