The Lives of the Saints through 100 Masterpieces

Augustine

The Lives of the Saints 38 Augustine August 28 The conversion to Christianity of this 22-year-old Berber in 387 bequeathed to the world one of its greatest literary monuments: the Confessions, a historical and intellectual biography and an irreplaceable mystical and ethnographic document. Born in Thagaste (now Souk-Ahras) in Algeria of a pagan father and a Christian mother, Saint Monica, Augustine acquired prodigious philosophical erudition very early in life. His readings and inquiries led him to embrace Manichean doctrine, but this did not assuage his metaphysical thirst and left him still searching. As a professor of philosophy in Milan, he was at last definitively converted and baptized by the bishop, Ambrose. To celebrate this event, they together composed the Te Deum. His philosophical formation, however, continued to be a source of torment for him. One day, in a dream, he saw a young child trying to empty the ocean with a shell. “When do you think you shall finish?” he asked. “Before you come to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity,” answered the child. From that moment on, he dedicated himself entirely to his apostolic work as a priest, and later as bishop of Hippo, producing an abundance of sermons and works, and leading an exemplary life. Once, seeing the devil go by carrying the book of sins, Augustine asked to be shown the pages that concerned him. He found therein only one minor sin—he had forgotten to recite the hour of Compline. The oversight was soon corrected, and the page turned white again, much to the enraged chagrin of the devil. Michael Pacher (ca. 1435–1498) The Devil Presenting the Book of Sins to Saint Augustine Alte Pinakothek, Munich ...