SAINT AUGUSTIN

Birth November 13, 354 Thagaste in Africa, current Souk Ahras, Algeria Death August 28, 430 Hippo, Province of Africa, current Annaba, Algeria Buried Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro School / tradition Christian Neoplatonism, Augustinianism Main interests Philosophy, metaphysics, theology, ethics, politics, rhetoric, biblical exegesis Notable ideas Theory of Time and Memory / Original Sin / Faith and Reason / Illumination and Knowledge / Theory of the Trinity / City of God Primary works confessions The city of God From the Trinity Influenced by Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Bible, St. Ambrose, Cicero Influenced Boethius, Anselm, Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Duns Scot, Master Eckhart, William of Ockham, Machiavelli, Luther, Calvin, Jansenius, Pascal, Malebranche, Rousseau, Gilson, Heidegger, Arendt, Ricoeur Agustine of Hippo (Latin: Aurelius Augustinus) or St. Augustine, born on November 13, 354 in Thagaste (current Souk Ahras, Algeria), a municipality of the province of Africa, and died August 28, 430 in Hippo (l  'current Annaba, Algeria), is a philosopher and Christian theologian of the wealthy class, having Berber origins .  With Ambrose of Milan, Jerome of Stridon and Gregory the Great, he is one of the four Fathers of the Western Church and one of the thirty-six doctors of the Church. The training he received in Carthage is that of the Roman scholars of the time, even if his writings reveal a sensitivity and traits related to his region of birth.  If he is a master of Latin language and culture, he will never really master Greek, which will tend to increase differences between Western and Eastern Christianity.  Born of a deeply pious mother, he first converted to philosophy before becoming Manichean.  He did not give up Manichaeism and did not convert to Christianity until rather late, in 386, after his meeting with Ambrose of Milan.  After his conversion, he became bishop of Hippo and led a series of controversies, oral and especially written, first against the Manichaeans, then against the Donatists, and finally against Pelagianism.  He leaves a considerable work both in quantity and quality.  Three of his books are particularly well-known: The Confessions, The City of God and The Trinity. On the theological and philosophical level, he is, after Ambrose of Milan, the main thinker who allows Christianity to integrate part of the Greek and Roman heritage, generalizing an allegorical reading of the Scriptures related to Neoplatonism.  Always following Ambrose, a former Roman high official, he incorporates into Christianity part of the Roman Republic's tradition of strength.  He is the most influential thinker of the Western world until Thomas Aquinas who, eight centuries after Augustine, gives a more Aristotelian turn to Christianity.  In spite of everything, his thought has a great influence in the seventeenth century, where it is one of the sources of French classical literature and inspires the theodicy of Malebranche and Leibniz. Augustine is a demanding thinker in every sense of the word.  A key figure in the emergence of the ego in the West, he also plays a leading role in the evolution of the notion of justice.  From his Manichean past, he keeps a strong distinction between Good and Evil.  However, Neo-Platonism, which has strongly influenced his conversion, led him to a conception of a strong God who, unlike the weak God of the Manicheans, assures that in the end the Good prevails.  In the West, it is the theologian who insists the most on divine transcendence, that is to say that for him, the thoughts of God are not, near or far, the thoughts of men.  According to him, the opposite belief is precisely the original sin. The God of Augustine is both above human beings and deep within themselves, hence an emphasis on what he calls the inner trinity: memory, intelligence, and the will  .  If memory is important, the idea of beginning, of renewal, is also very present.  The will allows to go to the Good, but is not enough;  you also need grace.  Augustine also emphasizes reason understood as a means of approaching the truth of things - the absolute truth not being of this world - in a perspective that integrates a certain spiritual dimension.  As a general rule, Augustinian thought is animated by a double movement, from the outside (the world) inwards, the domain of an inner God of light;  from inferior (easy pleasures) to superior (true self-realization).  In a certain way, what underlies the dynamics of his thought is synthesized by one of his most famous formulas of the Confessions: "You will be intimo interior intimo meo and superior summo meo (But You, you were deeper than the depths  of myself and higher than the very high of myself) ". In his theology, the weight of sin and the habit of sin is such that without divine grace man can not save himself: this is the meaning of the fight against Pelagianism, which supports the opposite.  In the sixteenth century and the seventeenth century, Protestantism and Jansenism, which resumed its theses, would be addressed, like Augustine of his time, rather to the active middle classes than to the usually more Pelagian aristocracy.  In connection with his theology, he strongly distinguishes the world (linked to self-love) from the City of God (linked to the love of God), a term more Roman republic, than he prefers to that of kingdom  of God. While he strongly contributes to bringing the concept of love (he likes to love) to the forefront in Christianity, he is accused of having transmitted to the West a strong mistrust of the flesh (a strong temptation for him).  Yet, on the sin of flesh, partly taken from the Platonists and Neoplatonicists who distinguish the soul from the body, seen as dragging humans down, he would have a rather moderate position compared to Jerome of Stridon and Gregory of Nyssa. Childhood and youth (354 to 371) augustine at the school of taghaste According to "The Life of St. Augustine" written by his disciple Possidius de Calame, Augustin was born in 354 in Thagaste in the African province (now Souk Ahras, Algeria), in what was then called Numidia .  