Confessions of St. Augustine

In The Confessions of St. Augustine, a young boy whose civil servant parents of low status find enough money to send their son to be educated in classical Roman culture as a means to rise in society. The boy gives into the pressures of his friends and his own curiosity in adolescence, only to convert to a moral lifestyle as a grown man. St. Augustine's conversion from Roman pleasure-seeking to the ethical truth-seeking ways of Christianity was quite a transformation. Augustine's mother, among other women, was not a barrier, but, on the contrary, aided Augustine in his pursuit of holiness.

St. Augustine lived in classical Roman society that basically contained three kinds of people as revealed to the readers by Augustine's descriptions. There were Pagans, who gave into hedonistic activities and did not worship one all-powerful God. Catechumens were people who were in the process of conversion that were being taught the principles of the Church by catechists. Lastly, Christians were believers in Jesus Christ who followed ethical principles set forth by the word of Christ while going about everyday lives. Christianity was alluring to women and appealed to the poor, both of which were characteristics of Augustine's mother, Monica.

Augustine's mother was perhaps the single most significant person in leading him to convert to Christianity. She not only encouraged him throughout his entire life, but also offered herself as a humble example to follow. Augustine said, "While I was still a boy, then I had heard of an eternal life promised us through the humility of our Lord God stooping to our pride. My mother had great hope in you, O God, and as soon as I came our of her womb I was marked with the sign of the Lord's cross and was salted with His salt." (13). Monica prayed for her son despite his sinful ways. "My mother knew nothing of my illness, yet, though she was far away, she continued to pray for me." (91). Also, Augustine's mother appealed to high church officials when she felt like her preaching was not enough. As Augustine said, "My mother asked this bishop to be so kind as to discuss things with me, to expose my mistakes, to unteach me what was bad, and to teach me what was good..." (54).

Augustine's mother was no doubt a guiding light in his path to Christ, but there were reasons that he was uneager to convert immediately. Women were not a barrier to his pursuit of holiness at all, it seems. In fact, St. Augustine's own peers pressured him into sinful acts and tempted his curiosity of selfish, pleasure-seeking deeds. For example, his friends forced him to go along with him to witness violent exploits. Augustine showed opposition to these peers in saying, "but he happened to meet some of his friends and fellow pupils on their way back from dinner, and they, in spite of his protests and his vigorous resistance, used a friendly kind of violence and forced him to go along with the to the amphitheater on a day when one of these cruel and bloody shows was being presented." (111). Another example of the fact that Augustine was pressured into curiosity and testing how he felt about sinning was when he said, "And yet I would not have done it by myself; for I can remember what I was like then; no, I would certainly never have done it by myself. Then in the act of theft I must have loved something else too, namely the company of those with whom I committed it. And so I did not love nothing except the theft itself." (36). He also said on pg. 88 that he wanted to go to Rome "not only because of the higher earnings and the greater reputation which my friends, who persuaded me to go, thought I would get there, though these reasons did have some weight with me at that time; in fact, however, my main and almost my only reason for going was that I heard that in Rome the young men followed their studies in a more orderly manner and were more controlled by a stricter discipline." This showed how Augustine wanted to begin to seek truth and good. Also, he said, "They commit a number of disorderly acts which show incredible stupidity and which ought to be punished by law." (88). Lastly, in the pear story, Augustine didn't steal the fruit because he was hungry. In fact, Augustine stole the fruit for seemingly no reason at all other than the fact that he just wanted to steal. This shows utter sinfulness. However, the fact that Augustine, who wrote