PRAYER TO SAINT AUGUSTINE to ask for a grace

For that most vivid consolation that you, glorious Saint Augustine, brought to a saint
Monica your mother and the whole Church, when animated by example
of the Roman Vittorino and from the now public, now private speeches of the great Bishop of
Milan, Sant'Ambrogio, and San Simpliciano and Alipio, finally resolved to convert you,
get all of us the grace to continually take advantage of examples and advice
virtuous, in order to bring to heaven as much joy with our future life as it does
of sadness we caused with the many failings of our past life
Gloria

We who followed wandering Augustine must follow him penitent. Deh! that the
his example leads us to seek forgiveness and to cut off all the affections that cause
our downfall.
Gloria

Agostino d'Ippona (Italian translation of the Latin Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis) of Berber ethnicity, but of totally Hellenistic-Roman culture, was born in Tagaste (currently Souk-Ahras in Algeria, located about 100 km south-west of Hippo) on the 13th November 354 from a middle class family of small landowners. Father Patrizio was a pagan, while his mother Monica (cf. August 27), of whom Agostino was the eldest son, was instead Christian; it was she who gave him a religious education but without baptizing him, as was used then, wanting to wait for the mature age.

Augustine had a very lively childhood, but real sins began later. After his first studies in Tagaste and then in nearby Madaura, he went to Carthage in 371, with the help of a wealthy local gentleman named Romaniano. He was 16 and lived his adolescence in a very exuberant way and, while attending the school of a rhetorician, he began to live with a Carthaginian girl, who also gave him, in 372, a son, Adeodato. It was in those years that he gained his first vocation as a philosopher, thanks to the reading of a book by Cicero, "Ortensio", which had particularly struck him, because the Latin author stated, how only philosophy helped the will to move away from evil and to exercise virtue.
Unfortunately, then, the reading of Sacred Scripture said nothing to his rationalistic mind and the religion professed by his mother seemed to him "a childish superstition", therefore he sought the truth in Manichaeism. (Manicheism was an oriental religion founded in the third century AD by Mani, which merged elements of Christianity and the religion of Zoroaster; its fundamental principle was dualism, that is, the continuous opposition of two equally divine principles, one good and one bad, that dominate the world and also the soul of man).
After completing his studies, he returned to Tagaste in 374, where, with the help of his benefactor Romaniano, he opened a school of grammar and rhetoric. He was also hosted in his home with the whole family, because his mother Monica, not sharing his religious choices, had preferred to separate from Agostino; only later did he readmit him to his home, having had a premonitory dream about his return to the Christian faith.
After two years in 376, he decided to leave the small town of Tagaste and return to Carthage and, always with the help of his friend Romaniano, who he had converted to Manichaeism, he also opened a school here, where he taught for seven years, unfortunately with poorly disciplined pupils.
Agostino, however, never found the answer among his Manichaeans to his desire for truth and after a meeting with their bishop, Fausto, which took place in Carthage in 382, ​​which should have dispelled any doubt, he left unconvinced and therefore took to move away from Manichaeism. Eager for new experiences and tired of the indiscipline of the Carthaginian pupils, Agostino, resisting the prayers of his beloved mother, who wanted to keep him in Africa, decided to move to Rome, capital of the empire, with all his family.
In 384 he managed to obtain, with the support of the prefect of Rome, Quinto Aurelio Simmaco, the vacant chair of rhetoric in Milan, where he moved, unexpectedly reached in 385, by his mother Monica, who, conscious of the inner labor of his son , was beside him with prayer and tears without imposing anything on him, but rather as a protector angel.

Towards the beginning of Lent in 387, with Adeodate and Alipio, he took his place among the "competentes" to be baptized by Ambrose on Easter day. Agostino remained in Milan until the autumn, continuing his work: "De immortalitate animae and De musica". Then, while she was about to embark in Ostia, Monica returned her soul to God. Agostino, then, remained for many months in Rome, mainly dealing with the refutation of Manichaeism and to deepen his knowledge on the monasteries and traditions of the Church.

In 388 he returned to Tagaste, where he sold his few goods, distributing the proceeds to the poor and, retiring with some friends and disciples, he founded a small community, where the goods were shared property. But after a while the constant crowding of the fellow citizens, to ask for advice and help, disturbed the due recollection, it was necessary to find another place and Augustine looked for it near Hippo. Found by chance in the local basilica, where Bishop Valerio was proposing to the faithful to consecrate a priest who could help him, especially in preaching; Realizing his presence, the faithful began to shout: "Augustine priest!". Then much was given to the will of the people, considered the will of God and although he tried to refuse, because this was not the way he wanted, Augustine was forced to accept. The city of Hippo gained a lot, his work was very fruitful; first he asked the bishop to transfer his monastery to Hippo, to continue his life choice, which later became a seminary source of African priests and bishops.

The Augustinian initiative laid the foundations for the renewal of the customs of the clergy. He also wrote a Rule, which was then adopted by the Community of Regular or Augustinian Canons in the ninth century.
Bishop Valerio, fearing that Augustine would be moved to another location, convinced the people and the primate of Numidia, Megalio di Calama, to consecrate him as coadjutor bishop of Hippo. In 397, after Valerio died, he succeeded him as owner. He had to leave the monastery and undertake his intense activity as a shepherd of souls, which he carried out very well, so much so that his reputation as an enlightened bishop spread throughout all the African Churches.

At the same time he wrote his works: St. Augustine was one of the most prolific geniuses that humanity has ever known. He is not admired only for the number of his works, which include autobiographical, philosophical, apologetic, dogmatic, polemical, moral, exegetical writings, collections of letters, sermons and works in poetry (written in non-classical metrics, but accentuating, for facilitate memorization by uneducated people), but also for the variety of subjects that cover the entire human knowledge. The form in which he proposed his work still exerts a very powerful attraction on the reader.
His most famous work is the Confessiones. Numerous forms of religious life refer to him, among which the Order of St. Augustine (OSA), called the Augustinians: spread all over the world, together with the barefoot Augustinians (OAD) and the Augustinian Recollects (OAR), constitute in the Catholic Church the main spiritual heritage of the saint of Hippo, to whose rule of life many other congregations are inspired, in addition to the regular canons of St. Augustine.
The "Confessiones or Confessions" (about 400) are the story of his heart. The core of the Augustinian thought present in the "Confessions" lies in the concept that man is unable to orient himself: exclusively with the illumination of God, which he must obey in all circumstances, man will be able to find orientation in his life. The word "confessions" is understood in the biblical sense (confiteri), not as an admission of guilt or story, but as a prayer of a soul who admires the action of God in its interior. Of all the Saint's works, none has been universally read and admired. There is no book in the entire literature that resembles it for the penetrating analysis of the most complex impressions of the soul, for communicative sentiment, or for the depth of philosophical opinions.

In 429 he fell seriously ill, while Hippo was besieged for three months by the Vandals commanded by Genseric († 477), after they had brought death and destruction everywhere; the holy bishop had the impression of the near end of the world; he died on August 28, 430 at 76 years old. His body stolen from the Vandals during the fire and destruction of Hippo, was then transported to Cagliari by Bishop Fulgenzio di Ruspe, around 508-517 cc, together with the relics of other African bishops.
Around 725 his body was again moved to Pavia, in the Church of S. Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, not far from the places of his conversion, by the pious Lombard king Liutprando († 744), who had redeemed him by the Saracens of Sardinia.