ST. AUGUSTINE Bishop of Hippo, Doctor of the Church (A.D. 430)-
Saint Augustine was born in 354 A.D. in Tagaste, a small town near Hippo in what is now Algeria. His father, Pat-Rees-yous, was a pagan and of a violent disposition; but through the example and prudent conduct of his wife, Saint Monica, Patricius was baptized before his death.
As a child, Augustine’s mother instructed him in the Christian religion and taught him how to pray. Falling dangerously ill, he desired to be baptized and his mother got everything ready for it to happen. Suddenly though, he grew better, and the baptism was put off.
Augustine's father wanted him to become a man of learning and cared very little about his character. He went to Carthage in 370 AD when he was only 17 to study rhetoric with eagerness and pleasure; but his motives were driven by vanity and ambition, and he enjoyed loose living way too much.
In Carthage, he had a relationship with a woman (to whom he remained faithful until he sent her away 15 years later). She bore him a son, Adeo-dat-us, in 372.
He switched his studies to philosophy and the search for truth and studied the Scriptures, but from a subjective angle. He was offended with their simplicity, and could not relish their humility or penetrate the spirit of their meaning. He became seduced by Manichaeism - a combination of paganism and philosophy. "I sought with pride", he confessed, "what only humility could make me find. Fool that I was, I left the nest, imagining myself able to fly; and I fell to the ground."
For nine years he had his own schools of rhetoric and grammar in Tagaste and Carthage, while his devoted mother, Saint Monica, spurred on by the assurance of a holy bishop that "the son of so many tears could not perish", never ceased by prayer and gentle persuasion to try to bring him to conversion and reform.
In 383 he secretly departed to Rome, lest his mother should prevent him from going to the big city. There he opened a school for rhetoric, and then was appointed by the government as a teacher in Milan, where his mother, and his friend Alipius joined him.
It was in Milan where Saint Augustine came under the influence of Saint Ambrose the bishop; he began to go to his sermons, not to profit but to gratify his curiosity and to enjoy the eloquence. Eventually, he found the sermons of St Ambrose to be more meaningful than his adopted heresie. He began to read the New Testament, especially the writings of Saint Paul. In the same time, the mother of his son went back to Africa leaving the child behind.
Saint Augustine's spiritual, moral and intellectual struggle went on. He was convinced of the truth of Christianity, but his will was weaker than the worldly temptations that surrounded him. Thus he delayed his return to Christ for many months. "Soon,” St Augustine would say to himself “in a little while, I shall make up my mind, but not right now". In his half desires of conversion he was accustomed to beg of God the grace of chastity, but in some measure afraid of being heard too soon. He realized that his problem was a moral one. The Divine truth for which he was seeking would never be his unless he first overcame his weakness.
Soon after, Pon-tit-ian, an African, came to visit Saint Augustine and his friend Alipius. He told them about two men who had been suddenly turned to the service of God by reading about the life of Saint Anthony. His words had a powerful influence on the mind of Saint Augustine.
"What are we doing,” Augustine asked of Alipius “to let the unlearned seize Heaven by force, whilst we with all our knowledge remain behind, cowardly and heartless, wallowing in our sins? Because they have outstripped us and gone before, are we ashamed to follow them? is it not more shameful to not follow?"
He rushed to the garden, with tears in his eyes, threw himself on the grass under a fig tree and reproached himself bitterly crying out: