4/24/2023 0 Comments Catholic daily bible reading![]() It seems strange that so great a mind should have been victimized by Oriental vapourings, synthesized by the Persian Mani (215-276) into coarse, material dualism, and introduced into Africa scarcely fifty years previously. In this same year, 373, Augustine and his friend Honoratus fell into the snares of the Manichæans. Unfortunately, his faith, as well as his morals, was to pass though a terrible crisis. ![]() Thenceforward Augustine looked upon rhetoric merely as a profession his heart was in philosophy. In fact, in 373, an entirely new inclination manifested itself in his life, brought about by the reading Cicero's "Hortensius" whence he imbibed a love of the wisdom which Cicero so eloquently praises. However, it may be said that, even in his fall, Augustine maintained a certain dignity and felt a compunction which does him honour, and that, from the age of nineteen, he had a genuine desire to break the chain. The "Confessions" alone prove that Loofs did not understand the 17th canon of Toledo. Some, like Mommsen, misled perhaps by the tone of grief in the "Confessions", have exaggerated it: in the "Realencyklopädie" (3d ed., II, 268) Loofs reproves Mommsen on this score, and yet he himself is too lenient towards Augustine, when he claims that in those days, the Church permitted concubinage. Two extremes are to be avoided in the appreciation of this crisis. Before long he was obliged to confess to Monica that he had formed a sinful liaison with the person who bore him a son (372), "the son of his sin" - an entanglement from which he only delivered himself at Milan after fifteen years of its thralldom. At first he prayed, but without the sincere desire of being heard, and when he reached Carthage, towards the end of the year 370, every circumstance tended to draw him from his true course: the many seductions of the great city that was still half pagan, the licentiousness of other students, the theatres, the intoxication of his literary success, and a proud desire always to be first, even in evil. But, unfortunately, it required several months to collect the necessary means, and Augustine had to spend his sixteenth year at Tagaste in an idleness which was fatal to his virtue he gave himself up to pleasure with all the vehemence of an ardent nature. Patricius, proud of his son's success in the schools of Tagaste and Madaura determined to send him to Carthage to prepare for a forensic career. ![]() "From my tenderest infancy, I had in a manner sucked with my mother's milk that name of my Saviour, Thy Son I kept it in the recesses of my heart and all that presented itself to me without that Divine Name, though it might be elegant, well written, and even replete with truth, did not altogether carry me away" ( Confessions I.4).īut a great intellectual and moral crisis stifled for a time all these Christian sentiments. His association with "men of prayer" left three great ideas deeply engraven upon his soul: a Divine Providence, the future life with terrible sanctions, and, above all, Christ the Saviour. Once, when very ill, he asked for baptism, but, all danger being soon passed, he deferred receiving the sacrament, thus yielding to a deplorable custom of the times. His mother had him signed with the cross and enrolled among the catechumens. However, the admirable virtues that made Monica the ideal of Christian mothers at length brought her husband the grace of baptism and of a holy death, about the year 371.Īugustine received a Christian education. Although eminently respectable, his family was not rich, and his father, Patricius, one of the curiales of the city, was still a pagan. Tagaste, now Souk-Ahras, about 60 miles from Bona (ancient Hippo-Regius), was at that time a small free city of proconsular Numidia which had recently been converted from Donatism. From his birth to his conversion (354-386)Īugustine was born at Tagaste on 13 November, 354. ![]() We will confine ourselves to sketching the three periods of this great life: (1) the young wanderer's gradual return to the Faith (2) the doctrinal development of the Christian philosopher to the time of his episcopate and (3) the full development of his activities upon the Episcopal throne of Hippo. Augustine's life is unfolded to us in documents of unrivaled richness, and of no great character of ancient times have we information comparable to that contained in the "Confessions", which relate the touching story of his soul, the "Retractations," which give the history of his mind, and the "Life of Augustine," written by his friend Possidius, telling of the saint's apostolate. ( See also WORKS OF SAINT AUGUSTINE and TEACHING OF SAINT AUGUSTINE.) Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99. Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download.
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