Congratulations! You have officially survived the first full weekend without Lent Madness voting -- an activity that continues throughout the weekdays of Lent. Your reward? The long-anticipated Battle of the Augustines! Will it be Hippo or Canterbury? The choice, dear friends, is yours.
For those who didn't receive news of Friday's results (and you can always go back to the original post or check the Bracket tab), Raymond Nonnatus ripped apart John of Nepomuk 83% to 17%.
We also have good news to report on ReviewGate, the controversy that recently touched the inner sanctum of Lent Madness. Last Friday we shared the news that someone had (shockingly!) given Lent Madness a 2-out-of-5 rating on our Facebook page. In fact, over the years we had garnered a 4.8 star rating. That might seem high but when you consider yourselves "Supreme" that's just not good enough. Thanks to the hundreds of Lent Madness fans who shared our outrage and posted their own reviews, we are up to a full 5-out-of-5 star rating with nearly 1,000 reviews. In other words, all is now right with the Lenten world.
Augustine of Hippo
Fourth-century Bishop Augustine of Hippo is, along with Paul of Tarsus, one of the most influential theologians of the Western Church. His writings on creation, the sacraments, the Church, the Trinity, and grace are considered seminal works of Western theology. While Augustine’s work is often described as academic—and occasionally bordering on pedantic—Augustine also exhibited vulnerability, as is memorably seen in his Confessions.
From a young age, Augustine avoided saintly living. While his mother Monnica raised him as a Christian, he was never baptized. He abandoned Christianity in his youth, studying rhetoric, philosophy, and Manichaeism, a chief religious rival to Christianity in North Africa. Augustine lived a free and unconstrained life for fifteen years living with a woman and fathering a child outside the bonds of marriage. He eventually abandoned his relationship, moving to Rome to start a school and finally to Milan to serve the court as a professor of rhetoric. Augustine fell under the influence of Ambrose, Milan’s bishop, and he reached his own religious crisis, which he describes at length in his Confessions. In 387, Ambrose baptized Augustine on Easter Eve, and Augustine found the rest in God for which his heart had so longed. He returned to North Africa and lived a quasi-monastic life as a layperson until 391 when—against his own will—he was seized by the community around him and ordained as a priest. Within four years, he had been ordained to the episcopate, and he served as Bishop of Hippo until his death in 430.
Augustine’s breadth of life experience, his profound intellect, and his prayerful demeanor are evident in his writing. Augustine countered the Manichaeans’ insistence on the existence of a force in eternal opposition to God, affirming instead the goodness of creation. He defended the doctrine of the Trinity, arguing for the rationality of the three-in-one and one-in-three nature of God. Augustine asserted that the church is holy because of the calling its members receive from God. Above all, Augustine’s theology is rooted in a deep yearning and desire for God and a profound sense of the importance of the community of the Church and of all its members.
Collect for Augustine of Hippo
Lord God, the light of the minds that know you, the life of the souls that love you, and the strength of the hearts that serve you: Help us, following the example of your servant Augustine of Hippo, so to know you that we may truly love you, and so to love you that we may fully serve you, whom to serve is perfect freedom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Augustine of Canterbury
Details of Augustine’s early life are sketchy. He was born in sixth-century Rome, most likely into an aristocratic family. He is thought to have been a student of Felix, Bishop of Messana, who was a contemporary and friend of Pope Gregory the Great.
Often called the Apostle to the English, Augustine began his journey to Canterbury in 596 CE, after Pope Gregory called him to lead a group of forty (mostly monks) to the kingdom of Kent in Britannia. Travel was treacherous, and the group returned to Rome after reaching Gaul, where tales of Britannia frightened them. Pope Gregory was not sympathetic and promptly sent them back on their way, where they landed on the Isle of Thanet in 597.
