St. Augustine of Hippo (SAU 047; detail) Snowflake Pewter Christmas Ornament

It is said the squeaky wheel gets the grease. In St. Monica’s family, it was the eldest son Augustine (354-430). Despite his upbringing, Augustine ran with a wild crowd at the Roman equivalent of college, lived with a mistress for fifteen years and fathered a child Adeodatus out of wedlock, spent ten years as a Manichean auditor (an entry-level member of an ancient pagan Persian religion), and dabbled in NeoPlatonism (a pagan Greek philosophy). Finally (re-)converted to Christianity through the efforts and prayers of his mother and the friendship of St. Ambrose of Milan, Augustine was baptized in 386 and embarked on the path to holiness. He became a priest, lived the religious life in community later writing his Rule, and was appointed coadjutor bishop then full bishop of Hippo. Posthumously, he was canonized by popular acclaim and much later named Doctor of the Church. + In this vignette, St. Augustine wears the black monastic of his--the Augustinian--order. He is tonsured and bearded. His eyes are lifted toward heaven and his left hand raised in the Roman rhetorical gesture calling for silence. A heavenly light symbolic of grace shines down upon his face. His head is surrounded by a halo in dark reddish-pink with rays in a lighter shade of that colour. (For the image’s larger context, see further: SAU 047.) + Today, St. Augustine is regarded as an eloquent master of Latin prose, a deep thinker on philosophy and theology, and one of the most important Fathers of the Latin Church of the Patristic Period. St. Augustine is venerated as the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, and numerous cities and dioceses. He is especially invoked against sore eyes. + Feast: August 28 + Image Credit (SAU 047): Detail of an antique devotional print in chromolithography of SS. Monica and Augustine entitled Loquebantur soli valde dulciter [‘They spoke alone together sweetly’], originally published by the Socièté de St. Augustin, Bruges, Belgium, late 19th century, from the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera.