FEATURE
A story of God’s grace
Bishop Michael Campbell’s address to the LMS Annual General Meeting on 20 July 2019. Photos by John Aron
Bishop Michael Campbell addresses the Latin Mass Society AGM
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aint Augustine of Hippo, North Africa, ranks as one of the towering figures in the history of the Church, and a most distinguished member of that group known as the Church Fathers. He was born in 354 in the city of Tagaste, modern day Algeria. His parents were Patricius and Monica, the latter of Berber stock. North Africa in his day formed part of the fragmenting and declining Roman Empire. In fact, the sack and fall of Rome in 410 would be the occasion for one of Augustine’s most celebrated literary works, City of God. Augustine’s father appears to have been a lukewarm Catholic, while his mother, Monica, was a devout believer and deeply attached to her faith. As a child, Augustine was enrolled as a catechumen, but was not baptized. It
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would be many years before that came to pass. He was a gifted young man and eventually went to university in Carthage, a city he would later describe as ‘seething cauldron on vice.’ Latin literature and Roman civilisation would have formed the backbone of the curriculum, with a particular emphasis on rhetoric and the art of polished speaking. The works of the orator Cicero and the poet Virgil remained a life-long love for him. It is worth noting that a lost work of Cicero, the Hortensius, set the young Augustine on fire with a love of philosophy and of truth. While a student at Carthage and to his mother’s horror, Augustine fell in with a sect we know as the Manichees, and it would be ten years before he succeeded in extricating himself from their strange
doctrines and way of thinking. Duality was at the heart of their system, two key and equal principles, one of good, the other of evil, and both in constant conflict. At this time Augustine had a mistress and would father a son by her, Adeodatus. As he relates in his Confessions, his mother, Monica, never ceased to storm heaven on behalf of her son, always convinced that he would one day return to the faith of his childhood. Augustine eventually moved on from Carthage and crossed the Mediterranean to Rome, deceiving his mother, and leaving her desolate in tears on the quayside. He lodged with the Manichees in Rome but was increasingly disillusioned with their teaching in his quest for the truth. He even despaired of finding any truth that he could believe
WINTER 2019
