St Augustine

St Augustine (354 – 430), doctor of the Church, was a North African Christian religious leader, also known as Saint Augustine of Hippo. He is famous for his Confessions (400) and the twenty-two-volume City of God (412-427), which dominated subsequent Western theology. He was the greatest of the Latin Fathers of the Church. He was a native of Tagaste, in Numidia (modern Tunisia), and son of a pagan father and a Christian mother, St. Monica.

After a youth of dissipation, was converted to Christ by a text of St. Paul (Rom. xiii. 13, 14), which his eyes first lit upon, as on suggestion of a friend he took up the epistle to read it in answer to an appeal he had made to him to explain a voice that was ever whispering in his ears, "Take and read". He became bishop of Hippo in 396, devoted himself to pastoral duties, and took an active part in the Church controversies of his age, opposing especially the Manichæans, the Donatists, and the Pelagians.

His principal works apart from his "Confessions," and his "City of God," are his treatises on Grace and Free-Will. It is safe to say, no Churchman has ever exercised such influence as he has done in moulding the creed as well as directing the destiny of the Christian Church. He was especially imbued with the theology of St. Paul.

Feast day, August 28.

Wisdom & Quotes

• He that is not jealous is not in love.
• To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

- On the Good of Marriage

• Give me chastity and consistency, but not yet.

- Confessions

• Where, my God, where, Oh Lord, where or when was I,

Your servant , innocent ?
- Confessions

• What then is time ? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not Know.

- Confessions

• The desire for fame tempts even noble minds.

- The City of God

• Hear the other side.

- De Duabus Animabus

• The greatest evil is physical pain.

- Soliloquies

• The great good is wisdom.

- Soliloquies

Tao Chien