Death is a very natural occurrence in life, and everyone experiencesdeath differently, but yet in the same way. When Augustine was a young boy hisfather died, and he makes a small account of this in the Confessions. Later onin life, he loses a dear friend, and his loving mother. With time, he mentallymatures and death affects Augustine differently each time.
The death of hisfather was merely mentioned in the Confessions, while the death of Monica, hismother, was an elaborate detailed account of the time of her death. The death ofhis close friend, when Augustine was a child made him realize that life istemporal. Growing up, Augustine was not very close to his father. He confided inhis mother and leaned towards her Christian beliefs. Patricius, Augustine’sfather, was a pagan, but later became a catechumen. Patricius did not pressureAugustine about following his mother’s beliefs, and gave him the freedom to doso.
When Augustine was a child, he was subjected to the verbal abuse his fatherlaid on Monica. His father was also not faithful, and this left a lastingscaring impression on Augustine. Patricius never hit Monica, and she realizedthat other wives were being beaten, so she accepted the verbal abuse. Patriciuswas proud of his son’s accomplishments, and was admired by all for thesacrifices Patricius made for Augustine.
Patricius was considered”generous,” but then was also very “hot-tempered. ” In the Confessions,Augustine only makes note of his father’s death, and one reason may be thatAugustine was not happy with the way Patricius treated his loving andever-forgiving mother. Shortly after Patricius’ death, Augustine deals withdeath once more, with his childhood friend. In the Confessions, Augustine tellsof a close friend he had as a child growing up. They both went to schooltogether, and enjoyed each other’s company.
“. . . I had come to have a friendwho because of our shared interests was very close.
He was my age, and we sharedthe flowering of youth. As a boy he had grown up with me, and had gone to schooltogether and played with one another. . . ” Augustine and this unnamed friendknew each other for a short time, yet Augustine felt that he was losing someonehe had known all his life. “You [God] took the man from this life when ourfriendship had scarcely completed a year.
It had been sweet to me beyond allsweetnesses of life that I had experienced. ” The unnamed friend came down abad fever, and he was baptized while he was unconscious. Augustine felt as ifthis baptismal sacrament would have no affect on him and he would carry all thesins of his childhood. The unnamed friend did awake from his unconscious stateand Augustine and the friend had a minor conflict over a joke Augustine madeover the friend’s baptism. The friend did not find it a laughing matter, butthey did resolve the conflict.
Augustine left for a few days and while he wasgone, his friend passed away. Augustine explains that he was stricken with grieffrom the death of his friend, that made him want to leave his hometown. Everything made him think of his friend, and he was always looking for him. Augustine was constantly weeping and was a wreck. “My home became a torture tome; my father’s house a strange world of unhappiness; all that I shared withhim was transformed into a cruel torment. My eyes looked for him everywhere, andhe was not there.
I hated everything because they did not have him. . . I hadbecome to myself a vast problem. .
. ” Augustine explains that during this timeof sorrow, he did not look towards God for help, and was too wrapped up in themisery of the death of his friend. One thought he had was that he was angered bythe fact people in general do not realize that they are on this earth for ashort time, and they do not understand the temporality of life. “What madnessnot to understand how to love human beings with the awareness of humancondition!” With this sorrow, Augustine moves from Thagaste to Carthage. Thethird death Augustine had to confront in his life was that of his mother’s,which ends the biographical accounts in Augustine’s life. During days ofAugustine’s childhood, Monica felt as if he was the “son of tears.
” Heturned away from Catholicism, and became a Manichean. Monica greatly disapprovedof this and of his sexual desires. Augustine meets Ambrose later on in life,becomes a catechumen, and finally is baptized. Augustine meets with a man namedEvodius, and they decide that to service God, it would be best to go back toAfrica.
Before leaving, Augustine had an intimate discussion with his mother inOstia. Augustine and his mother were in a room for philosophical discussions,overlooking a garden. Together they sat by the window, deep in discussion. “There we talked together, she and I alone, in deep joy. .
. . And while we werethus talking of His Wisdom and panting for it, with all the effort of our heartwe did for one instant attain to touch it. . .
” During the conversation, Monicatells Augustine that she has no desire to live any longer and that her life hasbeen fulfilled, which was her desire for Augustine to become a Catholic. “Myson, as for myself, I now find no pleasure in this life. What I have still to dohere and why I am here, I do not know. My hope in this world is alreadyfulfilled. The one reason why I wanted to stay longer in this life was my desireto see you a Catholic Christian before I die.
My God has granted me this in away more than I had hoped. For I see you despising this world’s success tobecome his servant. What have I to do here?” Within five days, Monica wasdeathly ill with a fever. One day she was actually unconscious, regainedconsciousness another day, but was confused of her surroundings. Towards herending hours, she asked where she was.
Augustine’s brother told her and shereplied, “Bury your mother here. ” Augustine’s brother asked his mother ifshe would rather be buried in her “home country,” and at one point shewanted to be buried with her husband, but then changed her mind. When she died,Augustine tried hard to hold back his tears. “I closed her eyes and anoverwhelming grief welled into my heart and was about to flow forth in floods oftears. But at the same time under a powerful act of mental control my eyes heldback the flood and dried it up. The inward struggle put me into great agony.
“Augustine knew that his mother was not in a state of misery or was suffering, sohe felt it was not necessary to imply sorrow at the funeral. After Monica’sdeath, Augustine questioned why he felt so much grief. “It must have been thefresh wound caused by the break in the habit formed by our living together, avery affectionate and precious bond suddenly torn apart. I was glad indeed tohave her testimony when in that last sickness she lovingly responded to myattentions by calling me a devoted son. With much feeling in their love, sherecalled that she had never heard me speak a hard or bitter word to her. ” WhenMonica told Augustine that he had never spoken harsh words to her, Monica issaying that she is grateful that Augustine did not take his father’s traits asin the verbal abuse his mother received.
Later on Augustine did weep to God,crying openly about Monica’s death. While writing the Confessions, it may beviewed that Augustine was very careful describing the deaths of their parents. When Augustine was writing the Confessions, he was no longer a Manichee. IfAugustine wrote in detail of his father’s death, as he did with Monica’sdeath, it may have been viewed to the readers that Augustine still had views ofdualism, from Manicheism.
Augustine’s father was a pagan and his mother was atotal opposite, a Christian, causing an excellent example of a dualism. However,while both parents were alive, Monica had the most positive influence onAugustine. With his strong love for his mother, he did an excellent jobdocumenting her involvement in Augustine’s life, more so than the involvementof his father. Monica’s death in the Confessions, was the most detailedaccount of death in the book. He described the last two weeks in detail of herlife, and gave his intimate reactions to her death in the aftermath. With ahigher degree of maturation growth in his spirituality, Augustine did not feelthe need for weeping for his mother’s death, unlike the death of the unnamedfriend.
The death of the unnamed friend was a continuous grieving process thateven involved Augustine moving away from his hometown. The death of Monica didinvolve great suffering, yet he did not spend all his time weeping. Although inthe end, he did weep, this was what he needed to end his suffering. The death ofPatricius was not a detailed account in the Confessions, yet it is imaginablethat he did feel some sorrowful feelings towards his father’s death. Deathplayed a large role in Augustine’s Confessions, yet with Monica’s death,Augustine no longer writes in an autobiographical fashion, but more on hisphilosophical views of life.
BibliographyBrown, Peter. “Augustine of Hippo”. University of CaliforniaPress:Los Angeles. 1967.
