Sermon on the Birthday of the Martyrs Fructuosus the Bishop with Augurius and Eulogius the Deacon (St. Augustine of Hippo)

How St. Ambrose Helped Bring St. Augustine Closer to the Church

By St. Augustine of Hippo

(The Confessions, Bk. 5, Chs. 22-25)

Then began I assiduously to practice that for which I came to Rome — the teaching of rhetoric... When, therefore, they of Milan had sent to Rome to the prefect of the city, to provide them with a teacher of rhetoric for their city, and to dispatch him at the public expense, I made interest through those identical persons, drunk with Manichaean vanities, to be freed from whom I was going away — neither of us, however, being aware of it — that Symmachus, the then prefect, having proved me by proposing a subject, would send me.

Synaxarion of Saint Augustine of Hippo

St. Augustine of Hippo (Feast Day - June 15)

Commemoration of our Holy Father Augustine, Bishop of Hippo

By St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite

Verses

Aflame with eros for God, O Augustine,
You proved to be an all-radiant luminary, O Blessed one.

The divine and sacred Augustine, who was also called Aurelius, was born in Thagaste of Carthage (present Tunisia) in Numidia, and flourished during the reign of Emperor Theodosius the Great (379-395), as well as during the reigns of Arcadius (383-408) and Honorius (395-408) his sons, until he was an elder of eighty years.* Having studied the Greek language,** he was more eager to learn Latin. Wherefore he became experienced in philosophy, as well as rhetoric and dialectics, so that people at that time would commonly bring to their lips the following prayer: "Deliver us O God from the dialectics of Augustine," as Gennadios Scholarios testifies in his discourse "On the Procession of the Holy Spirit".

Holy Martyrs Castus and Aimilius of Carthage

Sts. Castus and Aimilius (Feast Day - May 22)

Saints Castus and Aimilius were praised by Saints Cyprian of Carthage and Augustine of Hippo. When they were imprisoned in Carthage in the year 250 during the persecution of Decius, Castus and Aimilius denied that they were Christians under torture and were released. When they were arrested a second time, they refused to abjure Christianity and were burned to death.

Miracles Through the Relics of Saint Stephen as Recorded by St. Augustine of Hippo

By St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo

When the bishop Projectus was bringing the relics of the most glorious martyr Stephen to the waters of Tibilis, a great concourse of people came to meet him at the shrine. There a blind woman entreated that she might be led to the bishop who was carrying the relics. He gave her the flowers he was carrying. She took them, applied them to her eyes, and immediately saw. Those who were present were astounded, while she, with every expression of joy, preceded them, pursuing her way without further need of a guide.

Lucillus bishop of Sinita, in the neighborhood of the colonial town of Hippo, was carrying in procession some relics of the same martyr, which had been deposited in the castle of Sinita. A fistula under which he had long labored, and which his private physician was watching an opportunity to cut, was suddenly cured by the mere carrying of that sacred fardel, — at least, afterwards there was no trace of it in his body.

St. Gregory Palamas on Augustine of Hippo and Pastoral Theology

By His Eminence Metropolitan Hierotheos

of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

1. Saint Gregory Palamas and Augustine

The work of Saint Gregory Palamas titled "One Hundred and Fifty Chapters" is a concise text, which in the way it is written recalls works of other Fathers of the Church, such as Saint Maximus the Confessor, Saint Symeon the New Theologian and others, and is regarded as a summary of the teachings of the Saint previously developed in his dialogues with Barlaam and Akindynos. In similar cases all writers at one time, after a few years, attempt to make a succinct summary of the teachings they previously delivered. However, this work has recently created concern.

Saint Paulinus the Merciful, Bishop of Nola (+ 431)

St. Paulinus of Nola (Feast Day - January 23)

Pontius Meropius Paulinus was born c. 352 at Bordeaux, in southwestern France. He was from a notable senatorial family with estates in the Aquitaine province of France, northern Spain, and southern Italy. He was educated in Bordeaux, where his teacher, the poet Ausonius, also became his friend. At some time during his boyhood he made a visit to the shrine of St Felix at Nola near Naples.

His normal career as a young member of the senatorial class did not last long. In 375, the Emperor Gratian succeeded his father Valentinian. Gratian made Paulinus suffect consul at Rome c. 377, and appointed him governor of the southern Italian province of Campania c. 380-1, but in 383 Gratian was assassinated at Lyon, France, and c. 384 Paulinus returned to Bordeaux. There he married a Spanish Christian woman named Therasia. Paulinus himself became a Christian and was baptized c. 389 by Bishop Delphinus of Bordeaux. Shortly afterwards, his wife and he moved to their estates in Spain. When they lost their first child, a boy, only eight days after birth, the couple decided to live a secluded religious life.

Saint Porphyrios on Saint Augustine of Hippo

St. Porphyrios (+ 1991) had great admiration for St. Augustine through a work attributed to him called the Kekragarion. In fact, this text is not a work of Augustine, but it is a medieval text of unknown origin or authorship inspired by the writings of Augustine, particularly his Confessions. This text was therefore ascribed to Augustine in the West (where it is known as the Meditations of Saint Augustine) and often confused with his actual Confessions by many Greeks, after it was first translated into Greek by Eugenios Voulgaris in the 18th century, and reworked and republished by St. Nektarios of Pentapolis. Because of this text, many Greeks since the 18th century have held St. Augustine in high esteem, as did St. Porphyrios from the conversation recorded below.

