Augustine the Reluctant Shepherd

A loyal protégé and friend of St. Augustine, one Possidius of Calama, offered an illuminating eulogy of the pastoral work of the famous Bishop of Hippo. At the end of his Vita Augustini (“Life of Augustine”), Possidius writes, “Those who read what he has written on divine subjects profit a great deal; however, I think that people who were able to hear him and see him speak in church found an even greater profit, especially those who knew his life among men…his life matches what we read about in the book of James which says: ‘Speak this way and do it.’”[1] How many preachers can say the same?! Possidius’s Vita details the whole life of Augustine, rather than just the first 30 years or so Augustine covers in his own words in his Confessions. Possidius relates that the words on the page from Augustine’s pen cannot capture what it was like to be in the room while the great man spoke before his well-loved congregation. Even more, Possidius knew his monumental works, but none of that compared to the example Augustine offered through his actions. Possidius’s summary confirms that Augustine lived by his own dictum from Teaching Christianity, “Let him so conduct himself that he not only earns a reward for himself, but also gives an example to others, and so his manner of life can itself be a kind of eloquent sermon.”[2]

Possidius’s summary confirms that Augustine lived by his own dictum from Teaching Christianity, “Let him so conduct himself that he not only earns a reward for himself, but also gives an example to others, and so his manner of life… Share on XSt. Augustine rose to prominence in North Africa in the 4th and 5th centuries and faithfully led a church for nearly 40 years without any disqualifying personal scandal. What sets Augustine apart from many contemporary pastors with large audiences who seem to be wracked by scandal? Two things stand out from his time as a shepherd for his flock: the first was his reluctance to take on the position in the first place, an example of his humility. The second is how he relied on a network of peers to confide in and confess to throughout his time as a pastor. We will look at both of these in turn, gathering what remains from Augustine’s sermons, letters, and the Vita Augustini.

From Renowned Orator to Small Town Pastor

Before we dig into these two aspects of Augustine’s character, it is important to have a brief sketch of his background. Most people, if they know about Augustine or have read anything from him, have read his justly famous Confessions or City of God, two of the great theological and philosophical works of the western world. These works, though, came after a highly renowned public career and a massive change in outlook. Looking further back, Augustine, born in 355, lived most of his early life in modern-day Tunisia, not far from ancient Carthage, modern-day Tunis. On a scholarship from a local wealthy landowner, Augustine was sent to college to be educated in rhetoric in Carthage. The education and the skills he acquired led him to become the most respected public orator in the Roman empire of the late 4th century. In the modern day, it would be something like a combined position of a professor at Harvard and the President’s speech writer.

In his Confessions, Augustine reflects on the long and winding journey that led to his conversion in 386, at about the age of 31. Here he was, a man at the height of his career, arrogant from the fame he received for his celebrated words. In a dramatic reversal, he left it all behind to follow Christ. As Augustine will say later, “For you have hidden the truth from the sagacious and shrewd and revealed them to little ones, so that those who toil under heavy burdens may come to him and he may give them relief, because he is gentle and humble of heart.”[3] He needed to become like the little ones in order to receive the gentle yoke of the God who is humble of heart. How could he continue in a profession that made him so proud?

He gave it up. He resigned from his job and sought a quiet life of reading and writing with a community of like-minded believers, including his mom, his son, and a few of his lifelong friends, at a retreat called Cassiciacum. As far as he could tell in his mid-30s, he had everything he needed. But Christ and His Church had more in store.

After Augustine’s mom and son died in Italy, he moved back to Africa seeking to establish a monastery like St. Anthony the Great of Egypt. Augustine wanted to be a monk, not a pastor. During the process of his conversion, he had read about the beloved saint who devoted his life to prayer and communion with God and became the exemplary icon and founder of monasticism. Augustine wanted the same for Numidia, in North Africa, where he was born. What he did not want, he would tell Possidius, his later confidant and friend, was to become a priest.

Augustine the Humble Pastor

Once a Christian, Augustine decided to move back to Africa, and in the process, he demonstrates one aspect of his laudatory character. Augustine sheds a little light on how he came to be the pastor and head of the monastery at Hippo in a sermon from the end of his life. The 70-year-old pastor attempted to reassure his congregation that he had their best interests at heart in the midst of some trials by reminding them what happened when he came to their church. The former imperial orator told his congregation that he “did not wish to be what he could have been.”[4] Augustine called this the ambitio saeculi, an ambition for this age, because as far as Augustine was concerned, this was a great temptation and a great sin. That kind of vainglory and pride needed to die in the waters of baptism.

