Augustine of Hippo d 431
St. Augustine wrote so many works. But the two which have had most effect on civilization are “Confesions’ and “the City of God.” this week we celebrate the two events which caused Augustine to write his two masterpieces.
The SACK of ROME August 24th 410 ad
The barbarians despoil the Roman Forum
This week we celebrated an anniversary that is totally lost in clouds of history that only a few eccentrics recall it. The Sack of Rome occurred on August 24, 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths led by Alaric. The Roman capital had been moved to the Italian city of Ravenna by the young emperor Honorius after the Visigoths entered Italy.
This was the first time in almost 800 years that Rome had fallen to an enemy. The previous sack of Rome was by Gauls under their leader Brennuss in 387 BC. It is seen as a major landmark in the decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire. St Jerome, a citizen in Rome at the time, wrote that "The city which had conquered the whole world was itself conquered..."
This event shook the whole of the ancient world. People fled for refuge to North Africa where they met St. Augustine. They recounted their sad story of violence, destruction and rape. Some of them argued with Augustine that this disaster was the fault of the Christians. Rome had been strong as long as the pagan gods were honored. In rejection of these claims, Augustine wrote his magnum opus, “The City of God.”
August 28th Feast of Saint Monica, patron of mothers.
St. Monica was the mother of the great Augustine, bishop of Hippo who died in 431 ad. She was a powerful figure in her own right. She had tried year after year to convert him to the Christian life, but he resisted her attempts. She finally saw her son baptized and soon after that she died in Ostia, near Rome, in 387. She was married young to a government official, Patricius, who was not a Christian, and had a bad temper, though she bore her burdens patiently, and their life together was relatively peaceful. Three children were born to, Augustine, Navigius, and a daughter, Perpetua.
Augustine, the eldest son, though brilliant, was, according to his own account, a lazy and his bad behavior caused his mother much grief ¬ especially so after he went away to school in Carthage. Although Patricius became a Christian not long before he died, Augustine persisted in his pursuit of pleasure, and, he took a mistress who bore him a son when he was 19. Monica prayed more and more for her son when he joined a heretical sect called the Manicheans.
During this anguished period of prayer for her son, Monica consulted a bishop, begging him to speak to her son. He declined to intervene with Augustine, whom, the bishop correctly observed, was not open to hearing the truth. Monica followed Augustine to Rome and then to Milan, in an effort to rescue her son from his errors. In Milan she met Ambrose, who helped lead Augustine into the true faith. he was baptized at Easter 386 ad
A few months after his conversion, Augustine, Monica and Adeodatus, set out to return to Africa, but Monica died at Ostia, the ancient port city of Rome, and she was buried there. Augustine was so deeply moved by his mother's death that he was inspired to write his Confessions. Augustine’s “Confessions” is considered the world’s first self- aware autobiography.