Saint Nektarios on Saint Augustine of Hippo

By John Sanidopoulos

Saint Nektarios knew well the theological errors of Saint Augustine, which he does not hesitate to mention in his writings, but he also greatly admired his love for God. He especially loved a book first translated into Greek by Eugenios Voulgaris (1716-1806) called the Kekragarion of the Divine and Holy Augustine (printed in Leipzig in 1804 and reprinted in Moscow in 1824), which is more popularly known in the West as the Meditations of Saint Augustine. Some have assumed that this work was a Greek translation of Augustine's Confessions, but both the Confessions and the City of God by Augustine were not translated into Greek until the 20th century (both by A. Dalezios).

John is the Voice, Jesus is the Word

By St. Augustine of Hippo

John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives for ever.

Take away the word, the meaning, and what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, there is only a meaningless sound. The voice without the word strikes the ear but does not build up the heart.

However, let us observe what happens when we first seek to build up our hearts. When I think about what I am going to say, the word or message is already in my heart. When I want to speak to you, I look for a way to share with your heart what is already in mine.

In my search for a way to let this message reach you, so that the word already in my heart may find place also in yours, I use my voice to speak to you. The sound of my voice brings the meaning of the word to you and then passes away. The word which the sound has brought to you is now in your heart, and yet it is still also in mine.

When the word has been conveyed to you, does not the sound seem to say: The word ought to grow, and I should diminish? The sound of the voice has made itself heard in the service of the word, and has gone away, as though it were saying: My joy is complete. Let us hold on to the word; we must not lose the word conceived inwardly in our hearts.

Do you need proof that the voice passes away but the divine Word remains? Where is John’s baptism today? It served its purpose, and it went away. Now it is Christ’s baptism that we celebrate. It is in Christ that we all believe; we hope for salvation in him. This is the message the voice cried out.

Because it is hard to distinguish word from voice, even John himself was thought to be the Christ. The voice was thought to be the word. But the voice acknowledged what it was, anxious not to give offence to the word. I am not the Christ, he said, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. And the question came: Who are you, then? He replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord. The voice of one crying in the wilderness is the voice of one breaking the silence. Prepare the way for the Lord, he says, as though he were saying: “I speak out in order to lead him into your hearts, but he does not choose to come where I lead him unless you prepare the way for him”.

What does prepare the way mean, if not “pray well”? What does prepare the way mean, if not “be humble in your thoughts”? We should take our lesson from John the Baptist. He is thought to be the Christ; he declares he is not what they think. He does not take advantage of their mistake to further his own glory.

If he had said, “I am the Christ”, you can imagine how readily he would have been believed, since they believed he was the Christ even before he spoke. But he did not say it; he acknowledged what he was. He pointed out clearly who he was; he humbled himself.

He saw where his salvation lay. He understood that he was a lamp, and his fear was that it might be blown out by the wind of pride.

Source: (Hom. 293, 3: PL 1328-1329)

Is Saint Augustine of Hippo A Father of the Church?

By Fr. John Romanides

Augustine of Hippo, the Source of the Humorous Errors of Barlaam

Although both the Papacy and the Protestants have theologically associated both Saints Ambrose and Jerome with Augustine, the latter has no theological relation with the former. Both Ambrose and Jerome belong to the tradition of the Roman Ecumenical Councils. However, Augustine is the unique source of the humorous errors of Barlaam the Calabrian who was accused of heresy by St. Gregory Palamas and was condemned as a heretic by the Councils of Constantinople New Rome held in 1341, 1347 and 1351 for his teaching that God reveals his will to humans by means of creatures which He brings into existence to be seen and heard and which He passes back into non-existence when the revelations have been accomplished.

Such revelations have been supposedly recorded in the Bible because they were preserved by the Biblical writers.

This nonsense cannot be termed a heresy since it is too stupid.

In any case these positions of Augustine have remained the backbone of both Protestantism and the Papacy.

Augustine describes these positions in great detail which he repeats over and over again in the earlier books of his DE TRINITATE.

Source

Is Augustine of Hippo A Father of the Church?

Orthodox Fathers of the Church are those who practice the specific Old and New Testament cure of this sickness of religion. Those who do not practice this cure, but on the contrary have introduced such practices as pagan mysticism, are not Fathers within this tradition.

Orthodox Theology is not "mystical," but "secret" (mystike). The reason for this name "Secret" is that the glory of God in the experience of glorification (theosis) has no similarity whatsoever with anything created. On the contrary the Augustinians imagine that they are being united with uncreated original ideas of God of which creatures are supposedly copies and which simply do not exist.

