Feast of St. Augustine

Today is the Feast of St. Augustine and I need to mention this before continuing with the life of Mother Hardey. Augustine owed his conversion to the prayer of his mother, Monica; we celebrated her feast yesterday as she never gave up praying for him.

Augustine was born in North Africa in 354. He was a brilliant teacher and scholar, but followed Mani; later he would be able to defend the Christian faith against Manichaeism and other heresies. While teaching in Carthage, his mistress bore a son he named Adeotus. At the age of twenty-nine, Augustine relocated to Italy to teach in Rome and then in Milan. He heard St. Ambrose preach in Milan and finally was, through a special grace, converted and baptized in 387. His mother died later that year and his son just two years later. Augustine was ordained and became biship of Hippo. He founded the Augustinian Order because he wanted his priests to live together and support one another by their friendship. He tells his life story in his Confessions, one of the great spiritual classics.