St. Augustine of Hippo:  Feast:  August 28th:  Novena 8/19–8/27:

St. Augustine, the [2nd] most illustrious Doctor of The Church of Christ, was born on November 13, 354, at Tagaste, Africa.  His father, Patricius, a pagan, was baptized a little before his death; his mother was St. Monica.

Augustine had been instructed in the rudiments of Christianity in his early youth, but, like the Prodigal Son, at the age of sixteen had the misfortune to lose his faith and innocence.  He continued to lead his irregular life until he was thirty-two.  Through his pride, at the age of twenty, he fell into the Manichean heresy, while at Carthage.

In his twentieth year, he returned home to his mother, at Tagaste, and opened a school of grammar and rhetoric.  His mother never ceased to pray for his conversion.  In 374, Augustine went to Carthage, where he had spent four years pursuing his studies, and opened a school of rhetoric, where he taught for eight years.  Disgusted at the disorderly behavior of the students, Augustine resolved to go to Rome.  It was while there that he severed [his] relationship with the Manicheans, with whom he had spent nine years.  His search for Truth finally led him to The One, True, Fold of Christ.  Two Latin words:  ‘Tolle Lege; Tolle Lege:  ‘Take up and read; Take up and read’, caused him to peruse the Epistles of St. Paul.  Opening the book, his eyes fell upon the words, ‘Not in rioting and drunkenness; not in chambering and impurities; not in contention and envy; but put ye on The Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in its concupiscences’.  (Romans13:13, 14)  He read no further; all of the darkness of his previous life was dispelled.

It was in the year 387, the thirty-second of his age, that, after listening to sermons by St. Ambrose, in Milan, he was converted and was baptized.  He intended to return to Africa with his mother, but she died unexpectedly while they were at Ostia.  St. Augustine therefore, spent a year in Rome and returned to Tagaste in 388.  After distributing his goods to the poor, he founded a monastery on one of his former esstates, which was the beginning of the great Augustinian Order.

Early in 391, St. Augustine was ordained Priest by [Bishop] Valerious, and, after settling in Hippo, was consecrated Bishop in 395.  The following year, he succeeded Bishop Varlerius.  On August 28, 430, while the Vandals were beseiging his episcopal city, St. Augustine died.  For thirty-five years he had been the center of ecclesiastical life in Africa, and The Church’s greatest champion against heresy.  Among his ninety-six works are his Confessions and the twenty books of The City of God, familiar to many learned people of our own day; refutations of Manichaeism, Donatism, Pelagianism, and other heresies of his time; and those that deal with spirituality, philosophy, history, exegesis and morals.  More than 400 of his sermons and 217 of his letters are extant today.

St. Augustine was a philosopher and dogmatic theologian, as well as a mystic and a powerful controversalist.”

(taken from:  Heavenly Friends:  A Saint for Each Day, by Rosalie Marie Levy.  Boston:  Daughters of St. Paul, 1979, pp. 329–330)

© & All Rights Reserved, The Holy Family House, A.D. 2012 and on.  Can be copied & distributed, GRATIS ONLY, with attribution.   + A.M.D.G.