The city, located a little over 90 km from the Mediterranean at an altitude of 600 meters, has been a municipality in Roman Africa for about two centuries. Augustine belongs to a Punic family of the wealthy class "in the process of proletarianization" who aspires to see his child become a lawyer or member of the imperial administration, Augustine considered himself Punic .  Augustine's father is a Romanized pagan named Patricius who ranks as a decurion, part of the municipal council of the city.  Of modest origin, he did not study .  His mother Monique, of Berber origin . is a fervent Christian . The couple experiences tensions related to both the husband's infidelities and the fact that the wife finds him "limited" .  She brings him, despite everything, to convert to Christianity in 371, a year before his death . Augustine has a brother, Navigius, and a sister . who will be superior of the monastery of Hippo.  Its culture is fundamentally Latin . A gifted pupil, but an indocile one, he hates school and fears the punishment of his teachers. Augustine's father managed to save money so that his sons could benefit from a classical education.  Augustin studied from fifteen years at Madaure (now M'daourouch, Algeria).  Later, in the Confessions (Book I) [e is critical of a mode of teaching he considers too centered on eloquence and memory.  The lack of money forced him to return to the family home when he was sixteen.  At that time, he commits petty theft like the famous theft of pears committed not out of necessity, but out of the pleasure of transgression.  He will reproach himself later and write in his book Confessions "In the vicinity of our vineyards was a pear tree full of fruit that had no appeal of flavor or beauty.  We went, a troop of young rascals, to shake and strip this tree, towards the middle of the night, having prolonged our games until this hour, according to our hateful habit, and we brought back great charges, not to make it a treat  if, however, we tasted it, if only to throw them to the swine: a simple pleasure to do what was forbidden.  " While Augustine is seventeen years old, his father benefits from the liberality of a richer friend, so that his son can return to school in Carthage  then the second city of the Roman Empire.  West. In the Confessions, Augustine describes the climate of extreme sensuality of this city of North Africa ("the frying of infamous loves"), the pleasures of love and theater: "I came to Carthage, and all around me seethed the boiler of shameful love."  " There, he knows a kind of crisis of adolescence, and in the flamboyant Latin of Augustine and in the style appreciated by the Romans of Africa where puns and chiasms abound, he writes the well-known passage that  follows the sentence quoted above: "Nondum amabam sed amare amabam and secretiore indigentia oderam me minus indigentem.  " (translation: "I did not like it yet, but I loved loving and by a secret need, I was angry at not having enough of it" ). In Carthage, very quickly, he becomes acquainted with a woman whose son Adeodat he will have, and whose life he will share for fifteen years, in the bonds of Roman concubinage .  We do not know much about Augustin's companion.  At most one can think that she was Christian since the name of their son means "given by God". The reading of Hortensius, a book that has now disappeared from Cicero, leads him to become passionate about philosophy which is then understood as "the love of Wisdom".  If, in Carthage, Christ is not seen as the "suffering Savior", but as the Wisdom of God, the extremely legalistic way in which the Church of Africa interprets the scriptures leads him, at first, to become,  for nine years, a follower of Manichaeism  . At the same time that he converted to Manichaeism, Augustine decided to abandon the project that his father and his protector Romanianus had for him: to be at first a lawyer or an imperial official, to then become a teacher .  Also, in 375, he returned to Thagasteet and taught grammar. Nevertheless, Augustine returns quickly enough to Carthage  where it remains until about 382. A prize of poetry allows him to become familiar with the proconsul of Carthage, Vindicius, who, perceiving the passion of Augustin for the astrology,  manages to distract him by showing him that the success of some predictions is only the result of chance.  This link with an influential character gives Augustine the opportunity to build relationships that allow him to consider his departure from Carthage for Rome .  He is all the more inclined to leave Carthage because he wants to make a career and finds his students unruly. Séjour en Italie et conversion d'Augustin While Augustine is seventeen years old, his father benefits from the liberality of a richer friend, so that his son can return to school in Carthage , then the second city of the Roman Empire.  West . In the Confessions, Augustine describes the climate of extreme sensuality of this city of North Africa ("the frying of infamous loves"), the pleasures of love and theater: "I came to Carthage, and all around me seethed the boiler of shameful love."  " There, he knows a kind of crisis of adolescence, and in the flamboyant Latin of Augustine and in the style appreciated by the Romans of Africa [9] where puns and chiasms abound, he writes the well-known passage that  follows the sentence quoted above: "Nondum amabam sed amare amabam and secretiore indigentia oderam me minus indigentem.  " (translation: "I did not like it yet, but I loved loving and by a secret need, I was angry at not having enough of it" ) . In Carthage, very quickly, he becomes acquainted with a woman whose son Adeodat he will have, and whose life he will share for fifteen years, in the bonds of Roman concubinage . We do not know much about Augustin's companion.  