FREE ESSAY ON ST. AUGUSTINE ON DEATH

ST. AUGUSTINE ON DEATH

Saint Augustine on Death
Death is a very natural occurrence in life, and everyone experiences death differently,
but yet in the same way. When Augustine was a young boy his father died, and he makes a
small account of this in the Confessions. Later on in life, he loses a dear friend, and
his loving mother. With time, he mentally matures and death affects Augustine differently
each time. The death of his father was merely mentioned in the Confessions, while the
death of Monica, his mother, was an elaborate detailed account of the time of her death.
The death of his close friend, when Augustine was a child made him realize that life is
temporal.
Growing up, Augustine was not very close to his father. He confided in his mother and
leaned towards her Christian beliefs. Patricius, Augustine's father, was a pagan, but
later became a catechumen. Patricius did not pressure Augustine about following his
mother's beliefs, and gave him the freedom to do so. When Augustine was a child, he was
subjected to the verbal abuse his father laid on Monica. His father was also not
faithful, and this left a lasting scaring impression on Augustine. Patricius never hit
Monica, and she realized that other wives were being beaten, so she accepted the verbal
abuse. Patricius was proud of his son's accomplishments, and was admired by all for the
sacrifices 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 that Augustine was not happy with the way Patricius
treated his loving and ever-forgiving mother. Shortly after Patricius' death, Augustine
deals with death once more, with his childhood friend.
In the Confessions, Augustine tells of a close friend he had as a child growing up. They
both went to school together, and enjoyed each other's company. 
"...I had come to have a friend who because of our shared interests was very close. He
was my age, and we shared the flowering of youth. As a boy he had grown up with me, and
had gone to school together and played with one another..."
Augustine and this unnamed friend knew each other for a short time, yet Augustine felt
that he was losing someone he had known all his life. 
"You [God] took the man from this life when our friendship had scarcely completed a year.
It had been sweet to me beyond all sweetnesses of life that I had experienced."
The unnamed friend came down a bad fever, and he was baptized while he was unconscious.
Augustine felt as if this baptismal sacrament would have no affect on him and he would
carry all the sins of his childhood. The unnamed friend did awake from his unconscious
state and Augustine and the friend had a minor conflict over a joke Augustine made over
the friend's baptism. The friend did not find it a laughing matter, but they did resolve
the conflict. Augustine left for a few days and while he was gone, his friend passed
away.
Augustine explains that he was stricken with grief from 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 to me; my father's house a strange world of unhappiness; all
that I shared with him was transformed into a cruel torment. My eyes looked for him
everywhere, and he was not there. I hated everything because they did not have him...I
had become to myself a vast problem..."
Augustine explains that during this time of sorrow, he did not look towards God for help,
and was too wrapped up in the misery of the death of his friend. One thought he had was
that he was angered by the fact people in general do not realize that they are on this
earth for a short time, and they do not understand the temporality of life. "What madness
not to understand how to love human beings with the awareness of human condition!" With
this sorrow, Augustine moves from Thagaste to Carthage. The third 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 of Augustine's childhood, Monica felt as if he was the "son of tears." He
turned away from Catholicism, and became a Manichean. Monica greatly disapproved of 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 named Evodius, and they
decide that to service God, it would be best to go back to Africa. Before leaving,
Augustine had an intimate discussion with his mother in Ostia. 
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 were thus
talking of His Wisdom and panting for it, with all the effort of our heart we did for one
instant attain to touch it..." 
During the conversation, Monica tells Augustine that she has no desire to live any longer
and that her life has been fulfilled, which was her desire for Augustine to become a
Catholic. 
"My son, as for myself, I now find no pleasure in this life. What I have still to do here
and why I am here, I do not know. My hope in this world is already fulfilled. The one
reason why I wanted to stay longer in this life was my desire to see you a Catholic
Christian before I die. My God has granted me this in a way more than I had hoped. For I
see you despising this world's success to become his servant. What have I to do here?"
Within five days, Monica was deathly ill with a fever. One day she was actually
unconscious, regained consciousness another day, but was confused of her surroundings.
Towards her ending hours, she asked where she was. Augustine's brother told her and she
replied, "Bury your mother here." Augustine's brother asked his mother if she would
rather be buried in her "home country," and at one point she wanted 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 an overwhelming grief welled into my heart and was about to flow
forth in floods of tears. But at the same time under a powerful act of mental control my
eyes held back 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, so he felt
it was not necessary to imply sorrow at the funeral.
After Monica's death, Augustine questioned why he felt so much grief. 
"It must have been the fresh wound caused by the break in the habit formed by our living
together, a very affectionate and precious bond suddenly torn apart. I was glad indeed to
have her testimony when in that last sickness she lovingly responded to my attentions by
calling me a devoted son. With much feeling in their love, she recalled that she had
never heard me speak a hard or bitter word to her." 
When Monica told Augustine that he had never spoken harsh words to her, Monica is saying
that she is grateful that Augustine did not take his father's traits as in 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 be viewed that Augustine was very careful
describing the deaths of their parents. When Augustine was writing the Confessions, he
was no longer a Manichee. If Augustine wrote in detail of his father's death, as he did
with Monica's death, it may have been viewed to the readers that Augustine still had
views of dualism, from Manicheism. Augustine's father was a pagan and his mother was a
total opposite, a Christian, causing an excellent example of a dualism. However, while
both parents were alive, Monica had the most positive influence on Augustine. With his
strong love for his mother, he did an excellent job documenting her involvement in
Augustine's life, more so than the involvement of his father.
Monica's death in the Confessions, was the most detailed account of death in the book. He
described the last two weeks in detail of her life, and gave his intimate reactions to
her death in the aftermath. With a higher degree of maturation growth in his
spirituality, Augustine did not feel the need for weeping for his mother's death, unlike
the death of the unnamed friend. The death of the unnamed friend was a continuous
grieving process that even involved Augustine moving away from his hometown. The death of
Monica did involve great suffering, yet he did not spend all his time weeping. Although
in the end, he did weep, this was what he needed to end his suffering. The death of
Patricius was not a detailed account in the Confessions, yet it is imaginable that he did
feel some sorrowful feelings towards his father's death. Death played a large role in
Augustine's Confessions, yet with Monica's death, Augustine no longer writes in an
autobiographical fashion, but more on his philosophical views of life.
Bibliography
Brown, Peter. Augustine of Hippo. University of California Press:Los Angeles. 1967.