In this regard Augustine’s teaching on original sin, i.e. his understanding of Rom. 5:12, and therefore related questions like mysticism, were first condemned by the Council of Orange in 529 and also by the Ninth Roman Ecumenical Council of 1341 in the person of Barlaam the Calabrian. The Fathers of this latter Council were not aware that the heresies of Barlaam they were condemning stemmed from Augustine. Also in 1957 the faculty of the University of Athens approved the doctoral thesis on "Ancestral Sin" of John S. Romanides which had proven that the very presuppositions of Augustine’s theology based on analogia entis and analogia fidei has nothing in common with the Fathers of the Roman Ecumenical Councils. Augustine had not been in the Calendar of the Church of Greece. He was added during the period of the dictatorship of the colonels who uncanonicaly appointed Father Jerome Kotsonis as Archbishop of Athens (1968-1974) who was known for his non-patristic orientation. It was he who added Augustine to the Church Calendar of the Church of Greece.

Up until the 14th century only the last three chapters of Augustine’s De Trinitate had been translated into Greek. These chapters are completely Orthodox. He tells us himself that he wanted to rewrite his De Trinitate which the Archbishop of Carthage Aurlean wanted to examine, but finally corrected what he could. Having in mind these three Orthodox chapters of Augustine, the Roman Emperor and his bishops at the Council of Ferrara and Florence (1438-1442) became completely confused by the theological method being used there by the Frankish theologians and concluded that the Franks had tampered with the works of Augustine.

Gennadius Scholarius, the first Patriarch of Constantinople New Rome after the Turkish takeover in 1453, had been at the Council of Ferrara/Florence (1438-1442) as a layman. He had brought back to Constantinople manuscripts of Augustine and concluded the following about his positions on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity which are clearly not due to tampering. He takes Augustine to task as follows:

"To say that the Hypostasis of the Spirit comes or proceeds from the Son, that is to say that It holds its existence from him, not only as cause of the love for us, or of love in itself, but also as the love of the Father and the Son for each other, emerging from one to go to the other, the Father being the first giver and receiving in turn the Son, all this is insupportable grossness…Where does one find clearly exposed, in the sacred books, that the Holy Spirit is the reciprocal love of the Father and the Son, Who love each other, and Who derives his existence from the Two. In which sacred treasure has this sacred dogma been hidden? And how did it escape the notice of the other Fathers who, nevertheless have examined all with great care?"

Indeed some centuries earlier, just after the Norman conquest, the second Lombard Archbishop of Canterbury Anselm (1093-1109) was not happy with Augustine’s use of procession in his De Trinitate XV, 47, i.e. that the Holy Spirit proceeds principaliter from the Father or from the Father per Filium. (See Anselm’s own De fide Trinitate chapters 15, 16 and 24). This West Roman Orthodox Filioque, which upset Anselm so much, could not be added to the creed of 381 where "procession" there means hypostatic individuality and not the communion of divine essence as in Augustine’s Filioque just quoted.

Augustine is indeed Orthodox by intention by his willingness to be corrected. The real problem is that he does not theologize from the vantage point of personal theosis or glorification, but as one who speculates philosophically on the Bible with no real basis in the Patristic tradition. Furthermore, his whole theological method is based on happiness as the destiny of man instead of biblical glorification. His resulting method of analogia entis and analogia fidei is not accepted by any Orthodox Father of the Church. In any case no Orthodox can accept positions of Augustine on which the Father’s of Ecumenical Councils are in agreement "against" him. This website (www.romanity.org) is not concerned with whether Augustine is a saint or a Father of the Church. There is no doubt that he was Orthodox by intention and asked for correction. However, he can not be used in such a way that his opinions may be put on an equal footing with the Fathers of Ecumenical Councils.

Source

Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo

St. Augustine of Hippo (Feast Day - June 15)

 Verses

Aflame with eros for God, O Augustine,
You proved to be an all-radiant luminary, O Blessed one.

Augustine (also named Aurelius), one of the Holy Fathers of our Church, was born on November 13 in the year of salvation 354 in Thagaste (a town in Numidia, not far from Madaura and Hippo). His father was called Patricius, who was from a notable family but was not very well-to-do. Originally a pagan, he subsequently embraced Christianity and received Holy Baptism towards the end of his life. Augustine’s mother was called Monica. She was from a Christian family and was adorned with every virtue. From his earliest years, she endeavored with ardent zeal to inspire her son with the Divine teachings of Christianity. But she did not reckon herself to be a perfect mother, as she was wont to say, insofar as she would be unable to impart the life of Grace to him to whom she had given physical life. In truth, all of her holy longings were fulfilled according to her prayers, and the pious mother rejoicedfrom the bottom of her heart and glorified God when she saw her beloved son, Augustine, growing up in the fear of the Lord and giving good hopes for his future.

However, her joy did not last for long. For the young man, whom his parents sent to be educated, first in Madaura and later in Carthage, acquired a great deal of basic knowledge, thanks to his keenness of spirit and natural love of learning, but at the same time he went astray and began to lead an extremely dissolute life. He was seduced by bad company and wicked entertainments, and there no longer remained in his soul any of his mother’s salutary counsels and precepts. The Saint describes in his Confessions the dreadful pit of sins into which he fell and deplores the fact that he began to anger the Lord even from that age, which is customarily and inaccurately called the “age of innocence.” He laments the precious time that he wasted in empty studies, from which one could not profit in any other way than somehow to satisfy one day an insatiable desire for the goods and honors of this world, which, as he says, are poverty and ignominy, if we examine them closely.

