Saint Augustine Portrait.jpg Photo by Sandro Botticelli – Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Facts about Augustine


 

Augustine of Hippo also known as Saint Augustine was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin. He was also the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa, his writings influenced the development of Western philosophy.

Augustine is known as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. Some of his important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions.

Augustine is known for developing his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine of original sin.

Augustine imagined the church as a spiritual city of God, distinct from the material Earthly City. The segment of the Church that adhered to the concept of the Trinity as defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople.

Augustine is recognized as a saint in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. He is also a preeminent Catholic Doctor of the Church and the patron of the Augustinians. His memorial is celebrated on 28 August which is the day of his death.

Augustine is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, and a number of cities and dioceses. His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview. Many Protestants consider him one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation and divine grace.

1. Christian Anthropology

Gerard Seghers (attr) – The Four Doctors of the Western Church, Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430).jpg Photo by Attributed to Gerard Seghers – Wikimedia Commons

Augustine was one of the first Christian ancient Latin authors with a very clear vision of theological anthropology. Initially, the two elements were in perfect harmony. After the fall of humanity, they are now experiencing dramatic combat with one another.

Augustine considered procreation as one of the goos of marriage. He called the use of means to avoid the birth of a child and evil work. This was his reference to either abortion or contraception or both.

2. Augustine’s Doctrine

Augustine developed his doctrine of the church principally in reaction to the Donatist sect. The former is the institutional body established by Christ on search, this proclaims salvation and administers the sacraments.

Augustine’s ecclesiology was more fully developed in the City of God. There he conceives of the church as a heavenly city or kingdom. He followed Cyprian in teaching that bishops and priests of the church are the successors of the Apostles and their authority in the Church is given by God.

Augustine was strongly influenced by the Platonist belief that true reality is invisible. He held to some form of an invisible true church concept.

4. His Belief In Astrology

Augustine believed astrology to be an exact and genuine science. Practitioners were regarded as true men of learning and called mathemathici. Augustine himself was attracted by their books in his youth, he was fascinated by those who claimed to foretell the future. 

When he became a bishop, he warned that astrologers who combine science and horoscopes were to be avoided. According to him, they were not genuine students of Hipparchus or Eratosthenes or Common swindlers.

5. Pedagogy

Pictures of English History Plate V – Saint Augustine and the Saxons.jpg Photo by Saint Augustine and the Saxons – Wikimedia Commons

Augustine was considered an influential figure in the history of education. His ideas changed as he found better directions or better ways of expressing his ideas. In the last years of his life, Augustine wrote his reactions reviewing his writings and improving specific texts.

He was a strong advocate of critical thinking skills. His emphasis on the importance of community as a means of learning distinguishes his pedagogy from some others. Augustine believed dialectic is the best means of learning and that this method should serve as a model for learning encounters.

Augustine believed students be given an opportunity to apply learned theories to practical experience. One of his major contributions to education is his study of the styles of teaching. Augustine claimed there are two basic styles a teacher uses when speaking to the students.

He balanced his teaching philosophy with the traditional Bible-based practice of strict discipline. He knew Latin and Ancient Greek and he had a long correspondence with St Jerome about the textual differences existing between the Hebrew bible and the Greek Septuagint.

6. Augustine’s Works

He was one of the most prolific Latin authors in terms of surviving works and the list of his works consist of more than a hundred separate titles. He had commentaries on Genesis, the Psalms, and Paul’s Letter to the Romans. 

However, he is best known for his Confessions which is a personal account of his earlier life. His On the Trinity work developed what had become known as a psychological analogy of the Trinity. It is also considered to be among his masterpieces and of more doctrinal importance.

7. His Legacy

Philippe de Champaigne – Saint Augustine – LACMA – without frame.jpg Photo by Philippe de Champaigne – Wikimedia Commons

In his philosophical and theological reasoning, Augustine was greatly influenced by Stoicism, Platonism, and Neoplatonism. His early and influential writing on the human will, a central topic in ethics, would become a focus for later philosophers. 

He was also influenced by the works of Virgil who was known for his teaching of language, and Cicero who was known for his teaching of argument.

Augustine’s philosophical method was especially demonstrated in his Confessions. His descriptive approach to intentional, memory, and language. He was the first thinker to be deeply sensitive to immense difficulties. He labored almost to despair over this problem.

8. Contribution To Popular Art

Triunfo de San Agustín.jpg Photo by Claudio Coello – Wikimedia Commons

In his poem Confessional, Frank Bidart compares the relationship between Augustine and his mother Saint Monica to the relationship between the poem’s speaker and his mother.

In 2010, a TV miniseries called Restless Heart: The Confessions of Saint Augustine. He is portrayed by Matteo Urzia, Alessandro Preziosi, and Franco Nero who all reflect Augustine at the ages of 15, 25, and 76 respectively.

9. His Final Days

Augustine was cited to have excommunicated himself upon the approach of his death in an act of public penance and solidarity with sinners. 

Nearing his last days, Augustine spent his time in prayer and repentance. He requested the penitential Psalms of David be hung on his walls so he could read them and upon which led him to weep freely.

After his death, he was recognized as a Doctor of the church in 1298 by Pope Boniface VIII. He is considered the patron saint of brewers, printers, and theologians.

10. Relics

Augustine’s body was later translated or moved to Cagliari, Sardinia by the Catholic bishops expelled from Noth Africa by Huneric. His remains were transported again by Peter, Bishop of Pavia, and  Lombard King Luitprand to the church of San Pietro in Ciel.

In 1842, a portion of his right arm of Augustine’s right arm was secured from Pavia and returned to Annaba. It now rests in the Saint Augustin Basilica within a glass tube inserted into the arm of a life-size marble statue of the saint.