Instruction for the Feast of St. Augustine

8/4/2019 Instruction for the Feast of St. Augustine

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An excerpt from

EXPLANATIONOF THE

EPISTLES AND

GOSPELSFOR THESUNDAYS, HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS

THROUGHOUT

THE ECCLESIASTICAL YEARBY

REV. LEONARD GOFFINE,

PRIEST OF THE ORDER OF PREMONSTRATENSIANS,

EDITED AND ENLARGED BY REV. GEORGE OTT, DEAN

AND PASTOR,

WITH THE APPROBATION OF THE RIGHT REV.BISHOP OF RATISBON.

TRANSLATED FROM THE NEWEST GERMAN EDITION

BY

REV. GERARD M. PILZ, O.S.B.


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Instruction for the Feast

of St. Augustine, Bishop

[August ]

t. Augustine was born in the year ,

at Tagaste, a small town of Numidia inAfrica. His parents were of good condi-

tion, yet not very rich; his father was an

idolater, but by the holy example and pru-

dent conduct of St. Monica, his wife, he

at length learned the humility and meek-

ness of the Christian religion, and was bap-

tized a little before his death. Augustine went to school first in his

own town; then his father, who perceived Augustines excellent ge-nius and wonderful disposition for learning, sent him to Madoura,

a neighboring city, where he studied grammar, rhetoric and poet-

ry. When he was sixteen years old, his father made him return to

Tagaste and kept him a whole year at home. During this time the

young man slighting the advice of his mother, fell into lewd compa-

ny, being induced to it by idleness. Towards the end of the year

Augustine was sent to Carthage. There he easily held the foremostplace in the school of rhetoric, and applied himself to his studies

with so much eagerness and pleasure, that it was with great difficul-

ty, that he was drawn from them. But his motives were only vanity

and ambition. When he once desired to read the holy scriptures,

he was offended with the simplicity of the style, and swelling with

pride, as if he was endued with a great genius, he could not relish

their humility, or penetrate their spirit. About his nineteenth year he

fell into the sect of the Manichees, in which he continued between

eight and nine years. In his twentieth year, to ease his mother of


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the charge of his education, his father having already died, St. Au-

gustine left Carthage, and set up a school of grammar and rhetoricat Tagaste. Here St. Monica employed all efforts, admonitions, en-

treaties, severity to convert her son, but all were vain. By the loss of

an intimate friend, who had been for several years the companion

of his studies, Augustine was afflicted so grievously, that all places

and things where he had previously enjoyed him, were turned into

bitter torment. Not being able any longer to bear his native country,

he removed to Carthage, where time and new connections wore of

his grief. At Carthage he opened a school of rhetoric, and gained

great applause in the public disputations. Here St. Augustine met

the Manichean bishop Faustus, from whom he expected the solution

of many doubts. But he found, that Faustus was a good speaker, but

said no more than the rest of the Manichees, only explained him-

self with greater grace and facility. He now disapproved entirely

of the Manichean sect, but his prepossessions against the catholic

faith hindered him from turning his enquiries on that side.

Being disgusted by the disorderly behaviour of the students at

Carthage, he resolved to go to Rome. At Rome he lodged with a

Manichean, merely on account of former acquaintance, and because

he was not yet resolved to become a member of any other religion.

His school was soon frequented by the greatest wits of that age,

and none ever went from it, without being struck with admiration

at his learning and parts. But finding the scholars there often unjustenough, not to pay their salaries to their masters, he grew weary of

the place. It happened about this time, that deputies were sent from

Milan to Symmachus, the prefect of Rome, requiring that he should

sent thither some able master of rhetoric. Augustine having given

proofs of his capacity, was selected by Symmachus and according-

ly sent. At Milan he became acquainted with the holy bishop St.