Of all these secular studies, St. Augustine extols his reading of poetry, saying that he derived great benefit from this. For it not only perfected his diction, but also strengthened his intellectual abilities, and primarily that of inventiveness—an indispensable attribute of creative minds. He also said that from this study he acquired that wealth and height of reasoning and utterance which exalt our nature above itself, and facility in expressing himself eloquently and suitably as occasion demanded.

As if the moral debauchery that overcame his otherwise naturally noble and upright soul were not enough, he who was later to become a fervent champion of the true religion fell, in addition, into the heresy of the Manichæans, being attracted by their pretentious arguments. Although he did not find in the reveries of this monstrous heresy the spiritual respite for which his heart so passionately yearned, he nonetheless persisted in it for nine whole years, after which he had finally had his fill of it. However, not finding anywhere to lay his excited and restless spirit, he fell from Scylla into Charybdis and espoused the errors of the Skeptics, through which he came to entertain doubts about everything.

When she learned of this twofold shipwreck of Augustine’s morals and faith, his devout and virtuous mother was sorely distressed and entreated God day and night with torrents of tears to enlighten her son’s mind, darkened as it was by passions and delusion. Seeking some relief from the weight of her sorrow and hoping, at the same time, to remedy the evil into which Augustine had fallen, she hastened to a certain Bishop to confess her anguish to him and appealed to him for help in amending the ideas and behavior of her erring son. But this virtuous Bishop, after comforting her in a fatherly way over her misfortune, advised her to endure her suffering with perseverance and with hope to entrust the spiritual healing of her son to God. “The only thing that we can do for the young man, for the time being, is to entreat God for his salvation; so calm down and have confidence in Divine aid, for it is impossible for the Father of mercy and compassions to leave in perdition a son who is mourned with so many tears.”

And indeed, the response of this holy man came true, as if it were a Divine prophecy. After a short time, at any rate, Divine Providence brought the ailing Augustine to the hands of the only doctor who could cure his illness. The city of Milan, in need of a teacher of rhetoric, wrote to Symmachus, the Eparch of Rome, asking him to provide someone suitable for the post. He chose Augustine, who had already taught this art in Carthage with proficiency, and sent him to Milan. The Bishop of the Church of Milan at that time was the Divine Ambrose, and from their first encounter these two men felt such great empathy for each other that, although they were at odds in their way of thinking, they were bound together thenceforth in a very close friendship. Thanks to this friendship, and also delighted by Ambrose’s eloquence, Augustine frequently went to listen to his sermons.

But no matter how much pleasure he took in the oratory of the Orthodox Bishop St. Ambrose, and even though he was inwardly convinced by the Saint’s arguments, he persisted all the more doggedly in his erroneous ideas, obstinately seeking to find the truth outside the only sanctuary in which it resided (as he himself says in his Confessions), smitten by the reproaches of his conscience, held fast by habit, misled by fear, enslaved by passion, and inwardly moved by the beauty of virtue. At the same time, he was entranced by the seductions of vice, even as he unceasingly contended against the errors of his heresy and its religious rituals, seeking safety on dry land, like one shipwrecked, going from reef to reef, gashed by steep and rugged rocks, encountering and yet avoiding the light that ran behind him, grumbling about the weight of his fetters, all the while fending off the hand that sought to release him from these fetters.

Such are the vivid hues in which Augustine depicts the inner conflict of truth and error, of faith and blind obstinacy, which went on within his soul and held it in the grip of unending turmoil. But finally, overcome one day by intense emotions while talking with some friends, he left them and took refuge in a lonely grove in their garden, where he found the peace which was—alas!—missing from his heart. There, he fell to the ground, writhing and groaning from pain of soul, and, moistening the earth with bitter and abundant tears, implored God to have pity on him and show him mercy by coming to his aid.

While in this poignant situation he suddenly (as he himself relates) heard a sweet voice coming from a neighboring house and saying: “Take up and read.” Never had his soul been seized by this kind of emotion. Astonished and beside himself, thinking the matter over and unable to remember from where that voice had come, pondering and unable to understand what he had been recommended to read, he arose and, borne along by some invisible force, ran to find his friend Alypius in the place where he had left him. There, he saw a book lying on a table. He grabbed it in tumult of soul, opened it (this book contained the Epistles of St. Paul), and the first words on which his gaze fell were the following exhortations of the Apostle to the Romans: “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:13-14).

As soon as Augustine read this passage, a ray of light entered his soul and immediately dispelled the thick darkness that encompassed it, and he had no need to read any further. All the spirit of the Apostle, who, like him, had previously been a cruel persecutor of Jesus and who subsequently, enlightened by heavenly illumination, became a brilliant preacher of the Truth, entered through these few words into the soul of this new convert, diffusing therein faith and the heavenly peace that accompanies it. Finding all at once in the Faith of Christ everything for which he had been searching elsewhere, and embracing all of the dogmas of Christianity, he hastened to wash away the filth of his former sins through the laver of regeneration. Along with his illegitimate son, Adeodatus, whom he had fathered from a concubine, he was Baptized on the Vigil of Pascha by the Divine Ambrose. Augustine was thirty-two years old at the time.

