Saint of the Day: St. Augustine of Hippo

Bishop and Doctor of the Church (354-430)

His life

+ Augustine was born in North Africa and was the son of Saint Monica and Patricius.

+ A lifelong learner, Augustine’s early life was marked by experimentation, speculation, and periods of sin and doubt. For a time he embraced the Manichean Heresy but through the prayers of his mother and the influence of Saint Ambrose, whom he met in Milan, Italy, Augustine was baptized in 387. He was ordained a priest in 391.

+ In 395, Augustine was named bishop of Hippo (modern-day Annaba, Algeria), becoming the spokesman of the Church in North Africa.

+ As bishop, Augustine guided his flock for 34 years, instructing them by his teaching and writing. He is especially honored for his highly developed, careful explanations of the Faith, as well as his Confessions, The City of God, and various treatises and sermons.

+ While bishop, Augustine imagined a way of life in which members of the clergy would live together in community, supporting one another in the common life of prayer and ministry. This prepared the way for a new religious order now known as the Augustinians.

+ Saint Augustine died in 430 and was honored as a saint immediately after his death.

For prayer and reflection

“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”—Saint Augustine of Hippo

Spiritual bonus

On this day, we also remember the Desert Father known as Saint Moses “the Black.” Born into an enslaved Ethiopian family in Egypt, he became a thief and bandit before experiencing a profound conversion and joining the monks and hermits living in the desert of Skete. Known for his profound insights into he spiritual life, he died as a martyr when the monastery was attacked by Berber raiders in 405.

Vocations

For men:

To learn about the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, visit: www.augustinian.org

To learn about the Augustinian Midwest Province, visit: www.midwestaugustinians.org

To learn about the Augustinian Province of St. Augustine, visit: www.osa-west.org

To learn about the priests and brothers of the Augustinians of the Assumption, visit: www.assumption.us

For women:

Augustinian Contemplative Nuns (New Lenox, IL), click here.

The Augustinian Recollect Sisters (Belvidere, NJ), click here.

St. John’s Convent (Augustinian Sisters, Brandenburg, KY), click here.

Prayer

Renew in your Church, we pray, O Lord,
the spirit with which you endowed
your Bishop Saint Augustine
that, filled with the same spirit,
we may thirst for you,
the sole fount of true wisdom,
and seek you, the author of heavenly love.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.