Life of St.

Augustine
Bishop of Hippo
Doctor of Grace
354-430 AD
 Objectives

1. To recall the life of St. Augustine

2. To illustrate how St. Augustine’s
philosophy helped him convert into
Christianity
3. To reflect on the life of St. Augustine
Birthday:
November 13, 354 AD
Birthplace:
Thagaste, Numidia, North Africa
Real Name:
Aurelius Augustinus

Father: Patricius - Pagan

Mother: Monica (St. Monica) –
Christian
Siblings: 2 Brothers and 1 Sister
(Navigius and Perpetua)
Augustine's schooldays: his parents deliver him to the
schoolmaster
 Infancy and Childhood

364 AD - 10 y/o
- Thagaste
- He likes Latin and dislikes
Arithmetic and Greek
In his writings, Augustine accuses himself of often studying
by constraint, not obeying his parents and masters, not
writing, reading, or minding his lessons so much as was
required of him.

And this he did not for lack of intelligence or memory, but

out of love of play.
 Infancy and Childhood

They stripped a pear tree of

its fruit "not to eat the fruit
ourselves, but simply to
destroy it."

Here in his own behaviour he

saw an example of sin being
committed simply for the
sake of doing evil.
366 AD - 12 y/o
- Madaura (20 miles south of
Thagaste
- Studied Rhetoric, at that
time, which is fundamental
to any professional career, such
as law and public life.
370 AD - 16 y/o
- returned to Thagaste
- year of idleness

371 AD - 17 y/o
- Carthage
- Romanianus
- long term relationship with
a woman (no name) always
associated to Melania
 Adolescent years

372 AD - 18 y/o
- Adeodatus (God-Given)
was born.
- His father died and was
baptized to Christianity at his
deathbed.
- He became a “Manichaean”.
- Manichaeism, which is a pseudo-
Christian sect formed by Mani. Followers believe on
the God of good and the God of evil.
 Adolescent years

373 AD - 19 y/o
- He read Hortensius of Cicero.
- It is a philosophical book,
which moved him to abandon
his career as a lawyer in the
imperial service.
- “Intellectual conversion”
The Hortensius advised against the pursuit of sensual
pleasure as harmful to the discipline of thinking in a
philosophic manner; however, the sexual drives within
Augustine were then too strong for him to be willing to
separate from his concubine.
 Adolescent years

374 AD - 20 y/o
-returned to Thagaste to teach
grammar (needed for the
study of Rhetoric).
376 Ad - 22 y/o
- Returned to Carthage after
his best friend died in
Thagaste.
- Opened a school of Rhetoric
and became a teacher for 8
years.
383 AD - 29 y/o
-Went to Rome w/ Alypius
(former student) to open a
school.
- He deceived his mother so
that she couldn’t follow him.
- Milan – he was asked to be
professor of Rhetoric by
Symmachus, a prefect of the City.
Augustine sets
sail for Rome,
leaving his
mother behind
Augustine the teacher: by position in the cycle, during his
brief stay in Rome
 Augustine sets out for Milan from Rome -- the
distinguished gentleman at the far left is clearly meant to
be the 'pagan' orator Symmachus, who secured Augustine
his place at Milan
Augustine arrives at Milan
 Adolescent years

384 AD - 30 y/o
- Milan – He was inspired by
the sermons of Bishop
Ambrose and became frequent
hearer of the bishop’s sermons.
385 AD - 31 y/o
- Monica arrived in Milan and
offered Augustine an arranged
marriage.
- Augustine was faithful to his
concubine for 14 years until here.
386 AD - 32 y/o
- “Spiritual Conversion”
- “Tolle Lege, Tolle Lege”
- Romans 13:13-14

'Take up and
read'
387 AD - 33 y/o
- “Baptism”
- Fall, April 24
- Augustine, together w/
Alypius and Adeodatus, was
baptized by Bishop Ambrose in Milan
Augustine is
baptized by
Ambrose (the text
behind his head is
the famous medieval
hymn, 'Te Deum',
which legend
believed had been
by Augustine and
Ambrose, jointly
improvising at just
this moment
387 AD - 33 y/o

- Summer,
- Monica died in Ostia
when they were about to
go back to Thagaste.

- She died at 56 y/o.

Death of Monica
388 AD - Founded a monastery in
Thagaste.
390 AD - Adeodatus died at 18 y/o
- Nebridius, his friend, also died.
391 AD - He was made a priest on the spot
while looking to build another
community in Hippo.
395 AD - He was made coadjutor
(assistant) bishop of Hippo.
396 AD - 42 y/o
- Bishop Valerius died and he
became the bishop of Hippo

Augustine’s life as a bishop:

1. Drove out in Hippo Donatists
2. Interfering for prisoners to save them from
torture and execution
3. Advocating for the poor
4. Buying freedom for badly treated slaves
5. Charging religious women with the care of
abandoned and orphaned children.
 Works

397 AD - The Confessions

- 5 years

399 AD - On the Trinity

- 20 years

413 AD - The City of God

- 13 years

100 books
240 letters
500+ sermons
Confessions

His Confessions is considered a
classic of Christian
autobiography.
 The work outlines Augustine's
sinful youth and his conversion
to Christianity.
 St. Augustine writes about how
much he regrets having led a
sinful and immoral life. He
discusses his regrets for
following the Manichaean
religion and believing in
astrology
St Augustine’s