Shortly thereafter, he returned to his native land, having resolved to settle there for good. The joy of his mother, who a short time before was mourning both her deceased husband and her lost son, was indescribable. But this virtuous woman did not survive long after the conversion of her son; she commended her spirit to the Lord, while blessing Him for vouchsafing her to see all of her prayers fulfilled. Augustine very vividly describes in a letter to his friend Alypius how bitterly he lamented the loss of such a good and loving mother. Among other things, he says that he felt that that twofold life, consisting of his mother’s life and his own, had been torn asunder.

Nevertheless, the prominence of Augustine’s family and his splendid education quickly made him known everywhere in his homeland, while the strictness of his life and his virtue and piety elicited universal respect and love for him. Hence, one day, while he was in Church after arriving in Hippo, the Bishop of that city, Valerius, said that he was in need of a suitable Priest for his Church, and all the people turned and looked at Augustine. They declared with acclamations that he was the worthiest man to fill this vacancy and almost resorted to force in order to persuade him to accept this office. Along with it, the Bishop also entrusted him with the burden of preaching the Divine Word, which, according to the custom that prevailed in Africa, belonged to the Bishop alone.

Although Augustine accepted this heavy burden with reluctance, after accepting it, he carried out all of his duties with most fervent and holy zeal. He would teach sometimes in Latin, which the people of Hippo understood, and at other times in Punic for the sake of foreigners who did not understand Latin, and his natural eloquence, inspiration, and skill endowed his sermons with such power that his words rarely fell on rocky ground, because his inspired oratory had softened these rocks into fertile earth. Very often, poor people, inhumanly oppressed by the rich, slaves maltreated by harsh and tyrannical masters, and sometimes even entire communities harassed by the powerful, waited for the holy orator on the road in order to ask him to speak on their behalf, in the certainty that a single word from him would suffice to improve their lot. As an example of the force of his words we cite, here, just the following account.

In Cæsarea, Mauritania, according to an age-old custom, all of the citizens went out of the city every year; they would divide into two rival camps and, with brothers against brothers and fathers against children, they would begin pelting each other with stones in a terrible and relentless fight. These maneuvers ended in the total defeat of one of the factions, with dreadful results, as one might expect: the mutual killing and wounding, without any cause, of citizens who were completely at peace with one another. Wishing to put an end to this inhuman and barbaric custom, Augustine went out, on the anniversary of the battle, onto the plain where the people were gathered together, ready for the fight, and spoke to the citizens. They all accepted his words with applause, thereby showing their admiration and paying due tribute to the eloquence of the Blessed Augustine.

But this display of flattery did not satisfy the holy orator; he returned to the topic of his speech, expressing himself with such emotion that they all began to feel something more than mere admiration for his words. They jostled and crowded around him so as to hear him better; for from his mouth there dripped the honey of love for mankind and religious devotion, which spoke vividly and fervently

at that moment as never before. The slings and stones fell from the hands of his audience and tears of emotion flowed from their eyes in streams. All of those fierce barbarians praised the speaker with sobs and fell down before him in veneration, and then, after embracing each other, they returned en masse to the city, glorifying and blessing God for granting them such a teacher and guide. Thenceforth, that antiquated custom was completely abolished. Very frequently did Augustine win such rhetorical victories.1

When the virtuous Valerius, the aforementioned Bishop of Hippo, saw these things, rather than envying the resounding triumphs of his assistant (as many in our day would certainly do), on the contrary, he rejoiced in a fatherly way and, fearing lest some other city should ask for Augustine to become Bishop before he did so, he decided to make him his fellow Bishop on the ground that, owing to his advanced age and infirmity, he could no longer cope with the burdens of his office. As before, Augustine persistently objected to accepting this new office, arguing that it was contrary to the Canons of the Church for a new Bishop to be assigned to a Church in which there was already another Bishop who was still alive;2 but again he was compelled to submit to the will of Divine Providence, and in 395 he was Consecrated Bishop of Hippo.

The many cares of this new office in no way blunted Augustine’s zeal for teaching and writing, but whenever he had time off from his Episcopal duties, he used it for composing homilies, religious and philosophical treatises, critiques, translations of religious books from other languages, and regular correspondence with intellectuals, Bishops, and even rulers and kings, to whom his reputation and writings had become well known. Although he was occupied with these intellectual benefactions, he devoted himself at the same time to works of charity with godly zeal, providing relief and consolation to the unfortunate and afflicted who had recourse to him, mitigating the lot of slaves, feeding and clothing the poor and exhausting his own resources for their sake, personally visiting those in need, and aiding as far as he was able those who sought his assistance.

After spending his life performing deeds so worthy of imitation and always offering himself as an example of every virtue for his flock, and having reached the seventy-sixth year of his life, in 430 he entrusted his blessed soul into the hands of God, unto Whom are due all glory, honor, and worship, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

1 Cf. De Doctrina Christiana, IV.53, Patrologia Latina, Vol. XXXIV, cols. 115-116.

2 This is, in fact, forbidden by the Eighth Canon of the Synod of Nicæa.

Source: Ὁ Μέγας Συναξαριστὴς τῆς ᾿Ορθοδόξου ᾿Εκκλησίας (Athens: Matthaios Langes, 1979), 5th ed., Vol. VI, pp. 206-214.