At most one can think that she was Christian since the name of their son means "given by God". The reading of Hortensius, a book that has now disappeared from Cicero, leads him to become passionate about philosophy . which is then understood as "the love of Wisdom".  If, in Carthage, Christ is not seen as the "suffering Savior", but as the Wisdom of God, the extremely legalistic way in which the Church of Africa interprets the scriptures leads him, at first, to become,  for nine years, a follower of Manichaeism At the same time that he converted to Manichaeism, Augustine decided to abandon the project that his father and his protector Romanianus had for him: to be at first a lawyer or an imperial official, to then become a teacher .  Also, in 375, he returned to Thagasteet and taught grammar. Nevertheless, Augustine returns quickly enough to Carthage where it remains until about 382. A prize of poetry allows him to become familiar with the proconsul of Carthage, Vindicius, who, perceiving the passion of Augustin for the astrology,  manages to distract him by showing him that the success of some predictions is only the result of chance.  This link with an influential character gives Augustine the opportunity to build relationships that allow him to consider his departure from Carthage for Rome . He is all the more inclined to leave Carthage because he wants to make a career and finds his students unruly. Bishop of Hippo He returned to Africa after five years of absence towards the end 388 and lives in community not far from Thagaste (present-day Souk Ahras) with friends, including Alypius . who quickly becomes bishop of the place, and disciples    The tensions between the Catholics and the Manichaeans are then lively which pushes Augustin to write Of the true religion to dissuade those who would be tempted by the Manicheism.  He also finishes with his son Adeodat of The Greatness of the Soul, which he began composing in Rome.  The death of his son at the age of 17, and that of Nbridius, a friend whom he knows since Carthage, provoke in him a vast emptiness and give him the desire to leave a purely contemplative life.  Also, in 391, he agrees to go to Hippo (present Annaba) to visit a friend, a member of the secret police, who wants to withdraw from the world [38]: it is on this occasion that he will become a priest  in circumstances that deserve a little explanation. Bishops and priests are at this time chosen by the faithful.  At the time of Augustine's arrival in Hippo, the Catholic Church is a minority against the powerful Donatist Church while the Manichaeans are active.  Their leader Fortunatus is an old acquaintance of Augustine.  Catholic Bishop Valerius, a Greek, speaks Latin poorly and is not able to understand the Punic dialect.   Also, when he explains to his faithful the need for priests of his church, they seize Augustine to be ordained priest on the field.  Subsequently, he will do everything to preserve Augustine and authorize him to found a monastery in Hippo in the garden of the main church .  This monastery will subsequently provide many bishops to the Church of Africa and will recruit many "elders" of the imperial administration (including the secret police) . Augustine is extremely active in strengthening the position of the Catholic Church.  On August 28, 392, during the debate with the leader of the Manichean Fortunatus, he did so much so that he silenced him and forced him to leave the city .  Educated by experience, Donatists avoid debate;  to confront them, Augustine wrote the Psalmus contra partem donati in 394, a book destined to fight them on their own ground: the popular songs In 395, Augustine was appointed bishop of Hippo and remained so until his death in 430. In 399, the pagan temples are closed.  On this occasion, he wrote the Catechesis of Beginners. It is at Hippo that he will write the great works of maturity: The Confessions, written from 397 to 400 [44];  Trinity (410-416);  the City of God from 410 to 426 .  It is also from Hippo that he will carry out most of his battles against the Manichaeans (about 387 to 400), against the Donatists (about 400 to 412) and against the Pelagians from 412 to 430  . Augustine imposes on his clergy a very modest way of life of which he gives the example .  However, he is confronted with certain drifts and the link between the new clerics and the old ones - very united and a little authoritarian - is difficult .  Moreover, the Church of Africa is generally not very missionary and does not try to evangelize outside the Roman border and the coastal zone of North Africa . During this period, Augustine is the spiritual advisor to a certain Pauline, of whom we know little but whose indications suggest that it could be a Roman noble.  From the correspondence they exchanged, there remains the letter 147, known as The Vision of God . He spent the last years of his life in establishing a chronology of his writings, rereading them and evaluating them, which he did through his work known as the Retreats .  He died in Hippo in 430, during the siege of the city by Genseric, king of the Vandals, leaving behind a considerable work that survives him.  He spent the last days of his life voluntarily alone, for fear of being distracted, concentrating on reading David's psalms on the Saint and doctor of the Church According to the True Martyrology of Bede the Venerable, Augustine's body is later brought to Cagliari in Sardinia by Catholic bishops expelled from North Africa by Huneric.  Around 720, his body was deposited at the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia (Italy) by Peter, bishop of the place and uncle of King Lombard Liutprand, to protect it from the Muslim coastal raids.  In January 1327, Pope John XXII, by the bull Veneranda Sanctorum Patrum, made Augustinians the guardians of the tomb. Augustine was canonized by popular acclamation in 1298 and recognized as a Doctor of the Church the same year by Pope Boniface VIII . He is celebrated by Catholics on August 28, the day of his death.  Augustine is considered the patron saint of brewers, printers and theologians.  The Orthodox Church also considers him a saint and the famous on June 15