Augustine of Hippo
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| Saint Augustine of Hippo | |
|---|---|
 The earliest portrait of Saint Augustine (6th century) | |
| Bishop, Confessor, Doctor of the Church | |
| Born | November 13, 354, Thagaste, Numidia (now Souk Ahras, Algeria) |
| Died | August 28, 430 (aged 75), Hippo Regius, Numidia (now modern-day Annaba,Algeria) |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Churches Oriental Orthodoxy Anglican Communion Lutheranism |
| Major shrine | San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia, Italy |
| Feast | August 29 (Western Christianity) June 15 (Eastern Christianity) |
| Attributes | child; dove; pen; shell, pierced heart |
| Patronage | brewers; printers; theologians Bridgeport, Connecticut; Cagayan de Oro, Philippines; Ida, Philippines; Kalamazoo Michigan; Saint Augustine, Florida; Superior, Wisconsin; Tucson, Arizona; Avilés, Spain |
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| Part of a series on St. Augustine of Hippo</br> |
| Original sin · Divine grace · Invisible church · Time · Predestination · Infant baptism · Incurvatus in se · Allegorical interpretation · Amillennialism · Augustinian hypothesis · Just War |
| Works |
| The City of God · Confessions · On Christian Doctrine · Enchiridion |
| Influences and Followers |
| Plotinus · St. Monica · Ambrose · Pelagius · Saint Possidius · Thomas Aquinas · Martin Luther · Cornelius Jansen |
| Related |
| Neoplatonism · Pelagianism · Augustinians · Scholasticism · Jansenism |
Augustine of Hippo (pronounced /ˈɔːɡəstiːn/ or /ɒˈɡʌstɨn/)[1] (Latin: Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis;[2]) (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430), Bishop of Hippo Regius, also known as St. Augustine or St. Austin [3], was a philosopher and theologian. Augustine, a Latin church father, is one of the most important figures in the development of Western Christianity. Augustine was heavily influenced by the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus.[4] He framed the concepts of original sin and just war. When the Roman Empire in the West was starting to disintegrate, Augustine developed the concept of the Church as a spiritual City of God (in a book of the same name) distinct from the material City of Man.[5] His thought profoundly influenced the medieval worldview. Augustine's City of God was closely identified with the church, and was the community which worshiped God.[6]
Augustine was born in the city of Thagaste[7], the present day Souk Ahras, Algeria, to a Catholic mother named Monica. He was educated in North Africa and resisted his mother's pleas to become Christian. Living as a pagan intellectual, he took a concubine and became a Manichean. Later he converted to the Catholic Church, became a bishop, and opposed heresies, such as the belief that people can have the ability to choose to be good to such a degree as to merit salvation without divine aid (Pelagianism).
In Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, he is a saint and pre-eminent Doctor of the Church, and the patron of the Augustinian religious order; his memorial is celebrated 28 August. Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider him to be one of the theological fathers of Reformation teaching on salvation and divine grace. In the Eastern Orthodox Church he is blessed, and his feast day is celebrated on 15 June, though a minority are of the opinion that he is a heretic, primarily because of his statements concerning what became known as the filioque clause.[8] Among the Orthodox he is called Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed.[9]
[edit] References
- ↑ Wells, J. (2000). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 2, New York: Longman. ISBN 0582364671.
- ↑ The nomen Aurelius is virtually meaningless, signifying little more than Roman citizenship (see: Salway, Benet (1994). "What's in a Name? A Survey of Roman Onomastic Practice from c. 700 B.C. to A.D. 700". The Journal of Roman Studies 84: 124–45. Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. ISSN 00754358.).
- ↑ (1997) The American Heritage College Dictionary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 91. ISBN 0395669170.
- ↑ (2005) "Platonism", in Cross, Frank L. and Livingstone, Elizabeth: The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192802909.
- ↑ Durant, Will (1992). Caesar and Christ: a History of Roman Civilization and of Christianity from Their Beginnings to A.D. 325. New York: MJF Books. ISBN 1567310141.
- ↑ Wilken, Robert L. (2003). The Spirit of Early Christian Thought. New Haven: Yale University Press, 291. ISBN 0300105983.
- ↑
"Thagaste". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.s - ↑ Archimandrite [now Archbishop] Chrysostomos. "Book Review: The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church". Orthodox Tradition II (3&4): 40–43. Retrieved on 2007-06-28.
- ↑ "Blessed" here does not mean that he is less than a saint, but is a title bestowed upon him as a sign of respect. "Blessed Augustine of Hippo: His Place in the Orthodox Church: A Corrective Compilation". Orthodox Tradition XIV (4): 33–35. Retrieved on 2007-06-28.
