Saint of the Day: St. Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
August 28, 2009
“You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.” -- Confessions I:1
...
Since that wonderful, heavenly conversation at Ostia, God had completed His triumph in the son of Monica's tears and of Ambrose's holiness. Far away from the great cities where pleasure had seduced him, the former rhetorician now cared only to nourish his soul with the simplicity of the Scriptures, in silence and solitude. But grace, after breaking the double chain that bound his mind and his heart, was to have a still greater dominion over him; the pontifical consecration was to consummate Augustine's union with that Divine Wisdom, whom alone he declared he loved' for her own sole sake, caring neither for rest nor life save on her account.' [Soliloq. i. 22]...To the end of his life Augustine never ceased to fight for the truth against all the heresies then invented by the father of lies...” (source)
...
The praise of Augustine has never ceased to be proclaimed in the Church of God, even by the Roman Pontiffs. While the holy Bishop was yet alive, Innocent I greeted him as a beloved friend and extolled the letter which he had received from the Saint and from four Bishops, his friends: “A letter instinct with faith and staunch with all the vigor of the Catholic religion.” Shortly after the death of Augustine, Celestine I defends him against his opponents in the following noble words: “We have ever deemed Augustine a man to be remembered for his sanctity, because of his life and services in our communion, nor has rumor at any time darkened his name with the suspicion of evil. So great was his knowledge, as we recall, that he was always reckoned by my predecessors also among our foremost teachers. All alike, therefore, thought highly of him as a man held in affection and honor by all.
Hormisdas wrote in answer to Bishop Possessor’s request for direction these weighty words: “What the Roman, that is, the Catholic Church follows and maintains touching free will and the grace of God, can be learned from the different works of blessed Augustine, those especially which he addressed to Hilary and Prosper, though the formal chapters are contained in the ecclesiastical records.” A like testimony was uttered by John II, when in refutation of heretics he appealed to the works of Augustine: “Whose teaching,” he said, “according to the enactments of my predecessors, the Roman Church follows and maintains...Saint Gregory, thinking as highly of Augustine as he thought humbly of himself, wrote to Innocentius, prefect of Africa: "If you wish to feast on choice food, read the works of blessed Augustine, your fellowcountryman. His writings are as fine wheat. Seek not for our bran." -- Ad Salutem, Encyclical by Pope Pius XI
...
In August 430, Augustine fell ill with a fever. He knew he would die...Augustine wanted to die alone.
“Indeed, this holy man...was always was always in the habit of telling us, when we talked as intimates, that even praise worthy Christians and bishops, though baptized, should still not leave this life without having performed due and exacting penance. This is what he did in his own last illness: for he had ordered the four psalms of David that deal with penance to be copied out. From his sick-bed he could see these sheets of paper everyday, hanging on his walls, and would read them, crying constantly and deeply. And, lest his attention be distracted from this in any way, almost ten days before his death, he asked us that none should come in to see him, except at those hours when the doctors would come to examine him or his meals were brought. This was duly observed: and so he had all that stretch of time to pray...” (Possidus’ Vita XXXI:1-3)
Augustine died, and was buried, on August 28th, 430. -- From Augustine Of Hippo A Biography by Peter Brown p. 436
...
A few weeks after Augustine’s death, an envoy of the Emperor Valentinian III arrived at Carthage with an invitation to him to take his seat at the Ecumenical Council which was to be held at Ephesius at Whitsuntide 431 to deal with the dispute between St. Cyril of Alexandria and the Patriarch Nestorious of Constantinople regarding the union of the two Natures in the incarnate Christ. It was a last, and fitting, tribute to the great Doctor of the Latin Church. -- From St. Augustine of Hippo: Life and Controversies by Gerald Bonner p. 156
Site dedicated to St. Augustine: St. Augustinus
Also a [URL=http://staugustineofhippo.com/2009/07/19/prayer-to-st-augustine-by-pope-john-paul-ii/"]Prayer to St. Augustine by Pope John Paul II[/URL]
...
Valz: St. Augustinus, ora pro nobis!
