On August 28, the Church celebrates the memorial of Saint Augustine, son of Saint Monica, whose unceasing prayers obtained his conversion. This liturgical proximity is no coincidence: mother and son are united in grace, as in the history of salvation. After long wandering in error, notably within Manichaeism, Augustine finally found peace in the one Church of Jesus Christ.
But what strikes one is the clear and powerful manner in which the great Bishop of Hippo justifies his attachment to the Catholic Church. In a letter written around the year 397, he sets forth reasons that remain burning with relevance today.
Saint Augustine first emphasizes that the unanimity of peoples and nations binds him to the Church. Even in his time, catholicity was manifested by its universal spread. Today still, billions of the faithful bear witness to this catholicity, a sign that the Holy Spirit acts in history and gathers all nations around the one faith.
Miracles and Antiquity
The Bishop of Hippo also insists on the miracles that inaugurated the authority of the Church, those of Saint Peter, Saint Paul, and the Apostles, confirmed by the Acts. This miraculous fruitfulness is nourished by hope and love. He also recalls the antiquity of the Church, which in his time already had three centuries of history, and which now counts more than two thousand years of fidelity and witness.
Another essential argument put forward by Augustine is the succession of priests, directly connected to the Apostles. He explicitly mentions the authority entrusted by Christ to Saint Peter: "Feed my sheep." This succession, transmitted down to the bishops of Rome, guarantees the Church's fidelity to her Lord. In the year 397, Saint Augustine already affirmed that it is the Pope, the successor of Peter, who remains the visible principle of unity.
Finally, Saint Augustine observes that the name of Catholic belongs only to the true Church. Heretics, he writes, all desire to be called Catholic; but if a stranger asks where the Catholic Church meets, none of them dares to point to his own temple. This, then, is a striking sign: only the Body of Christ legitimately bears this name, and it is in Him that the truth and the fullness of the faith reside.
A Teaching Still Relevant Today
In rereading these lines from 397, we discover a timeless profession of faith. Saint Augustine did not follow the fashion or the opinion of the moment: he relied on solid motives—universality, miracles, antiquity, apostolic succession, and the name Catholic. These foundations are still today what keep the faithful in the true Church of Jesus Christ.
Through the prayers of Saint Monica, Augustine became the great Doctor of Grace and the defender of the unity of the Church. In our time of confusion, his testimony reminds us that, despite the multitude of sects or heresies, there exists only one Catholic Church, one, holy, universal, and apostolic.
The feast of Saint Augustine is therefore a call to remain firmly rooted in the Tradition of the Church. What he himself wrote more than sixteen centuries ago remains for us a light: we do not follow a passing opinion, but we remain faithful to the Bride of Christ, the Catholic Church, which alone has received from the Lord the promise never to fail.