St. Augustine
Feast day: August 28
Augustine was born in Tagaste, in northern Africa, the son of Patricius, a pagan Roman official. His mother, St. Monica, was a Christian, and she raised Augustine in the Faith. He went to Carthage to study law, turning instead to literary interests. He took a mistress, who bore him a child, Adeodatus. Augustine taught rhetoric and philosophy in Carthage, Rome and Milan, where a conversion of heart led to his baptism by Bishop Ambrose. He returned to North Africa and served as bishop of Hippo for 35 years. An influential Doctor of the Church, Augustine battled several heresies and left numerous writings, including his still widely read “Confessions.” He is patron of brewers and of theologians.
Collect
Renew in your Church, we pray, O Lord,
the spirit with which you endowed
your Bishop Saint Augustine
that, filled with the same spirit,
we may thirst for you,
the sole fount of true wisdom,
and seek you, the author of heavenly love.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
