25 April 387 A.D. Augustine Baptized & Publicly Confessed God's Gift of Faith, Easter Sunday, 25 Apr 387
25
April 387 A.D. Augustine Baptized & Publicly Confessed
God's Gift of Faith, Easter Sunday, 25 Apr 387
Graves,
Dan. “Augustine of Hippo Raised to New Life.” Christianity.com. Apr 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/augustine-of-hippo-raised-to-new-life-11629683.html. Accessed 24 Apr 2015.
And we were baptized and
all anxiety for our past life vanished away." With these joyous words
Augustine recorded his entrance into the church on this day, April 25, 387,
Easter day.
He had been 33 years in
coming to this public confession of Christ. Born in North Africa in 354 of a
Christian mother and pagan father, Augustine became at twelve years of age a
student at Carthage and at sixteen, a teacher of grammar. At this young age, he
was already promiscuous. And he tells in his famous autobiography that he
boasted of sins he had not had opportunity to commit, rather than seem to have
fallen behind his peers in wickedness.
His mother was determined
to see him converted and baptized. He was equally determined to have his
pleasures. He took a mistress and she bore him a son, Adeodatus, "Gift of
God." For a while he resented the lad but soon became inseparable from
him. At 29 his restless spirit drove him to Italy. His mother determined to
accompany him so that her prayers might be reinforced by her presence.
Augustine gave her the slip, sailing while she knelt praying in a chapel.
In Rome he taught
rhetoric for a year, but was cheated of his fees. And so he looked for a more
fertile field of labor and settled on Milan. His mother caught up with him and
prevailed upon him to attend the church of St. Ambrose. Christian singing moved
him deeply. In spite of himself he began to drift toward faith. He found the
writings of the Apostle Paul deeply stirring and more satisfying than the cool
abstractions of philosophy. He wrestled with deep conviction but was unable to
yield himself to God, owing to his attachment to the flesh.
Finally he reached a day
when his inner vacillations were too great to ignore. He tried reading
scripture but abandoned the effort. Unable to act on the truth he knew, he
began to weep, and threw himself behind a fig tree. "How long, O
Lord," he cried. And his heart answered "Why not now?" A child's
sing-song voice came clearly to him, repeating over and over, "Take it and
read it." It seemed a message from God. He snatched up the Bible and read
Paul's words, ". . .not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual
immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe
yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify
the desires of the sinful nature." Faith flooded in upon him. He
immediately thrust aside those sins of the flesh which had held him in thrall
for so long.
"But this faith
would not let me be at ease about my past sins, since these had not yet been
forgiven me by means of your baptism." He entered the water and was
relieved. At his mother's death, he returned to Africa where he founded a
monastery, became bishop of Hippo and a brilliant and prolific theologian who
more than any other stamped his imprint upon the Medieval church.
Bibliography:
Aland, Kurt. Saints
and Sinners; men and ideas in the early church. Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1970.
Augustine, St. Confessions.
Various editions.
-----------------. City
of God. Various editions.
"Augustine,
St." Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Edited by Charles
Coulston Gillispie. New York: Scribner's, 1970.
Bowie, Walter Russell. Men of
Fire. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1961.
Copleston, Frederick. A
History of Philosophy. London: Burn, Oates & Washbourn, 1951 -
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D'Souza, Dinesh. The
Catholic Classics. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 1986.
Dunham, James H. The
Religion of Philosophers. Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries
Press, 1969, 1947.
Portalie, Eugene.
"Augustine, Life of Saint." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York:
Robert Appleton, 1914.
Runes, Dagobert D. A
Treasury of Philosophy. New York: Philosophical Library, 1945. p.
71.
Russell, Bertrand. Wisdom
of the West. New York: Fawcett, 1964.
Last updated April, 2007.
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