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
“A new commandment, says the Lord, give I unto you, that you love one another (John 13: 34)… What is perfection of love? To love even enemies, and love them for this end, that they may be brethren… For so loved He who, hanging on the cross, said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23: 34)… He was fixed upon the cross, and yet was He walking in this very way: this way is the way of charity.”—Saint Augustine of Hippo
Spiritual bonus
On this day, we also remember the Benedictine priest and martyr Blessed Leandro Cuesta Andres. A monk of the monastery of El Pueyo, he served his community as apiarist (beekeeper) and in the poor who sought assistance from the monks. Remembered for his spirit of personal austerity and for his dry sense of humor, he was killed with other members of his monastic community on August 28, 1936, during the violence of the Spanish Civil War. These martyrs were beatified in 2013.
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.
And today we celebrate...