Ambrose. Augustine frequently attended his sermons. AlthoughAugustine aimed only at gratifying his ears, and despised the mat-

ter, which the bishop treated, yet the sermons like a distilling rain

insensibly made impressions on his heart, and caused the seeds of

virtue to spring forth therein. In the search of truth he was still per-

plexed about the origin of evil, and suffered a secret anguish in his

soul, to which only God was witness. It happened in the mean time,

that one Potitianus, an African, who had an honorable employment

in the emperors court, and was a very religious man, came one

day to pay a visit to Augustine and his friend Alipius: and finding a


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book of St. Pauls epistles lying on the table, took occasion to speak

to them of the life of St. Anthony, and was surprised to find that hisname had been to that hour unknown to them. Potitianus also relat-

ed the example of two friends of his, who by reading the life of St.

Anthony, became so inflamed with the love of God, as immediately

to embrace the same kind of life. The discourse of Potitianus had a

powerful influence on the mind of St. Augustine. When Potitianus

had departed, he withdrew from his friend Alipius, threw himself

down under a fig-tree, and there gave free vent to a torrent of tears.

Whilst thus weeping with most bitter contrition of heart for his past

life, he on a sudden heard as it were the voice of a child singing the

words: Tolle, lege, Tolle, lege, that is, take up and read, take up

and read. He interpreted the voice to be nothing less than a divine

admonition, remembering that St. Anthony was converted from the

world to a life of retirement, by hearing an oracle of the gospel read.

He immediately rose up, suppressed his tears, and returned to look

for the book of St. Pauls epistles. He opened it, and read in silencethe following words on which he first cast his eyes: Not in revel-

ling and drunkenness: not in impurities, strifes and envy: but put

ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provisions for the flesh

in its concupiscences. (Rom. xiii. .) He would read no farther, all

his former hesitation was dispelled, all his doubts solved. He told

Alipius what had passed in his soul; they immediately went in, and

told the good news to St. Monica, who had followed her son into

Italy, and came to him at Milan.

The conversion of St. Augustine happened in the year , the

thirty second of his age. At the same time he determined to quit his

school and profession of teaching rhetoric. He retired to a country-

house in the neighborhood of Milan, where he wholly employed

himself in prayer and study. Here he strenuously labored, by the

practice of austere penance, by the strictest watchfulness over hisheart and senses, and by most fervent and humble prayer to purify

his affections, to disengage them perfectly from the inordinate love

of creatures, and preparing himself for the grace of leading a new

life in Christ, and becoming in him a new creature. In the beginning

of the lent of Augustine returned to Milan to prepare himself

for baptism, which he received from St. Ambrose on Easter-eve of

the same year. Soon after, desiring to devote himself entirely to the

divine service in a life of solitude, he resolved to return into Africa.

On his way thither, he lost his holy mother, St. Monica, who died


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in the seaport of Ostia. He landed at Carthage about September

, made only a very short stay, making all possible haste to retireto his house in the country, with certain devout friends. There he

lived almost three years entirely disengaged from all temporal con-

cerns, serving God in fasting, prayer, good works, meditating upon

His law, day and night, and instructing others by his discourses and

books. In the house all things were common, and were distributed

according to every ones necessities, no one among them having the

least thing at his own disposal. The religious order of the hermits

of St. Augustine dates its foundation from this epoch in . When

St. Augustine was ordained priest and removed to Hippo, many of

his religious brethren followed thither, and with the assistance of

his bishop Valerius, he founded there a new monastery. Valerius,

who was a Greek and had moreover an impediment in speaking,

appointed Augustine to preach to the people in his own presence.

Augustine preached constantly, sometimes every day, and some-

times twice on the same day. He did not desist even when he was soweak as to be scarce able to speak; but he seemed to gather strength

in preaching and his ardor for the salvation of souls made him for-

get the pains of sickness. Valerius finding himself sinking under

the weight of his years and infirmities, had Augustine chosen as his

coadjutor. Although the saint protested, he was at length compelled

to acquiesce in the will of heaven and was consecrated in the year

. Valerius died the following year.