The Kentish people met the monks’ ministry with interest and hospitality. Though Christianity had been previously established in southeastern Britain, many Christians had gone into hiding following the Saxon conquest. Augustine’s arrival allowed Christians to be more open about their faith. King Æthelberht of Kent was married to Queen Bertha—a Christian—and Æthelberht responded kindly toward Augustine and his fellow monks, allowing them to use an old church from the Roman occupation located in the village of Canterbury. From this modest beginning, the parish church and the town were transformed into the center of Augustine’s work and ministry.
Pope Gregory suggested—and Augustine complied—that Augustine purify rather than destroy the area’s pagan temples and practices. Working with local traditions, Augustine and his brothers spread Christianity while retaining some of the cultural traditions of the Kentish people. Augustine evangelized widely, establishing churches and schools, celebrating the sacraments, and baptizing converts. Augustine is reported to have baptized thousands of people on Christmas Day 597.
Augustine was seated as the first Archbishop of Canterbury in 597, forming the first link in an unbroken, unwavering succession of Archbishops of Canterbury. Augustine died on May 26, around 604, in Canterbury, where he is buried. His feast is celebrated on May 26.
Collect for Augustine of Canterbury
O Lord our God, by your Son Jesus Christ you called your apostles and sent them forth to preach the Gospel to the nations: We bless your holy Name for your servant Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose labors in propagating your Church among the English people we commemorate today; and we pray that all whom you call and send may do your will, and bide your time, and see your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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321 comments on “Augustine of Hippo vs. Augustine of Canterbury”
Correction: I meant Monnica which is NOT how to spell St. Monica, mother of St Augustine of Hippo's name...
Still sticking with the underdogs in Augustine of Hippo. Plus the names of Saintsz to whom I'm related. Hippos' story is unique.
Definitely Christian but with heavy pagan leanings here - Canterbury it is!
On a lighter note from much of what has been written here: in the wonderful spoof history "1066 and all that" the authors translate the famous "quote" "Non angli sed angeli" (which is reputed to have been said by Pope Gregory on seeing a group of fair-haired British slaves, inspiring Augustine's mission to Kent,) as "Not angels but Anglicans"
ROTFL
I went with the first archbishop of Canterbury because he converted the Brits. God knows what things might have been like if he had not. Also pretty thrilled about him leaving traditions in place. That's very important.
Hippo because the Trinity.
2 important figures in our faith, but found it hard to vote against the symbolic Anglican!
After reading selections of the Confessions in Latin during college, I'm glad to be reminded that there's another Augustine to whom I can relate! (Sorry, but A of Hippo's Confessions struck me as very whiny and self-loathing!) A of Canterbury converted my ancestors, preserved the ancient buildings that I love to visit, and even utilized an old Roman basilica to build his parish around. I got to sing in Canterbury Cathedral with my college choir, too, so Canterbury it is!
I voted for Augustine of Hippo simply because I have been teaching a term at the new St. Augustine Theological School of the Anglican Diocese of Botswana since the school's founding in 2012, and that's Augustine of Hippo. School loyalty prevails!
My favorite quote from Augustine: "But what is it that I love in loving thee?
Not physical beauty, nor the splendor of time, nor the radiance of the light--so pleasant to our eyes--nor the sweet melodies of the various kinds of songs, nor the fragrant smell of flowers and ointments and spices; not manna and honey, not the limbs embraced in physical love--it is not these I love when I love my God. Yet it is true that I love a certain kind of light and sound and fragrance and food and embrace in loving my God, who is the light and sound and fragrance and food and embracement of my inner man--where that light shines into my soul which no place can contain, where time does not snatch away the lovely sound, where no breeze disperses the sweet fragrance, where no eating diminishes the food there provided, and where there is an embrace that no satiety comes to sunder. This is what I love when I love my God."
Thanks to the others who posted quotes. As an African American born in Africa of course I'm going with Hippo. I wish the picture were better, he doesn't look very African. I think it's important to remember the role of the African church in early Christianity. Please don't vote based on the pictures!