In a personal letter to Valerius, Augustine tells a little bit more about the moment of his calling. Confiding to his new Bishop Valerius, Augustine wrote in 391, “And this was the reason for those tears that some of the brothers noticed that I shed in the city at the time of my ordination, and not knowing the reasons for my sorrow, they, nonetheless, consoled me with a good intention with what words they could, though with words having absolutely nothing to do with my wound.”[5] Apparently Augustine cried when he was ordained, an unusual moment in a very Stoic culture but indicative of the kind of passion and emotion Augustine brought to his position. But what was the source of tears? No one at the time seemed to know exactly why Augustine wept so openly. The brothers and the congregation seemed to think he was just legitimately sad at how small the church was and how meager the title he would receive as a pastor of this small church, not even the biggest in the small town of Hippo.

Possidius, though, provides some additional insight. In Possidius’ telling, Augustine was just standing among the congregation while Bishop Valerius was preaching. After Valerius mentioned that he needed help, all the people in the congregation stepped back from Augustine, who stood alone weeping, while the people shouted. “Augustine wept freely as they eagerly presented their request with loud shouting. . . He grieved because he anticipated the many imminent dangers that threatened his life in the rule and government of the Church.”[6] In this quote, Possidius clarifies what was really going on in Augustine’s mind. He would have to give up his life of peace and serenity and give himself to the daily tasks of leading a church. Reluctant though he was to accept the offer of assistant pastor at Hippo, he surrendered to his Lord.

But why? Returning to one of Augustine’s sermons, he says, “I avoided this job, and I did everything I could to assure my salvation in a lowly position and not to incur the grave risks of a high one. But, as I said, a servant ought not to oppose his lord. I came to this city to see a friend, whom I thought I could gain for God, to join us in the monastery. It seemed safe enough because the place had a bishop.[7]” He says that there were “high risks” for preachers. He did not want the responsibility of being a shepherd of a big flock, especially considering he would need to preach on a regular basis. Large groups of people listening to him reminded him of his former life as an imperial orator, a man who sold his words for fame and fortune but at the cost of his very soul.

That being said, the wisened old pastor, Augustine, knew that “a servant ought not to oppose his Lord.” He goes on to say that it was the community who chose him. More particularly, it was God working through his people to select the person who was fitting for their church. “I was caught, I was made a priest, and by this step I eventually came to the episcopate.”[8] On a personal level, Augustine did not go out seeking to be a person of great renown. He did not want the peril that came with celebrity. He had already left the secular version of this kind of profession. He knew how strong the seductive pull of accolades and prestige had been in the secular world. His plan for overcoming this difficulty illustrates the second aspect of his character, which helped him overcome the temptation to pride and moral failings.

The Power of Pastoral Friendships

Amidst the treasure trove of Augustinian writings, one finds many personal letters to friends of Augustine pastoring a network of churches throughout North Africa. Many of those leaders had either grown up with Augustine or been shepherded by him in Hippo. In a letter to his close friend Aurelius, we catch a glimpse of how Augustine planned to avoid temptation. Augustine confessed his difficulty, “No one who has not declared war on this enemy of vainglory can possibly know how strong it is.”[9] For Augustine, the tremendous fear of pastoral ministry was vainglory or pride. The specific kind of pride is that which comes from the accolades of speaking well. One can understand why, considering Augustine’s past. He was a formidable imperial rhetorician, known for his skill in speaking. He desperately did not want to be tempted to bask and glory in the praise of people. This pride was going to be his downfall because if he succumbed to it, he would not believe that he needed God. Who needs God when you have the twin wings of the mind of an academic and the tongue of a poet to fly you to worldly success? You can climb higher depending on yourself rather than on God or anyone else.For Augustine, the tremendous fear of pastoral ministry was vainglory or pride. Share on X

