Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo (/ɔːˈɡʌstɪn/; Latin: Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a Christian philosopher and theologian.

Saint Augustine of Hippo
Saint Augustin by Philippe de Champaigne, c. 1645
Bishop of Hippo Regius Church Father, Doctor of the Church Blessed
Born	Aurelius Augustinus 13 November 354 Thagaste, Numidia Cirtensis, Roman Empire
Died	28 August 430 (aged 75) Hippo Regius, Numidia Cirtensis, Western Roman Empire
Resting place	Pavia, Italy
Venerated in	All Christian denominations which venerate saints
Canonized	Pre-Congregation
Major shrine	San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia, Italy
Feast	28 August (Western Christianity) 15 June (Eastern Christianity) 4 November (Assyrian)
Attributes	Crozier, mitre, young child, book, small church, flaming or pierced heart
Patronage	Brewers Printers Theologians Philosophers Sore eyes Bridgeport, Connecticut Cagayan de Oro San Agustin, Isabela Mendez, Cavite Tanza, Cavite Baliwag, Bulacan Lubao, Pampanga Iba, Zambales
Philosophy career
Notable work	Confessions On Christian Doctrine On the Trinity The City of God
Era	Ancient philosophy Medieval philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Augustinianism
Notable students	Paul Orosius Prosper of Aquitaine
Main interests	Christian anthropology Biblical criticism Epistemology Ethics Metaphysics Pedagogy Philosophy of religion Theodicy Theology
Notable ideas	Filioque Original sin Free will Augustinian soteriology Just war theory Absence of good Concupiscence Sacramental character Augustinian hypothesis Augustinian theodicy Augustinian values Divine command theory Amillennialism You are Christ Deity Solvitur ambulando Heroic virtue Incurvatus in se Genesis as an allegory Divine illumination Theocentricism Limbo
Ordination history
History Priestly ordination Date 391 Place Hippo Regius, Africa, Roman Empire Episcopal consecration Consecrated by Megalius Date 395
Source(s):

Early life

Augustine was born in the year 354. His mother is believed to have been of Berber origin.

After growing up, he began to learn and write a lot about Christianity, and became a bishop in Hippo Regius, which was in modern-day Annaba, Algeria. He was highly influenced by archbishop Ambrose. Later in life, Augustine moved to Italy, and over the next years his religious ideology grew stronger, and he became a teacher.

Death

Shortly before Augustine died, a group called the Vandals invaded Roman Africa. The Vandals were a Germanic tribe who believed in a version of Christianity called Arianism. In the spring of 430, they surrounded the city of Hippo, where Augustine was living. At this time, Augustine became very sick.

According to Possidius, who wrote about Augustine’s life, one of Augustine’s few miracles happened during the siege. He healed a sick man. Augustine is also said to have excommunicated himself as he was dying. This means he cut himself off from the church in a public way to show he was sorry for his sins and to share in the suffering of others who sinned.

Augustine spent his last days praying and feeling sorry for his sins. He asked to have the penitential Psalms of David hung on his walls so he could read them. These prayers made him cry a lot, according to Possidius. Augustine was also in charge of the church’s library in Hippo, and he told people to take good care of the books there.

Augustine died on 28 August 430. Soon after, the Vandals stopped attacking Hippo for a while, but later they came back and burned the city. They destroyed almost everything except Augustine’s cathedral and the church library, which they left safe.

Augustine became very famous after his death. People thought of him as a saint, and in 1298, Pope Boniface VIII officially made him a Doctor of the Church, a special title for important teachers. Augustine’s feast day (a day to remember him) is on 28 August, the day he died.

He is known as the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians (people who study God), and several cities and church areas. People also pray to him when they have sore eyes.

In the Church of England, Augustine is remembered with a smaller festival on 28 August.

Works

Books:

• On Christian Doctrine, wrt397-426
• Confessions, 397-398
• The City of God, begun ca. 413, finished 426
• On the Trinity, 400-416
• Enchiridion
• Retractions: At the end of his life (ca. 426-428) Augustine revisited his previous works in chronological order and suggested what he would have said differently in a work titled the "Retractions", giving the reader a rare picture of the development of a writer and his final thoughts.
• The Literal Meaning of Genesis
• On Free Choice of the Will

Letters:

On the Catechising of the Uninstructed On Faith and the Creed Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen On the Profit of Believing and Judgement. On the Creed: A Sermon to Catechumens On Continence On the Good of Marriage On Holy Virginity On the Good of Widowhood On Lying To Consentius: Against Lying On the Work of Monks On Patience On Care to be Had For the Dead On the Morals of the Catholic Church

On the Morals of the Manichaeans On Two Souls, Against the Manichaeans Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus the Manichaean Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental Reply to Faustus the Manichaean Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichaeans On Baptism, Against the Donatists Answer to Letters of Petilian, Bishop of Cirta The Correction of the Donatists Merits and Remission of Sin, and Infant Baptism On the Spirit and the Letter On Nature and Grace On Man's Perfection in Righteousness On the Proceedings of Pelagius

