E00073: The Life of *Augustine (bishop of Hippo, ob. 430, S00077) is written by his former pupil Possidius, bishop of Calama: it presents him as an efficient polemicist, writer, and administrator of his diocese. Written in Latin in Calama (North Africa) in the 430s.

Possidius of Calama, Life of Augustine

The Life of Augustine consists of three parts. The first part (chapters 1-7) presents summarily and in chronological order his life prior to his election to the bishopric of Hippo. It is based on Augustine's Confessions, but shows his religious history in a very simplified way. Possidius claims for instance that Augustine was born to Christian parents, though the Confessions state clearly that his father was then, and long after, pagan. The second part (chapters 8-28) describes Augustine's way of life as a bishop, with a special attention to his polemics against Manicheans and Donatists and his administrative activity. The third part (chapters 29-31) tells of his last days and death. In this part Possidius quotes Augustine's long letter to a bishop Honoratus, discussing how clerics should behave during the Vandal invasion. Attached to, and strictly connected with the Vita, is the Indiculus (or Indiculum), an extensive index of Augustine's writings.

The Life of Augustine is almost entirely devoid of miracles. They are only briefly mentioned in the description of Augustine's last illness:

Chapter 29
Nec suum sane Dominus famulum fructu suae precis fraudavit: nam et sibi ipsi et eidem civitati, quod lacrimosis depoposcit precibus, in tempore inpetravit. Novi quoque eumdem et presbyterum et episcopum pro quibusdam energuminis patientibus ut oraret rogatum, eum que in oratione lacrimas fundentem Deum rogasse, et daemones ab hominibus recessisse. Item que ad aegrotantem et lecto vacantem quemdam cum suo aegroto venisse et rogavisse, ut eidem manum inponeret, quo sanus esse posset; respondisse, si aliquid in his posset, sibi hoc utique primitus praestitisset; et illum dixisse visitatum se fuisse sibi que per somnium dictum esse: "Vade ad Augustinum episcopum, ut eidem manum inponat, et salvus erit". Quod dum comperisset, facere non distulit, et illum infirmum continuo Dominus sanum ab eodem discedere fecit.

'In truth the Lord did not deprive His servant of the reward of his prayer. For what he asked with tears and prayers for himself and the city he obtained in due time. I know also that both while he was presbyter and bishop, when asked to pray for certain demoniacs, he entreated God in prayer with many tears and the demons departed from the men. In like manner when he was sick and confined to his bed there came a certain man with a sick relative and asked him to lay his hand upon him that he might be healed. But Augustine answered that if he had any power in such things he would surely have applied it to himself first of all; to which the stranger replied that he had had a vision and that in his dream these words had been addressed to him: "Go to the bishop Augustine that he may lay his hand upon him, and he shall be whole." Now when Augustine heard this he did not delay to do it and immediately God caused the sick man to depart from him healed.'

Text: Bastiaensen 1975. Translation: Weiskotten 1919. Summary: Robert Wiśniewski.