Curious about St. Augustine

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I have heard many contradictory things about St. Augustine, and would like to know which are true and which are not. One thing I have heard is that he was extremely sexist, believing that women were a malformation of men, and that they didn’t even have souls. I realize that he lived in a time in which it was acceptable to think this, and since he was influenced heavily by the Greeks (esp. Aristotle, who held similar beliefs), this shouldn’t be so surprising to me. Very few people were courageous or knowledgeable enough to go against this belief, and although the Bible teaches the equality of all people, it is possible to warp the Bible’s words enough to make it say just about anything. On the other hand, I also heard that Augustine loved and respected his mother a great deal. So does that mean that he loved and respected her as much as he could a soulless malformation? Or am I getting my information wrong?

In addition, I know that Augustine was a reformed sinner of sorts, but that’s about all I know. Some have told me that he had trouble with stubbornness, others have mentioned arrogance, that he had originally been pagan, etc. I hate that I don’t know how much of that is true and how much is hearsay. Is there any good, reliable source that anyone knows of that can clarify the character of St. Augustine for me? All I know about him is what I have mentioned above, and I don’t even know any of that for sure. Please help me learn about this very influential man!
 
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kfarose2585:
I have heard many contradictory things about St. Augustine, and would like to know which are true and which are not. One thing I have heard is that he was extremely sexist, believing that women were a malformation of men, and that they didn’t even have souls.
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From what I have read of Saint Augustine I do not think that he held this belief. I have read part of his autobiography, and from it I can obviously see that he did hold his mother in high regard, not as a mere malformation of a man, but as a true servant of God. I don’t believe that Saint Augustine was sexist. I think that this is something that the feminists have thought up recently.

As to your other questions, I’m not quite sure about all of them. I think he was a converted pagan, but before he became a Christian he was a Manichee, which was a heresy in that day. The Lord then brought him to a full understanding of His truth, and he converted to Christianity. I have never heard that he struggled with pride etc… but he may have. As for a good source about Saint Augustine, I don’t really know of any. For this I apologize. However, if you would like, I can try to find one for you.

Do not be fooled though. For all his faults, Saint Augustine was a great saint and a very holy man.
 
Thank you for responding, Nick. I hope you are right about him not being “sexist.” Unfortunately, I have found information to the contrary at womenpriests.org Now, I realize that that website is fundamentally non-Catholic, but I wonder if the quotes it contains are valid. If so, it seems that neither Augustine nor many of the other founding church fathers respected women very much at all. As far as other testaments to Augustine’s character…I can’t find a thing. Does anyone know where I can look? I’d really like to learn more about him.

If anyone knows if there is any truth to be found at the following website, please let me know: womenpriests.org/traditio/inferior.htm#fathers If even some of that information is valid, that is very upsetting to me as a Catholic woman. I am not arguing for the ordination of women–in fact I completely disagree with that website in that regard–but I am appalled at the idea of Church doctrines and saints saying such things. Please help!
 
I don’t knwo what St Augustine held within his heart I do know one thing if he had openly said that women had no soul and were a malformation of man, there is no way the Catholic church would have beatified him or made him a Saint. There is no man or woman, slave or free etc as our beloved St Paul said, if he did this it in effect opposes scripture! Christ was unusually loving towards women and gave them much of his time which was uncommon in those times. Our Blessed Virigin Mary is/was a woman!! This is just yet another slight at the Catholic Church by any means possible by someone’s ponderings and not the facts I suspect in a vain attempt to justify their new doctrine of ordaining women as priests. God Bless you and much love and peace to you xxxx
 
i’ve never heard any of this stuff about St. Augustine… if you want to know about him, I would suggest reading his Confessions. I am in the process of reading it now for the first time, and I must say it is very, very good. Better than I thought it would be. It’s amazing when you’re reading it and you think about how it was written over 1600 years ago. It’s very relavent to today. He was very close to God (and still is 😉 ).
 
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kfarose2585:
I realize that he lived in a time in which it was acceptable to think this, and since he was influenced heavily by the Greeks (esp. Aristotle, who held similar beliefs), this shouldn’t be so surprising to me. !
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Just a minor correction, Augustine was not influenced by the Greeks, except in a negative way. In fact much of his opus The City of God is direct refutations of Greek philosophical thought. Augustine was Latin through and through (he didn’t even speak Greek), and his biggest influence intellectually was Cicero.
 
“I have heard many contradictory things about St. Augustine … One thing I have heard is that he was extremely sexist, believing that women were a malformation of men …”

To kfarose2585:

I think this “malformation of men” phrase comes from these words feminists alleged St. Thomas Aquinas of having wrote down (and not St. Augustine): “Woman is an occasional and incomplete being, a misbegotten male. It is unchangeable that woman is destined to live under man’s influence and has no authority from her Lord”

This and other alleged statements of early Church fathers have been clarified in this thread (which I opened):

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=11298

Shalom, amen.
 
I would suggest you read his autobiography Confessions. He describes his early pagan lifestyle and rather protracted conversion.
 
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davidv:
I would suggest you read his autobiography Confessions. He describes his early pagan lifestyle and rather protracted conversion.
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I couldn’t recommend this book more highly. It was instrumental in bringing me back to Holy Mother Church.

Here is a quote by him concerning women:

“Despise not yourselves, ye women; the Son of God was born of a woman”
 
Thank you for all your responses. Has anyone actually gone to that website to see if it contains any truth at all? If it doesn’t, then it is a very effective, destructive pack of lies. With all of its quotes and references, it seemed pretty convincing to me.

I had always heard that Augustine was strongly influenced by Aristotle. Perhaps it is simply the Church that was influenced by Aristotle. Or maybe someone said “Aristotle” and meant “Cicero.” Sometimes it is so difficult to find solid facts.

I’ll look into Confessions. That will probably be my best resource. Thanks again, everyone!
 
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