August 28, 2009
“You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You.” -- Confessions I:1
...
Since that wonderful, heavenly conversation at Ostia, God had completed His triumph in the son of Monica's tears and of Ambrose's holiness. Far away from the great cities where pleasure had seduced him, the former rhetorician now cared only to nourish his soul with the simplicity of the Scriptures, in silence and solitude. But grace, after breaking the double chain that bound his mind and his heart, was to have a still greater dominion over him; the pontifical consecration was to consummate Augustine's union with that Divine Wisdom, whom alone he declared he loved' for her own sole sake, caring neither for rest nor life save on her account.' [Soliloq. i. 22]...To the end of his life Augustine never ceased to fight for the truth against all the heresies then invented by the father of lies...” (source)
...
The praise of Augustine has never ceased to be proclaimed in the Church of God, even by the Roman Pontiffs. While the holy Bishop was yet alive, Innocent I greeted him as a beloved friend and extolled the letter which he had received from the Saint and from four Bishops, his friends: “A letter instinct with faith and staunch with all the vigor of the Catholic religion.” Shortly after the death of Augustine, Celestine I defends him against his opponents in the following noble words: “We have ever deemed Augustine a man to be remembered for his sanctity, because of his life and services in our communion, nor has rumor at any time darkened his name with the suspicion of evil. So great was his knowledge, as we recall, that he was always reckoned by my predecessors also among our foremost teachers. All alike, therefore, thought highly of him as a man held in affection and honor by all.
Hormisdas wrote in answer to Bishop Possessor’s request for direction these weighty words: “What the Roman, that is, the Catholic Church follows and maintains touching free will and the grace of God, can be learned from the different works of blessed Augustine, those especially which he addressed to Hilary and Prosper, though the formal chapters are contained in the ecclesiastical records.” A like testimony was uttered by John II, when in refutation of heretics he appealed to the works of Augustine: “Whose teaching,” he said, “according to the enactments of my predecessors, the Roman Church follows and maintains...Saint Gregory, thinking as highly of Augustine as he thought humbly of himself, wrote to Innocentius, prefect of Africa: "If you wish to feast on choice food, read the works of blessed Augustine, your fellowcountryman. His writings are as fine wheat. Seek not for our bran." -- Ad Salutem, Encyclical by Pope Pius XI
...
In August 430, Augustine fell ill with a fever. He knew he would die...Augustine wanted to die alone.
“Indeed, this holy man...was always was always in the habit of telling us, when we talked as intimates, that even praise worthy Christians and bishops, though baptized, should still not leave this life without having performed due and exacting penance. This is what he did in his own last illness: for he had ordered the four psalms of David that deal with penance to be copied out. From his sick-bed he could see these sheets of paper everyday, hanging on his walls, and would read them, crying constantly and deeply. And, lest his attention be distracted from this in any way, almost ten days before his death, he asked us that none should come in to see him, except at those hours when the doctors would come to examine him or his meals were brought. This was duly observed: and so he had all that stretch of time to pray...” (Possidus’ Vita XXXI:1-3)
Augustine died, and was buried, on August 28th, 430. -- From Augustine Of Hippo A Biography by Peter Brown p. 436
...
A few weeks after Augustine’s death, an envoy of the Emperor Valentinian III arrived at Carthage with an invitation to him to take his seat at the Ecumenical Council which was to be held at Ephesius at Whitsuntide 431 to deal with the dispute between St. Cyril of Alexandria and the Patriarch Nestorious of Constantinople regarding the union of the two Natures in the incarnate Christ. It was a last, and fitting, tribute to the great Doctor of the Latin Church. -- From St. Augustine of Hippo: Life and Controversies by Gerald Bonner p. 156
Site dedicated to St. Augustine: St. Augustinus
Also a [URL=http://staugustineofhippo.com/2009/07/19/prayer-to-st-augustine-by-pope-john-paul-ii/"]Prayer to St. Augustine by Pope John Paul II[/URL]
...
Valz: St. Augustinus, ora pro nobis!
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