Our Patron Saint
The man for whom St. Augustine Parish is named was a lively and, in the early part of his life, a wayward individual. Augustine of Hippo, the parish's patron was born in North Africa in the year 354. His father, Patricius, was a minor Roman official who converted Christianity at the end of his life. His mother, Monica, for whom St. Monica in Barre was named, was a devout Catholic who became a saint in her own right.
Augustine spent his youth carousing, diving deeply and often into the party life and all it entailed. His dissolute life-style was a source of great distress to his mother. Although Monica wept and worried, she never wavered in her conviction that her son would ultimately be converted to the Catholic faith.
Despite his personal shortcomings, Augustine became a professional success. He earned a living as a professor of rhetoric - which in his time entailed philosophy and public speaking. His studies brought him to Rome and, eventually to Milan, where he was exposed to the preaching of St. Ambrose - a bishop and brilliant Catholic theologian. Augustine, who came to Milan a troubled and disillusioned young man who, according to his later writings, was "gnawed within" by a growing unhappiness, was converted to Catholicism after reading this passage from the scripture:
"Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual excess and lust, not in quarreling and jealousy. Rather; put the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provisions for the desires of the flesh." (Romans 13:13-14)
Augustine was baptized by Bishop Ambrose during the Easter Vigil in the year 387. His son, Adeolatus, then 15, was also baptized. His mother Monica fell ill and died - finally happy and at peace - as she and her son were returning to Africa.
Augustine embraced his new life with an unbounding energy and zeal. He at first established a monastic life, and his commitment to the monastic ideals of communal living, personal poverty and shared manual labor would last his lifetime.
But he was pressed into service as an assistant to the bishop of Hippo, and eventually himself became bishop of that North African community. From the year 396 to 430, according to one account, he was "one of the busiest and most productive men in the world." In addition to the demanding duties of his ministry as bishop, he became a tireless exponent of Catholicism. He is said to have produced over 200 books - including the well known "Confessions" and "The City of God," nearly a thousand lesser works including sermons and letters.
Augustine died in the year 430. He is considered one of the Church's great thinkers and theologians, a man whose immense humanity was outweighed, in the final analysis, only by his extraordinary spirituality.