08/28/2014
Doctor of Grace
Doctor of the Holy Church
August 28th: Memorial of St. Augustine of Hippo (13 November 354 – 28 August 430); Bishop and Doctor of the Church.
• Official title of the bishop of Hippo: "Doctor of grace." (Doctor gratiae.)
(In 1298 Boniface VIII names Sts. Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine and Gregory the Great, "Doctores Ecclesiae.")
• Letter From Jerome to Augustine (A.D. 418):
"To His Holy Lord and Most Blessed Father, Augustine, Jerome Sends Greeting.
"At all times I have esteemed your Blessedness with becoming reverence and honour, and have loved the Lord and Saviour dwelling in you. But now we add, if possible, something to that which has already reached a climax, and we heap up what was already full, so that we do not suffer a single hour to pass without the mention of your name, because you have, with the ardour of unshaken faith, stood your ground against opposing storms, and preferred, so far as this was in your power, to be delivered from S***m, though you should come forth alone, rather than linger behind with those who are doomed to perish. Your wisdom apprehends what I mean to say. Go on and prosper! You are renowned throughout the whole world; Catholics revere and look up to you as the restorer of the ancient faith, and — which is a token of yet more illustrious glory — all heretics abhor you. They persecute me also with equal hatred, seeking by imprecation to take away the life which they cannot reach with the sword. May the mercy of Christ the Lord preserve you in safety and mindful of me, my venerable lord and most blessed father." (Letter No. 195 among letters of St. Augustine)
• “The greatest teacher of the churches after the apostles.” (Maximus post apostolos ecclesiarum instructor.) ~Peter the Venerable: in Letter to St. Bernard, Letter No. 229, 13.
Artwork: Funeral of St. Augustine (scene 17, south wall), by Benozzo Gozzoli. Fresco, 1464-65; Apsidal chapel, Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano.