Apolytikion in the Third Tone

Thou didst prove to be a radiant vessel of the Divine Spirit and an expounder of the City of God, O Blessed Augustine; and thou didst minister piously unto the Savior, as a wise and God-inspired Hierarch. O Holy Father, entreat Christ God that He grant us great mercy.

Kontakion in Plagal of the Fourth Tone

Having acquired the radiance of wisdom, thou didst prove to be a Divine instrument of piety, O Hierarch Augustine, thou favorite of Christ. As an initiate of godly love, raise up on the wings of Divine longing us who cry unto thee: Rejoice, O God-inspired Father.

Sermon on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (St. Augustine of Hippo)

By St. Augustine of Hippo

Today the Holy Church piously remembers the sufferings of the Holy Glorious and All-Praised Apostles Peter and Paul.

St. Peter, the fervent follower of Jesus Christ, for the profound confession of His Divinity: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God," was deemed worthy by the Savior to hear in answer, "Blessed art thou, Simon ... I tell thee, that thou art Peter [Petrus], and on this stone [petra] I build My Church" (Mt.16:16-18). On "this stone" [petra], is on that which thou sayest: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God" it is on this thy confession I build My Church. Wherefore the "thou art Peter": it is from the "stone" [petra] that Peter [Petrus] is, and not from Peter [Petrus] that the "stone" [petra] is, just as the Christian is from Christ, and not Christ from the Christian. Do you want to know, from what sort of "rock" [petra] the Apostle Peter [Petrus] was named? Hear the Apostle Paul: "Brethren, I do not want ye to be ignorant," says the Apostle of Christ, "how all our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (1 Cor.10: 1-4). Here is the from whence the "Rock" is Peter.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the final days of His earthly life, in the days of His mission to the race of man, chose from among the disciples His twelve Apostles to preach the Word of God. Among them, the Apostle Peter for his fiery ardor was vouchsafed to occupy the first place (Mt.10:2) and to be as it were the representative person for all the Church. Therefore it is said to him, preferentially, after the confession: "I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in the heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth: shall be loosed in heaven" (Mt.16: 19). Therefore it was not one man, but rather the One Universal Church, that received these "keys" and the right "to bind and loosen." And that it was actually the Church that received this right, and not exclusively a single person, turn your attention to another place of the Scriptures, where the same Lord says to all His Apostles, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit" and further after this, "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever sins ye retain, are retained" (John 20: 22-23); or: "whatsoever ye bind upon the earth, shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosened in heaven" (Mt.18:18). Thus, it is the Church that binds, the Church that loosens; the Church, built upon the foundational cornerstone, Jesus Christ Himself (Eph 2:20), doth bind and loosen. Let both the binding and the loosening be feared: the loosening, in order not to fall under this again; the binding, in order not to remain forever in this condition. Therefore "Iniquities ensnare a man, and everyone is bound in the chains of his own sins," says Wisdom (Prov 5:22); and except for Holy Church nowhere is it possible to receive the loosening.

After His Resurrection the Lord entrusted the Apostle Peter to shepherd His spiritual flock not because, that among the disciples only Peter alone was pre-deserved to shepherd the flock of Christ, but Christ addresses Himself chiefly to Peter because, that Peter was first among the Apostles and as such the representative of the Church; besides which, having turned in this instance to Peter alone, as to the top Apostle, Christ by this confirms the unity of the Church. "Simon of John" -- says the Lord to Peter -- "lovest thou Me?" -- and the Apostle answered: "Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee"; and a second time it was thus asked, and a second time he thus answered; being asked a third time, seeing that as it were not believed, he was saddened. But how is it possible for him not to believe That One, Who knew his heart? And wherefore then Peter answered: "Lord, Thou knowest all; Thou knowest that I love Thee." "And sayeth Jesus to him" all three times "Feed My sheep" (John 20:15-17).

Besides this, the triple appealing of the Savior to Peter and the triple confession of Peter before the Lord had a particular beneficial purpose for the Apostle. That one, to whom was given "the keys of the kingdom" and the right "to bind and to loose," bound himself thrice by fear and cowardice (Mt.26:69-75), and the Lord thrice loosens him by His appeal and in turn by his confession of strong love. And to shepherd literally the flock of Christ was acquired by all the Apostles and their successors. "Take heed, therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock," the Apostle Paul urges church presbyters, "over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of the God, which He hath purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28); and the Apostle Peter to the elders: "Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint, but willingly: not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind: neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when is appeared the Prince of pastors, ye will receive unfading crowns of glory" (1 Pet. 5:2-4).

It is remarkable that Christ, having said to Peter: "Feed My sheep," did not say: "Feed thy sheep," but rather to feed, good servant, the sheep of the Lord. "Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" (1 Cor.1:13). "Feed My sheep". Wherefore "wolfish robbers, wolfish oppressors, deceitful teachers and mercenaries, not being concerned about the flock" (Mt.7:15; Acts 20:29; 2 Pet 2:1; John 10:12), having plundered a strange flock and making of the spoils as though it be of their own particular gain, they think that they feed their flock. Such are not good pastors, as pastors of the Lord. "The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11), entrusted to Him by the chief Shepherd Himself (1 Pet 5:4). And the Apostle Peter, true to his calling, gave his soul for the very flock of Christ, having sealed his apostleship by a martyr's death, is now glorified throughout all the world.