Books
City of God a mammoth
defense of Christianity
against its pagan critics, and
famous especially for the
uniquely Christian view of
history elaborated in its
pages.
 On the Trinity comes from
his polemic writings.
 On the Work of Monks, has
been much used by
monastics.
Teaching of Philosophy
 Along with being a prominent figure in the religious spectrum,
Augustine was also very influential in the history of education.
 He introduced the theory of three different types of students, and
instructed teachers to adapt their teaching styles to each student's
individual learning style.
 He claimed there are two basic styles a teacher uses when speaking
to the students.
 The mixed style includes complex and sometimes showy language
to help students see the beautiful artistry of the subject they are
studying.
 The grand style is not quite as elegant as the mixed style, but is
exciting and heartfelt, with the purpose of igniting the same passion
in the students' hearts.
Pelagian Heresy
 St. Augustine was involved
was his battle against
Pelagianism.
 The Pelagians denied original
sin and the fall of humanity.
 From his writings the
controversies on grace proceed,
and as supposed followers of
Augustine, John Calvin and the
Jansenists developed
predestinarian theologies.
Heresies

St Augustine of Hippo dealt  The Donatists claimed to be
with the heresies of the the only faithful and pure
Donatists, Manichaeans. Christians.
 Augustine himself was drawn  The unity of the Church was
to Manichaeism for nine years severely threatened.
before his conversion.  Augustine took pains to
 But, as soon as he became a address this problem from
Christian, Augustine felt the around 396
need for protecting the Church  He distinguished between the
from the Manichaean heresy. gift of baptism itself and the
efficacious use of it, by saying
that the former exists
everywhere, whether inside or
outside of the Catholic Church.
Augustine’s Works
 Augustine was one of the most prolific Latin authors, and
the list of his works consists of more than a hundred separate
titles.
 They include apologetic works against the heresies of the
Arians, Donatists, Manichaeans and Pelagians, texts on
Christian doctrine, notably De doctrina Christiana (On
Christian Doctrine), exegetical works such as commentaries
on Book of Genesis, the Psalms and Paul's Letter to the
Romans, many sermons and letters, and the Retractationes
(Retractions), a review of his earlier works which he wrote
near the end of his life
Influence on Church
 Augustine was a bishop, priest, and
father who remains a central figure,
both within Christianity and in the
history of Western thought, and is
considered by modern historian
Thomas Cahill to be the first medieval
man and the last classical man.
 Bishop John Fisher of Rochester, a
chief opponent of Luther, articulated an
Augustinian view of grace and
salvation consistent with Church
doctrine, thus encompassing both
Augustine’s soteriology and his
teaching on the authority of and
obedience to the Catholic Church.
Influence on the Church
 Later, within the Roman
Catholic Church, the writings
of Cornelius Jansen, who
claimed heavy influence from
Augustine, would form the
basis of the movement known
as Jansenism.
 Augustine was canonized by
popular acclaim, and later
recognized as a Doctor of the
Church in 1303 by Pope
Boniface VIII
 His feast day is August 28, the
day on which he died.
Saint Augustine
 Saint Augustine, born in what is now Souk-Ahras, Algeria,
in ad 354, brought a systematic method of philosophy to
Christian theology.
 As a writer, Augustine was prolific, persuasive, and a
brilliant stylist. His best-known work is his autobiographical
Confessions (400), exposing his early life and conversion. In
his great Christian book The City of God (413-26),
Augustine formulated a theological philosophy of history.
Ten of the 22 books of this work are devoted to polemic
against pantheism. The remaining 12 books trace the origin,
progress, and destiny of the church and establish it as the
proper successor to paganism.
Saint Augustine
 The process of reconciling the Greek emphasis on reason with
the emphasis on religious emotion in the teachings of Christ
and the apostles found eloquent expression in the writings of
Saint Augustine during the late 4th and early 5th centuries.
 Augustine argued that religious faith and philosophical
understanding are complementary rather than opposed and that
one must “believe in order to understand and understand in
order to believe.”
 He considered the soul a higher form of existence than the
body and taught that knowledge consists in the contemplation
of Platonic ideas as abstract notions apart from sensory
experience and anything physical or material.
Saint Augustine
 Late in his life Augustine came to a pessimistic view about
original sin, grace, and predestination: the ultimate fates of
humans, he decided, are predetermined by God in the sense that
some people are granted divine grace to enter heaven and others
are not, and human actions and choices cannot explain the fates
of individuals.
 His view of human life was pessimistic, asserting that happiness
is impossible in the world of the living, where even with good
fortune, which is rare, awareness of approaching death would
mar any tendency toward satisfaction. He believed further that
without the religious virtues of faith, hope, and charity, which
require divine grace to be attained, a person cannot develop the
natural virtues of courage, justice, temperance, and wisdom.
Augustine and a boy on the seashore at Hippo
 Death of Augustine:
August 28, 430 at 76 y/o
St. Augustine’s Death
 Shortly before Augustine's death,
Roman Africa was overrun by the
Vandals, a warlike tribe with Arian
sympathies.
 They had entered Africa at the
instigation of Count Boniface, but
soon turned to lawlessness,
plundering private citizens and
churches and killing many of the
inhabitants.
 The Vandals arrived in the spring
of 430 to besiege Hippo and during
that time, Augustine endured his
final illness.
Image : The bones of St Augustine are locked in a glass-sided urn and usually kept in
the large marble “arca” situated immediately behind the main altar of the Church of
S. Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia, On this occasion, the urn has been placed on the altar
table.
Pope Benedict XVI before the bones of St. Augustine in
Pavia
Ruins of the Cathedral of Hippo
Ruins of the
Cathedral of
Hippo
Thank you
for Life of St.
Augustine
listening! Bishop of Hippo
Doctor of Grace
354-430 AD