St. Augustine was not an only child; he had a brother and sister, though little is known about them. But it is partially thanks to his sister that Augustine's legacy in the Church is so notable.
Sometimes when one person in a family is famous, the rest of the family is forgotten, especially when there is little written about them.
Such is the case of St. Augustine's siblings, who are rarely mentioned, as they did not become as popular as their brother or even their mother, St. Monica.
We do have some information about them, though relatively very little was recorded about them.
Navigius
St. Monica gave birth to three children, including two boys, St. Augustine and his brother, Navigius. Navigius does appear in St. Augustine's Confessions, when the two approach St. Monica on her deathbed:
We hurried to her, and when she soon regained her senses, she looked at me and my brother as we stood by her, and said, in inquiry, “Where was I?” Then looking intently at us, dumb in our grief, she said, “Here in this place shall you bury your mother.” I was silent and held back my tears; but my brother said something, wishing her the happier lot of dying in her own country and not abroad.
Little else is known about Navigius, but it is believed he was a Christian, and likely did not give St. Monica much trouble during her life (at least as when compared to his famous brother!)
One could say he was the "good" son, who was well behaved and did not live such a worrisome life as his brother.
Perpetua
St. Augustine did not name his sister in his writings, and so later on, historians gave her the name of "Perpetua." Interestingly, there is more known about her, as there exists a letter that he wrote to her.
Pereptua became an abbess of a community of nuns, and what is fascinating is that much of the "Rule of St. Augustine" is based on a letter St. Augustine wrote to his sister's community. The letter was written after his sister died, and the community was in turmoil.
In this way we can be thankful to this sibling relationship, as St. Augustine was forced to write down his ideas about monastic life and to guide his sister's community after her depature from this life.
All of this reminds us that sometimes there are the unsung heroes of history, who don't always get the credit they deserve and whose part is not written down. We may not know much about St. Augustine's siblings, but they certainly were there and played their role in his life and in the legacy he left to the whole Church.
