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His Confessions || St. Monica || Persecutions || Question of Sexuality || Personal Quirks
Sinner to Saint
Disclaimer: I am not a Roman Catholic myself, and I know very little about Saints until I became a Classics Major, so I am sorry if any of this information offends anyone. It was not the intention. These are my opinions and they are based on historical accounts, and St. Augustine's Confessions. This is by no means any kind of judgment of religious doctrine . . . If you want to share you opinion with me on the topic please e-mail me. Opposing opinions are welcome, but flames will be laughed at.
His Confessions . . .
I have read the accounts of very few saints, but St. Augustine is one
of the more interesting people in history. He was born at Thagaste
(in present day Algeria) in 354. His mother Monica was a devout Christian.
However, his father, Patricius was a pagan (but he was baptized
at his death bed.) In Confessions, Augustine expresses some
dislike towards his father, but he spoke of his mother in affectionate
almost reverent terms.
Augustine was extremely well educated in paideia
(literally what kids do), or the pagan classics. Even in Confessions,
Augustine greatly admired the oration of Cicero. However he was not
a complete advocate of education. In his own view, he believed that
education was useless unless it was used to praise the Lord. The
purpose of his Confessions is basically to show the power and love
of God, his testimony if you will.
Contrary to popular conception, in Confessions, Augustine isn't really
the sinner that everyone makes him to be. In many sources, Augustine's
life is described basically as sinner to saint (as my title says).
I think this oversimplifies the issue. To the modern audience, labeling
someone a sinner entails some very negative values that extend beyond the
ten commandaments. I don't think Augustine fits the modern definition
of the term. Catholic Online Saints (a great resource, btw) describes
it very well when they said that Augustine's former life was one of "loose
living, which included parties, entertainment, and worldly ambitions".
By modern American standards those aren't terrible things. Sounds
like your average college student to me. Augustine, however, excused
himself for nothing. To him, even a babe was sinful because the babe
wanted things that would hurt her/himself and cry when these things are
denied. Clearly, modern connotations of the word sin carry somewhat
different weight than how Augustine defined it. One of the worst crimes that he described of himself
was that as a teen, Augustine stole from a pear tree for the sake of excitement
of stealing. Granted, this is a case of juvenile delinquency and
peer pressure, it hardly qualify him as a sinner in modern language.
I think if I had to describe Augustine's life briefly, I would instead
say that Augustine was a spiritually confused man whose internal struggles
ultimately led him to his spiritual gratification, Christianity.
Augustine's Confessions is not a document of the external struggles
of the difficulties of being a Christian, rather, it describes the difficulties
of accepting the Christian doctrines. Augustine finds trouble with
the Bible in its simplicity, and turned instead to the more elite and
scholarly studies of the Manichees. Augustine's turn from Manichees
and into Christianity is not by miracles (in the sense God appeared before
him or something like that. One could argue that it was by God's
intervention I suppose), rather, he turned from the Manichees when he found
that their doctrines can be scientifically unsatisfactory. One of
the Manichee's greatest orator turned out to be ill informed. I think
that was the event that shook Augustine's faith in the Manichee the most.
Soon after, Bishop Ambrose of Milan's philosophical and metaphorical interpretation
of the Bible played an important role in convincing Augustine that the
Christian doctrines were not as simple as it first appeared. One
might argue that Augustine's conversion was due to a winning philosophy
and better orator instead of God's intervention.
Historically, Augustine's Confessions is argued to play an important
role in solidifying some key concepts in Christianity. I think Augustine
played a key role in reconciling philosophy and Christianity through his
own struggles. He interpreted the beginning of the Bible in
beautiful philosophical language in the last three books of his Confessions.
St. Monica
In reading commentaries of Augustine, I discovered, that almost everyone
thinks St. Augustine absolutely loved, adored, worshipped his mother Monica
. . . In the introduction of my version of the book translated by R.S. Pine-Coffin, the translator especially notes
that Augustine never spoke a harsh word against his mother. It's
true that Augustine admired his mother because of her devotion to Christianity.
He believed that it was her prayers and her tears that saved him and caused
God to convert him. However, one of the biggest problem I have with
Augustine is his lack of felial piety towards his mother. He abandons
her in a temple, lies to her, and then leaves. And then he says that
the fact that she is crying (probably because her ass of a son lied to
her) is evidence that she inherited original sin from Eve because she is
not being patient of the will of God. If I had a time machine I'd
go and smack him.
Persecutions
He prosecuted everyone who weren't Orthodox Christians. I'm sorry,
but he did. This included Arians Christians (people who believed
that God and Jesus were not the same substance), the Donatists, also Christinas
(this has to do with debates over whether or not the clergy appointed by
a bishop who sold out during the prosecutions of the Christians by the
Romans were legitimate or not), the Manichees (philosophical Paganism that
believed in the internal struggle of good and evil), Pelagianists (followers
of Pelagius, a Christian from Britain who didn't believe in the concept
of original sin) . . . etc etc etc . . .
Question of Sexuality
The life of St. Augustine is the topic of an interesting debate in
the LGBT (if you don't what that is, tough . . . sigh, Lesbian Gay Bisexual
Transgender) community . . . is he gay/bixsexual? The position of
the current Catholic Church is that no such relationship existed.
To be perfectly frank, I was under the impression he was gay when I started
reading his Confessions. However, after reading the book, my opinion
has changed, and now I think he was heterosexual. He had a mistress
who he seem to have loved. I think the reason some think that he
was homosexual is because of an extremely intense relationship he had with
one of his male friends. When his friend dead, St. Augustine was on
the throes of depression. I personally think it was just a friendship,
but you can go judge for yourself by reading Confessions.
Personally, I think it's an interesting idea. In terms of homosexuality
in antiquity, I think one of Augustine's Pagan contemporary, Libanius is
a better candidate. It would tickle my feathers if Libanius and the
Emperor Julian were lovers. If you have no idea what I'm talking
about go read my section on Julian.
More Personal Quirks
If you love beautiful language, go read Confessions. It is one
of the most beautifully written book I have ever read. I have like
5 billion quotes from him written in my quote book now. That man
could write! Random note, his Saint's day is August 28 (my birthday,
isn't that odd!). And he is the patron of brewers. Don't ask.
I'm not entirely certain how they justify that one.