In this new dignity the saint was obliged to live in the episcopal

house; but he engaged all the priests, deacons and subdeacons that

lived with him, to renounce all property, and to engage themselves

to embrace the rule, which he established there. The saints clothes

and furniture were modest. He exercised hospitality, but his table

was frugal. At table he loved rather reading or literary conferences

than secular conversation, and to warn his guests to shun detraction,

he had the following distich written upon his table:

This board allows no vile detractor place,

Whose tongue will charge the absent with disgrace.

He employed whatever could be spared of the revenues of his

church in relieving the poor; he even sometimes melted down part

of the sacred vessels to redeem captives. He prevailed upon his

flock to establish the custom of clothing all the poor of each parish

once a year.


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Augustine always trembled at the danger of secret complacency,

or vain glory amidst the praise of others. Sincere humility madehim love, at every turn, to confess his ignorance. Nothing gave him

greater confusion and mortification than the esteem of others, or

their opinion of his learning. From this sincere humility the saint

wrote his Confessions, a book in which he divulges all the sins of

his youth, and in which he shows the ways, by which the divine

mercy led him to repentance and conversion.

Augustine was indefatigable in refuting the heretics, who wereat his time very numerous in the northern part of Africa. Indeed at

Hippo, the Donatists were before the arrival of the saint so numer-

ous that the Catholics formed but a small minority. By the learning

and indefatigable zeal of Augustine, supported by the sanctity of

his life, the catholics began to gain ground exceedingly. At this the

Donatists were so much exasperated, that some of them proposed

to kill him, and made even several attempts at performing their de-

sire, all of which, however, were foiled. He wrote many works bothagainst these heretics, as also against the Manichees, the Pelagians,

the Jews and the pagans.

About the year northern Africa was visited by a terrible

scourge. The Vandals under Genseric with an army of , men

sailed from Spain to Africa. Possidius, Bishop of Calama, an eye

witness, describes the dreadful ravages by which the Vandals filled

with horror and desolation all those rich provinces. He saw thecities in ruin, the houses in the country razed to the ground, the in-

habitants either being slain or having fled. Within a short time there

were only three cities remaining, that were not in ruins: Carthage,

Hippo and Cirta. About the end of May in the year the Vandals

appeared before Hippo. The siege continued fourteen months. Au-

gustine did all in his power to alleviate the miseries of the besieged,

he consoled the dying, tended the wounded and fed the poor. Hespoke much to his people on resignation to the divine will under all

the scourges which their sins deserved, and the necessity of avert-

ing the divine anger by sincere penance. In the third month of the

siege the saint was seized with a fever and from the first moments

of his illness doubted not, but that it was a summons of God who

called him to Himself. He ordered the penitential psalms of David

to be written out, and hung in tablets upon the wall by his bed; and

as he there lay sick, he read them with abundance of tears. Not to be

interrupted in these devotions, he desired about ten days before his


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death, that no one should come to him, except at those times when

either the physicians came to visit him, or his food was brought tohim. This was constantly observed, and all the rest of his time was

spent in prayer. Though the strength of his body daily and hourly

declined, yet his senses and intellectual faculties continued sound

to the last. He calmly resigned his spirits into the hands of God,

on the th of August, . The body of the saint was brought to

Sardinia, and thence to Pavia, where they now rest in the church

named after him, St. Augustine.

PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. Attend to our supplications, O

Almighty God, and by the intercession of blessed Augustine, Thy

confessor and bishop, graciously grant the effect of Thy wonted

mercy to those, to whom Thou grantest confidence to hope for for-

giveness. Through our Lord.

EPISTLE. (ii. Tim. iv. .) D : I charge thee

before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the

dead, by his coming, and his kingdom: Preach the word: be instantin season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience

and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure

sound doctrine: but according to their own desires they will heap to

themselves teachers, having itching ears, and will indeed turn away

their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. Be thou

vigilant, labor in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy

ministry. Be sober. For I am even now ready to be sacrificed: and

the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I

have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there

is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge

will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also

that love his coming.

The Gospel as on the Feast of St. Bernard.

Documents

Instruction for the Feast of St. Augustine