Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo by Fr Ben O’Rourke, CTS Great Saints Series

This booklet tells the story of one of the most fascinating lives of any saint. Augustine famously wrote his Confessions tracing his path from wayward youth to bishop, thanks in large part to the unfaltering prayers of his mother, St. Monica. Almost everyone has heard of his famous prayer: ‘Lord, grant me chastity – but not yet!’

In many ways, that prayer expresses the contradictions and tensions in Augustine for much of his youth. On one hand, he was studious and gifted, doing well at his studies, and clearly destined for great things. But on the other, he was a youth of the worst sort: promiscuous, a vandal and a member of a gang, The Wreckers, of which he disapproved, but which he joined for fear of not being in with the in-crowd.

This period left him with bad habits, particularly in relation to the virtue of chastity, with which he wrestled for many years. However, he seems to have calmed down when he settled with one woman, his mistress (whom he could not marry as she was from the wrong social class), who bore him a son.

Another turning point in his life was reading Cicero. This gave him a taste for philosophy which never left him, and led to his becoming one of the doctors, or great teachers, of the Church. But thanks to St Monica’s teaching, he realised that pagan philosophy was insufficient, and started to read the Old Testament. However, that disappointed him, both as it was written in a less formally beautiful way than Cicero’s writing, and also as the stories of the Old Testament did not speak to him.

Always searching, he tried Manichaeism: this was a heresy that taught that good and evil were equally powerful and engaged in a struggle that would last till the end of time. The idea that evil had its own power seemed to release him from some of the feelings of guilt that his own sins caused him.

However, when he left Carthage, where he had been educated, and moved to Rome, he was disillusioned with the Manichees. Soon after that, he moved on to Milan as Public Orator, and here he came across St Ambrose. Initially it was Ambrose’s skill as an orator that impressed Augustine: but gradually the teaching moved him. Over time, and with St Monica’s unfailing prayers Augustine was drawn to the truth of the Church.

Fr O’Rourke traces this dramatic story, with quotations from Augustine’s ‘Confessions’, in a vivid and interesting way, taking us on to Augustine’s period as bishop of Hippo and his eventual death. He concludes with a beautiful selection of prayers and reflections from Augustine’s writing. A truly inspiring read.