The Apostle Paul, formerly Saul, was changed from a robbing wolf into a meek lamb. Formerly he was an enemy of the Church, then is manifest as an Apostle. Formerly he stalked it, then preached it. Having received from the high priests the authority at large to throw all Christians in chains for execution, he was already on the way, he breathed out "threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" (Acts 9:1), he thirsted for blood, but "He that dwells in the Heavens shall laugh him to scorn" (Ps 2:4). When he, "having persecuted and vexed" in such manner "the Church of God" (1Cor.15:9; Acts 8:5), he came near Damascus, and the Lord from Heaven called to him: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" and I am here, and I am there, I am everywhere: here is My head; there is My body. There becomes nothing of a surprise in this; we ourselves are members of the Body of Christ. "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me; it is hard for thee to kick against the goad" (Acts 9:4-5). Saul, however, "trembling and frightened", cried out: "Who art Thou, Lord?" The Lord answered him, "I am Jesus Whom thou persecutest."

And Saul suddenly undergoes a change: "What wantest Thou me to do?" -- he cries out. And suddenly for him there is the Voice: "Arise, and go to the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do" (Acts 9:6). Here the Lord sends Ananias: "Arise and go into the street" to a man, "by the name of Saul," and baptize him, "for this one is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel" (Acts 9: 11, 15, 18). This vessel must be filled with My Grace. "Ananias, however, answered: Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints in Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Thy Name" (Acts 9:13-14). But the Lord urgently commands Ananias: "Search for and fetch him, for this vessel is chosen by Me: for I shall show him what great things he must suffer for My name's sake" (Acts 9:11, 15-16).

And actually the Lord did show the Apostle Paul what things he had to suffer for His Name. He instructed him the deeds; He did not stop at the chains, the fetters, the prisons and shipwrecks; He Himself felt for him in his sufferings, He Himself guided him towards this day. On a single day the memory of the sufferings of both these Apostles is celebrated, though they suffered on separate days, but by the spirit and the closeness of their suffering they constitute one. Peter went first, and Paul followed soon after him. Formerly called Saul, and then Paul, having transformed his pride into humility. His very name (Paulus), meaning "small, little, less," demonstrates this. What is the Apostle Paul after this? Ask him, and he himself gives answer to this: "I am," says he, "the least of the Apostles... but I have labored more abundantly than all of them: yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me" (1 Cor.15:9-10).

And so, brethren, celebrating now the memory of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, remembering their venerable sufferings, we esteem their true faith and holy life, we esteem the innocence of their sufferings and pure confession. Loving in them the sublime quality and imitating them by great exploits, "in which to be likened to them" (2 Thess 3: 5-9), and we shall attain to that eternal bliss which is prepared for all the saints. The path of our life before was more grievous, thornier, harder, but "we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12: 1), having passed by along it, made now for us easier, and lighter, and more readily passable. First there passed along it "the author and finisher of our faith," our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Heb 12: 2); His daring Apostles followed after Him; then the martyrs, children, women, virgins and a great multitude of witnesses. Who acted in them and helped them on this path? He Who said, "Without Me ye can do nothing" (John 15: 5).

From Sermon 295; PL 38.

The Legacy of John Cassian in East and West

St. John Cassian the Roman (Feast Day - February 29 (or 28))

Augustine's view that grace was irresistible and therefore indefectible (not subject to failure) went to the extreme of virtually denying man's free-will. The view of an absolute predestination, irrespective of foreseen character, and of the irresistible and indefectible character of grace, was put forward by Augustine initially in a letter to a Roman priest, Sixtus, in the year 418. Due to some controversy over his views, he expanded on this teaching in 426 in his work titled De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio (On Grace and Free Will) and then further clarified his position in another work titled De Correptione et Gratia (On Rebuke and Grace). These clarifications gave rise to further protests, which were especially taken up in southern Gaul. These fathers saw Augustine's teaching not only as novel, but also perilous. Augustine, by maintaining predestination and limiting the divine good will to a fixed number of predestined persons, not only cut to the root exertion, but encouraged negligence or even despair. They insisted that salvation should be available to all, because Jesus Christ died for all (2 Cor. 5:15). The fathers in Gaul contended that to explain away this scriptural assurance was to falsify the divine promise and to nullify human responsibility.

Those opposed to Augustine were accused of the error of Semi-Pelagianism, that is, that nature, unaided, could take the first step toward its recovery, by desiring to healed through faith in Christ. If it could not - if the very beginning of all good were strictly a divine act - exhortations seemed to them to be idle, and censure unjust, in regard to those on whom no such act had been wrought, and who, therefore, until it should be wrought, were helpless, and so far guiltless, in the matter. Of the party which took up this position, Cassian was the recognized head. Though he never directly entered into the controversy himself by authoring any polemical works on the subject, his "Conference XIII" with Abba Chaeremon, titled "On the Protection of God", countered the Augustinians; denial of the need of effort on man's part.