On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin On Marriage and Concupiscence On the Soul and its Origin Against Two Letters of the Pelagians On Grace and Free Will On Rebuke and Grace The Predestination of the Saints/Gift of Perseverance Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount The Harmony of the Gospels Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament Tractates on the Gospel of John Homilies on the First Epistle of John Soliloquies The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms On the Immortality of the Soul

Related pages

• Augustinianism
• Free will
• Original sin
• Pelagianism
• Filioque clause
• Truth

References

• The Story of Thought, DK Publishing, Bryan Magee, London, 1998, ISBN 0-7894-4455-0

aka The Story of Philosophy, Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-7894-7994-X

(subtitled on cover: The Essential Guide to the History of Western Philosophy)

^g Saint Augustine, pages 30, 144; City of God 51, 52, 53 and The Confessions 50, 51, 52

- additional in the Dictionary of the History of Ideas for Saint Augustine and Neo-Platonism Archived 2007-08-07 at the Wayback Machine

Bibliography

• Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. ISBN 0-520-00186-9
• Gareth B. Matthews. Augustine. Blackwell, 2005. ISBN 0-631-23348-2
• O'Donnell, James J. Augustine: A New Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. ISBN 0-06-053537-7
• Ruickbie, Leo. Witchcraft Out of the Shadows. London: Robert Hale, 2004. ISBN 0-7090-7567-7, pp. 57–8.
• Tanquerey, Adolphe. The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology. Reprinted Ed. (original 1930). Rockford, IL: Tan Books, 2000. ISBN 0-89555-659-6, p. 37.
• von Heyking, John. Augustine and Politics as Longing in the World. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8262-1349-9
• Orbis Augustinianus sive conventuum O. Erem. S. A. chorographica et topographica descriptio Archived 2005-03-21 at the Wayback Machine Augustino Lubin, Paris, 1659, 1671, 1672.
• Zumkeller O.S.A.,Adolar (1986). Augustine's ideal of Religious life. Fordham University Press, New York.
• Zumkeller O.S.A.,Adolar (1987). Augustine's Rule. Augustinian Press, Villanova, Pennsylvania U.S.A.
• René Pottier. Saint Augustin le Berbère. Fernand Lanore, 2006. ISBN 2-85157-282-2
• Fitzgerald, Allan D., ed. (1999). Augustine through the Ages: An Encyclopedia. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 0-8028-3843-X
• Plumer, Eric Antone (2003). Augustine's Commentary on Galatians. Oxford [England] ; New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-924439-1 ISBN 978-0-19-924439-3 Preview from Google

Other websites

• General:
  • University of Pennsylvania, Augustine of Hippo - Texts, translations, introductions, commentaries (Webarchive), 2006-10-22
  • EarlyChurch.org.uk Extensive bibliography and on-line articles.
  • Life of St. Augustine of Hippo, from the Catholic Encyclopedia
  • Augstine of Hippo Archived 2007-10-13 at the Wayback Machine, at Centropian
• Texts by Augustine:
  • Works by Augustine of Hippo at Project Gutenberg
  • In Latin, at The Latin Library: books and letters by Augustine
  • At "Christian Classics Ethereal Library" Translations of several works by Augustine, incl. introductions
  • Sant'Agostino - Vita, Scritti, Pensiero, Santità, Attualità Full Latin and Italian text resource
  • At "IntraText Digital Library": Works by Augustine in several languages, with concordance and frequency list
  • St. Augustine's Multilingual Opera Omnia
• Texts on Augustine:
  • Augustine and 'other Catholics' Archived 2014-11-01 at the Wayback Machine
  • Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
  • "Augustine's Concept of Freedom: The Dynamic of Sin and Grace" from Grace Incarnate (1989) Archived 2006-08-29 at the Wayback Machine
  • Augustine's Heavenly City and the Western Mind Pgs 22-24
• On Music
  • Augustine on Hymns Archived 2006-11-16 at the Wayback Machine
• On Original Sin ask Dan Santos
  • Augustine and Pelagius
  • Augustine and Thomas Aquinas on Original Sin Archived 2006-09-19 at the Wayback Machine
  • Original sin: a disputation Archived 2021-06-08 at the Wayback Machine
  • The Cambridge Companion to Augustine; 3 Augustine on evil and original sin Archived 2007-11-18 at the Wayback Machine
• Links to the Augustinian Order
  • Augustine's writings Archived 2006-08-24 at the Wayback Machine
• Audio books
  • City of God, Confessions, Enchiridion, Doctrine Archived 2021-03-09 at the Wayback Machine
• Augustine and Orthodoxy
  • Blessed Augustine of Hippo: His Place in the Orthodox Church
  • St Augustine the Bishop of Hippo Orthodox icon and synaxarion