Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo (; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a Christian philosopher and theologian.

Early life
Augustine was born in the year 354. His mother is believed to have been of Berber origin.

After growing up, he began to learn and write a lot about Christianity, and became a bishop in Hippo Regius, which was in modern-day Annaba, Algeria. He was highly influenced by archbishop Ambrose. Later in life, Augustine moved to Italy, and over the next years his religious ideology grew stronger, and he became a teacher.

 Death 
Shortly before Augustine died, a group called the Vandals invaded Roman Africa. The Vandals were a Germanic tribe who believed in a version of Christianity called Arianism. In the spring of 430, they surrounded the city of Hippo, where Augustine was living. At this time, Augustine became very sick.

According to Possidius, who wrote about Augustine’s life, one of Augustine’s few miracles happened during the siege. He healed a sick man. Augustine is also said to have excommunicated himself as he was dying. This means he cut himself off from the church in a public way to show he was sorry for his sins and to share in the suffering of others who sinned.

Augustine spent his last days praying and feeling sorry for his sins. He asked to have the penitential Psalms of David hung on his walls so he could read them. These prayers made him cry a lot, according to Possidius. Augustine was also in charge of the church’s library in Hippo, and he told people to take good care of the books there.

Augustine died on 28 August 430. Soon after, the Vandals stopped attacking Hippo for a while, but later they came back and burned the city. They destroyed almost everything except Augustine’s cathedral and the church library, which they left safe.

Augustine became very famous after his death. People thought of him as a saint, and in 1298, Pope Boniface VIII officially made him a Doctor of the Church, a special title for important teachers. Augustine’s feast day (a day to remember him) is on 28 August, the day he died.

He is known as the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians (people who study God), and several cities and church areas. People also pray to him when they have sore eyes.

In the Church of England, Augustine is remembered with a smaller festival on 28 August.

Works
Books:
 On Christian Doctrine, wrt397-426
 Confessions, 397-398
 The City of God, begun ca. 413, finished 426
 On the Trinity, 400-416
 Enchiridion
 Retractions: At the end of his life (ca. 426-428) Augustine revisited his previous works in chronological order and suggested what he would have said differently in a work titled the "Retractions", giving the reader a rare picture of the development of a writer and his final thoughts.
 The Literal Meaning of Genesis
 On Free Choice of the Will

Letters:
 On the Catechising of the Uninstructed
 On Faith and the Creed
 Concerning Faith of Things Not Seen
 On the Profit of Believing and Judgement.

 On the Creed: A Sermon to Catechumens
 On Continence
 On the Good of Marriage
 On Holy Virginity
 On the Good of Widowhood
 On Lying
 To Consentius: Against Lying
 On the Work of Monks
 On Patience
 On Care to be Had For the Dead
 On the Morals of the Catholic Church On the Morals of the Manichaeans
 On Two Souls, Against the Manichaeans
 Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus the Manichaean
 Against the Epistle of Manichaeus Called Fundamental
 Reply to Faustus the Manichaean
 Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichaeans
 On Baptism, Against the Donatists
 Answer to Letters of Petilian, Bishop of Cirta
 The Correction of the Donatists
 Merits and Remission of Sin, and Infant Baptism
 On the Spirit and the Letter
 On Nature and Grace
 On Man's Perfection in Righteousness
 On the Proceedings of Pelagius On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin
 On Marriage and Concupiscence
 On the Soul and its Origin
 Against Two Letters of the Pelagians
 On Grace and Free Will
 On Rebuke and Grace
 The Predestination of the Saints/Gift of Perseverance
 Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount
 The Harmony of the Gospels
 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament
 Tractates on the Gospel of John
 Homilies on the First Epistle of John
 Soliloquies
 The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms
 On the Immortality of the Soul

Related pages
 Augustinianism
 Free will
 Original sin
 Pelagianism
 Filioque clause
 Truth

References

 The Story of Thought, DK Publishing, Bryan Magee, London, 1998, 
 aka The Story of Philosophy, Dorling Kindersley Publishing, 2001, 
(subtitled on cover: The Essential Guide to the History of Western Philosophy)
 g Saint Augustine, pages 30, 144; City of God 51, 52, 53 and The Confessions 50, 51, 52
 - additional in the Dictionary of the History of Ideas for Saint Augustine and Neo-Platonism 

 Bibliography 
 Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967.  
 Gareth B. Matthews.  Augustine.  Blackwell, 2005.  
 O'Donnell, James J. Augustine: A New Biography. New York:  HarperCollins, 2005. 
 Ruickbie, Leo. Witchcraft Out of the Shadows. London: Robert Hale, 2004. , pp. 57–8.
 Tanquerey, Adolphe. The Spiritual Life: A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology.  Reprinted Ed. (original 1930).  Rockford, IL: Tan Books, 2000. , p. 37.
 von Heyking, John. Augustine and Politics as Longing in the World. Columbia:  University of Missouri Press, 2001.  
 Orbis Augustinianus sive conventuum O. Erem. S. A. chorographica et topographica descriptio  Augustino Lubin, Paris, 1659, 1671, 1672.


 René Pottier. Saint Augustin le Berbère. Fernand Lanore, 2006.  

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 Other websites 

 General:
 University of Pennsylvania, Augustine of Hippo - Texts, translations, introductions, commentaries (Webarchive), 2006-10-22
 EarlyChurch.org.uk Extensive bibliography and on-line articles.
 Life of St. Augustine of Hippo, from the Catholic Encyclopedia
 Augstine of Hippo  , at Centropian
 Texts by Augustine:

 In Latin, at The Latin Library: books and letters by Augustine
 At "Christian Classics Ethereal Library" Translations of several works by Augustine, incl. introductions
 Sant'Agostino - Vita, Scritti, Pensiero, Santità, Attualità Full Latin and Italian text resource
 At "IntraText Digital Library": Works by Augustine in several languages, with concordance and frequency list
 St. Augustine's Multilingual Opera Omnia
 Texts on Augustine:
 Augustine and 'other Catholics' 
 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
 "Augustine's Concept of Freedom: The Dynamic of Sin and Grace" from Grace Incarnate (1989) 
 Augustine's Heavenly City and the Western Mind Pgs 22-24
 On Music
 Augustine on Hymns 
 On Original Sin ask Dan Santos
 Augustine and Pelagius
 Augustine and Thomas Aquinas on Original Sin 
 Original sin: a disputation 
 The Cambridge Companion to Augustine; 3 Augustine on evil and original sin  
 Links to the Augustinian Order
 Augustine's writings 
 Audio books
 City of God, Confessions, Enchiridion, Doctrine 
 Augustine and Orthodoxy
 Blessed Augustine of Hippo: His Place in the Orthodox Church
 St Augustine the Bishop of Hippo Orthodox icon and synaxarion

Category:354 births
Category:430 deaths
Category:Christian mystics
Category:Christian saints
Category:Doctors of the Church
Category:Converts to Christianity
Category:Ancient Roman philosophers
Category:Berber people
Category:Early Christian theologians