When Saint John Cassian made his protest against the rising tide of Augustinianism, he was only handing on the teaching which he had received from his eastern instructors. The west was never able subsequently to produce anything equal to the works of Cassian in the sphere of asceticism. In the east, his works were early translated into Greek and respected. Saint John Klimakos speaks of Saint John Cassian's work with praise in his Ladder of Divine Ascent, saying: "The great Cassian reasons in an unsurpassed and exalted manner." Saint Photios the Great, in his encyclopedic summary of thousands of books, Myriovivlon, testifies that Saint John Cassian's works are "something divine in nature." Saint Peter of Damascus (11th or 12th cent.) in the Philokalia also cites Saint John Cassian as an authority, and indeed he is the only Latin writer featured in the Philokalia. His edifying teachings can also be found in the spiritual classic Evergetinos.

Unlike Cassiodorus and others who used Saint Cassian's works with caution because of his anti-Augustinian teaching on grace, Saint Benedict of Nursia indicates no reserve whatever with regard to Saint Cassian's teaching. Saint Benedict considered himself to be simply continuing the tradition of the eastern fathers. For him the monastic authorities were The Conferences, The Institutes, and The Rule of Our Father Saint Basil (See The Rule of Saint Benedict, Ch. 73). Chapter 42 of his Rule prescribes after the evening meal or Vespers the reading of The Conferences or The Live of the Fathers. And all instructions on prayer in his Rule comes directly from Saint John Cassian's "Conference IX".

Later western monasticism, however, despite the prestige of Saint Benedict, lost contact with its eastern sources and participated in that spiritual decline that, apparently, began in the Western Church even before the formal Schism. Within a few centuries the face of western monasticism was totally obliterated. One can detect, in fact, even in the early period, indications of an important misunderstanding of eastern ascetic doctrine. From a Catholic perspective, the leaders of the monastic movement in fifth-century Gaul stand under the shadow of a "heresy", later to be called by them "Semi-Pelagianism". The westerners regard Saint John Cassian as the founder of this "heresy". They, furthermore, accuse many other fathers of Lerins for their subscription to it - Saints Vincent of Lerins, Hilary of Arles, and Faustus of Riez (Rhegium). In Orthodox eyes, it is rather these fathers who transmitted the Orthodox doctrine of divine grace and man's free will. It was Augustine who pursued an exaggeration of the doctrine o grace that threatened to negate the whole meaning of human effort and asceticism in the path of salvation.

Archbishop Philaret of Chernigov writes thus: "When the monks of Adumetum presented to Augustine that, according to his teaching, the obligation of asceticism and self-mortification was not required of them, Augustine felt the justice of the remark. He began more often to repeat that grace does not destroy freedom; but such an expression of his teaching changed essentially nothing in Augustine's theory, and his very last works were not in accord with his thought. Relying on his own experience of a difficult rebirth by means of grace, he was carried a long by a feeling of its further consequences....In defending the truth, he himself was not always faithful to the truth. Therefore it is not surprising that in the Eastern Church the teaching of Augustine on grace was not received with such a lively participation as it was in the west. The Ecumenical Synod of Ephesus (451) properly confirmed the condemnation of Pelagius' teaching, but concerning the teaching of Augustine it said not a word" [Historical Teaching of the Fathers of the Church (Saint Petersburg, 1882), v.3, pp. 33, 34].

I. M. Kontzevich further writes: "The west followed Augustine and has always regarded Saint Cassian and his followers as being in error. Does not this failure to understand a basic point of Orthodox ascetic doctrine already prefigure, as it were, the tragic loss in the west of traditional monasticism, of Orthodox spirituality, of Christianity itself? Because of this misunderstanding, also, Saint Cassian was never canonized in the Western Church. Locally, however, in Marseilles and a few other places in southern Gaul, he was venerated as a saint, his feast on the 23rd of July being one of the main feasts of the Abbey of Saint Victor. In the Middle Ages his relics were kept whole in the Abbey of Saint Victor in a marble tomb on four pillars, with a light burning before it day and night. Near Cannes, a hill once known as Arluc - where in antiquity there had been a temple of Venus and in Christian times a monastery for women - bears to this day the name of "Saint Cassian". It is a silent reminder of what the west once had and then lost, but about which it may again, by the grace of God, learn from the Orthodox Church of Christ" ["The Life of Saint John Cassian the Roman", The Orthodox Word 5, Number 2 (25) (March-April 1969) pp. 70, 71.]

For more on this topic, see my earlier post titled "John Cassian, Vincent of Lerins and Faustus of Riez Were Not Semi-Pelagians".


Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
The image of God, was faithfully preserved in you, O Father. For you took up the Cross and followed Christ. By Your actions you taught us to look beyond the flesh for it passes, rather to be concerned about the soul which is immortal. Wherefore, O Holy John Cassian, your soul rejoices with the angels.

Kontakion in the First Tone
Thy words breathe forth the sweetness of heavenly cassia, dispelling the foul odour of passion and pleasures; but with the sweet fragrance of thy discretion and temperance, they make known the spiritual ascents in the Spirit, leading men on high, O righteous Father John Cassian, divinely-sent guide of monks.