I have all sorts of sympathy for Augustine of Canterbury because he was a missionary, carried out Gregory's policy of inculturation, and is less well known than his predecessor at Hippo. I am inclined a bit against Augustine because certain aspects of the North African's theology (such as original sin and its connection to sexual intercourse) are problematic. But objectively this is no contest. With his theology of the church, the will, sacraments, and the city of God, the bishop of Hippo is one of the the four or five most influential people in the history of the Christian faith. How can you not vote for him?
Augustine of Hippo got my vote. He had many life experiences yet found peace in his faith.
I wish there were LIKEs for the comments as well as REPLYs.
Hippo is so like Paul. So passionate, so brilliant, and so flawed; and the flaws in his writings take on a life of their own and have pernicious aftereffects that make us almost forget the essential and foundational brilliance of their thought. Being somewhat jaded and fed up at the moment with ambiguous brilliance, and hungry for holy simplicity, I voted for Canterbury fully expecting that Hippo would be leading. But I see that my mood is widely shared.
Canterbury stood on the shoulders of Hippo. Without a strong foundation, loving evangelizing is stymied by discussions seeking clarity. I vote for Augustine of Hippo who was more on the bleeding edge of establishing clarity for others the future.
There are many reasons I voted for Augustine of Canterbury - not least having visited and received a warm welcome at the little church where he baptized Ethelbert. But, I suppose the primary reason is that my cats - "Gus" and "Bert" wouldn't have allowed me to sleep at all tonight if I'd voted for the other Augustine.
Went with Canterbury, because Augustine of Hippo comes across as a hippo-crit.
Oh, Margaret, that's a good one!
I love that Augustine of Canterbury took what was worthy in the religion & culture into which the Church was moving & "baptized" it w/ Christian meaning instead of destroying it. And the guy from Hippo was WAY too into original sin. But he had a great mama! I had to go w/ Canterbury. Glad to see that Oliver did too!
In spite of all the good works of Augustine of Hippo, I just couldn't vote for one who abandoned the mother of his child and the child.
I voted for Augustine of Hippo because he wrote about the Fall as a Fall Up (what came to be know as felix culpa), for without sin, there would be no redemption. Thanks be to God for the birth, life, death and resurrection of your Son, our savoir Jesus Christ
One of the highlights of my Episcopal school education was memorizing the prologue to Canterbury Tales for English class junior year. Twenty eight years later, I can still recite most of it, so Augustine of Canterbury gets my vote today.
Ooh, now here come the heavyweights! I voted A of H because the collect given to him spoke more to me, today, than that of A of C. Even if the latter did evangelise my homeland all those centuries ago.
I was ordained a priest on 26 May, the Feast of Saint Augustine of Canterbury and have had the joy of making a pilgrimage to the Cathedral.
I did, too, Oliver, plus I liked the fact that he didn't steamroll the people into believing, but instead also honored some of their local traditions. Guess I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Canterbury.
Hippo just looks, pissy.
Mea Culpa.
So funny!!!!!
Voted for Augustine of Hippo because his mother, Monnica, is the saint of our Daughters of the King chapter, St. Monnica's. Pray, serve, and share God's love. #shepersisted
Augustine of Hippo had all the struggles and frailties of a real human being and yet arose to overcome so much and become one of the more pronounced early theological thinkers.
Augustine of Hippo abandoned a wife and child? I understand that saints can be ruthless, but this seems more selfish than saintly.
As an Episcopalian, I feel I have no other choice that to vote for the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
At first I was going with A of C because A of H looks so grumpy. After reading I thought maybe I preferred the kind evangelization of the Angles. Then I changed my mind again because A of H saw the goodness of creation. May change again! Oh woe, a tough choice!
I'd vote for Augustine of Canterbury no matter whom he was up against. I've always loved Pope Gregory's instructions to missionaries - "Don't march in there telling people everything they know is wrong - work WITH what people already know and love!" For that reason I especially cherish all the pagan aspects of Xmas celebrations, because they represent a deep understanding of human nature and respect for multiple cultures. So I absolutely must vote for one of the people who carried out Gregory's wise words.