So how did he handle the temptation to pride as a leader? He turned to a close friend, Aurelius, a fellow pastor, to share his burdens and difficulties. In the letter, he wrote, “Still, you are, I believe, so gracious as to consider with me how serious and difficult [my struggles] are. For only one who has declared war on this enemy feels its strength, because, even if it is easy for someone to do without praise when it is denied, it is difficult not to take delight in it when it is offered.”[10] Augustine had to confess the difficulties he was encountering to a confidant. If people don’t like how he speaks, at least he won’t be puffed up from their words. But if they do praise him, how will he handle it? Will he believe his own hype? Will he return to his old arrogant self he left behind only five years ago in Milan? We know from these letters and from the work of Possidius that in the times of his trials, Augustine relied on his network of friends. Possidius summarizes Augustine’s reliance on his fellow pastors: “His greatest pleasure was always found in the things of God or in the exhortation or conversation of intimate brotherly friendship.”[11]

The Legacy of the Reluctant Shepherd

In these two aspects of Augustine’s character, we gain clarity on how Augustine, by God’s grace, resisted significant moral failure. First, as a reluctant leader, Augustine did not seek the spotlight and the fame he eventually received. This kind of attention had been detrimental to him as a young person and made him proud. But he could not resist the call of God to become a pastor, which he understood through God’s people who clamored for him to be their leader in a small town. Since he knew his weakness and temptation to take too much pride and delight in the praise of others, he took steps to prevent the problem. He wrote letters and met regularly with a friend to confess when he had failed. For Augustine, every time someone praised him, he acknowledged the truth and goodness in what they said. He did not deflect and pretend like it wasn’t true. But he always tried to remember where his gifts came from. In another sermon, Augustine says, “So when God crowns your merits, he is not crowning anything but his own gifts.”[12] Basically, the good things the saints do are in fact gifts of God for the people of God.

In the end, Augustine leaves a beautiful legacy of what a pastor should seek. Often, when Augustine began his sermons, he made a direct appeal to the congregation and showed some of his own passion to his people. In one instance, he preached, “So I tell you, I am delivering my soul. I shall be in a position, not of great danger but of certain ruin, if I have kept quiet. But when I have spoken and carried out my office, it will be for you now to take notice of your danger. What, after all, do I want? What do I desire? What am I longing for? Why am I speaking? Why am I sitting here? What do I live for, if not with this intention that we should all live together with Christ? That is my desire, that’s my honor, that’s my most treasured possession, that’s my joy, that’s my pride and glory. But if you don’t listen to me and yet I have not kept quiet, then I will deliver my soul. But I don’t want to be saved without you.”[13]

Augustine’s goal was that all live together with Christ. Augustine pleads with his congregation in his old age in a sermon preached likely only a short while before his death. The man who would become a doctor of the church, the Doctor of Grace, one of the four great Latin teachers of the faith, described his life’s work as moving his local congregation towards living together in Christ. The danger he described is that if he does not preach the Gospel, he will have failed in his calling. He is in danger of his people not listening and so not being saved. This terrified him. This was how he understood God’s purpose for his life, so reluctantly he answered the call. In his life, he left the church some wonderful words of preaching and theology, but to those who knew him best, his life provided an even greater example by living a life in service to Christ and his Church.

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Endnotes

[1] Possidius, Vita Augustini. 31: zweisprachige Ausgabe eingeleitet, kommentiert und herausgegeben, ed. Wilhelm Geerlings (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2005), 104; translated by Roy Deferrari, Fathers of the Church (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1952) 122.

[2] Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana 4. 29.61. Works of Saint Augustine (WSA) v. I/11, trans. Edmund Hill (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1997), 240.

[3] Augustine. Confessions 7.9.15 WSA V. I/1, trans. Maria Boulding, 173.

[4] Sermon 355.2; WSA III/10, trans. Edmund Hill, 166.

[5] Letter 21.2 to Valerius, WSA II/1, trans. Roland Teske, 56.

[6] Possidius, Vita Augustini 4. FC 15, 77.

[7] Sermon 355.2, WSA v. III/10, trans. Edmund Hill, 167.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Letter to Aurelius 22.8. WSA II/1, trans. Roland Teske, 62.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Possidius, Vita Augustini 19, FC v.15, 96.

[12] Sermon 333.5 WSA, v. III/9, trans. Edmund HIll, 202.

[13] Sermon 17.2, WSA v. III/1, trans. Edmund Hill, 368.

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