Theme: An Open Letter To My Barkada
Materials: (Reviewed 30 minutes before the exam: Augustinum Hipponensem, Ten Augustinian Values)
1. In 1986, on the occasion of the 16th centenary of the conversion of St. Augustine, the apostolic letter Augustinum Hipponensem was published for the Catholic Church. Who was the Pope who wrote the apostolic letter?
(a) Paul VI (b) John Paul I (c) John Paul II
Answer: C John Paul II
2. In 1930, on the occasion of the 15th centenary of the death of St. Augustine, another apostolic letter was published for the Catholic Church. What was the title of this apostolic letter?
(a) Ad Saltem (b) Ad Salutem (c) Ad Salutatem
Answer: B Ad Salutem
3. The age of St. Augustine at the time of his death.
(a) 76 (b) 75 (c) None of the above
Answer: B (Augustine was 75 and 9 months old; almost 76)
4. About one year after his death, a Pope wrote this about Augustine: �We have ever deemed Augustine a man to be remembered for his sanctity, because of his life and services in our communion, nor has rumor at any time darkened his name with the suspicion of evil. So great was his knowledge, as we recall, that he was always reckoned by my predecessors also among our foremost teachers. All alike, therefore, thought highly of him as a man held in affection and honor by all.�
Who was the Pope who wrote that?
(a) Pius XI (b) Damasus (c) None of the above
Answer: C It was Celestine I (Ad Salutem, I)
5. While Augustine was still alive, one of his contemporaries and also a famous Father of the Church wrote the following in a letter:
"Well done! You are famous throughout the world. Catholics revere and receive you as the second founder of the ancient Faith. A mark of greater glory it is, that heretics loathe you. Me too they assail with a like hatred. They would kill in desire those whom they cannot slay with the sword."
Who was this Father of the Church? (a) St. Jerome (b) St. Alypius (c) St. Hilary of Poitiers
Answer: A. St. Jerome (Ad Salutem)
6. The author of Ad Salutem, also writes this about Augustine:
He (Augustine) was the light set upon the candlestick, he was the vanquisher of every heresy and a guide to eternal salvation for his contemporaries. What is more, he continued to teach and console Christians as age succeeded age. Nay, even in our time we owe it to him in large measure that among believers the truth of Faith maintains its luster, while love for God has not ceased to burn. Indeed, it is a matter of common knowledge that the writings of Augustine, by their exceptional sublimity and charm, cast a spell over many who are at variance with us or who seem utter strangers to the Faith.�
Who was this Pope?
(a) Pius IX (b) Pius X (c) Pius XI
Answer: C Pius XI
7. In which country can one NOW find the shrine that houses the remains of St. Augustine?
(a) Spain (b) France (c) Italy
Answer: C Italy
8. What is the name of the Church that houses the remains of St. Augustine?
(a) San Pietro dal Ciel d�Oro (b) Sant�Agostino (c) none of the above
Answer: A San Pietro dal Ciel d�Oro
8b. A Pope restored1 to the Augustinians custody of the remains of St. Augustine in 1900 after the original church was destroyed and desecrated in 1799. Who was this Pope?
(a) Alexander IV (b) Leo XIII (c) Pius XI
Answer: B Leo XIII (Ad Salutem, last paragraph )
9. Where in Italy can one find the remains of St. Augustine?
(a) Rome (b) Milan (c) none of the above
Answer: Pavia (Ad Salutem, last paragraph)
10. Augustine�s death in the year 430 was untimely. He was already summoned by the Roman Emperor of the East2 to attend one of the Great Councils of the Church � the Council in fact which was to settle the question as to whether Mary was mother of God or man.
Which great Council was this? The Council of �
(a) Nicea (b) Constantinople (c) Ephesus
Answer: The Council of Ephesus3
1. The biographer of St. Augustine gives us this note about the legacy he left behind:
When he died, "he left to the Church libraries and a very numerous clergy, and monasteries of men and women full of those consecrated to chastity under their superiors."
The biographer�s name is Fr. Agostino Trape.
Answer: False. It was St. Possidius (Quoted in Ad Salutem)
2. Augustine�s friends and companions became bishops in different parts of North Africa. One of these close friends became the bishop of Tagaste, Augustine�s hometown. This friend was Alypius.
Answer: True (Cheatsheet at the Augustine Page http://www.geocities.com/hipponensis/cheat1.html; Ang Buhay ni San Agustin)
3. Augustine wrote the Confessions just before he died.
Answer: False. (He wrote it at the beginning of his career as a bishop.)
4. In the Confessions, Augustine mentions his sad separation from the mother of his son. Until now no one knows the woman�s name.
Answer: True.
5. In the year 397, there was a Council in Carthage. One of the things that the Council did was to fix the number of writings which should be considered inspired and included in the canon of Scriptures. Augustine was there as the coadjutor bishop of Valerius.
Answer: False (Augustine was consecrated bishop in 395. He became sole bishop of Hippo in 396. He was at the Council as Bishop of Hippo.)
6. Augustine tells us that his mother was -- from girlhood until womanhood -- a paragon of virtue.
Answer: False (Augustine tells us in his Confessions that as a young woman Monica used to drink wine and had to be corrected.4 )
7. Monica died and was buried in Italy, but her cult started in France.
Answer: True (�St. Monica� in NCE)
8. Augustine had a brother, Navigius. When Monica died, this brother was not around .
Answer: False (Augustine even mentions a conversation between his brother and Monica at the deathbed.5)
9. Cicero�s Hortensius motivated Augustine to search for wisdom among the writings of the pagan philosophers.
Answer: False (He tells us that he looked for the name of Christ6. )
10. Adeodatus, Augustine�s son, was baptized a Christian in Africa.
Answer: False (He was baptized in Milan together with Augustine7 )
1. The Patron Saint of the Poor Souls in Purgatory (or Holy Souls) is an Augustinian. Who is this saint?
Answer: St. Nicholas of Tolentino
2. St. Nicholas of Tolentino decided to be a religious because of a sermon preached by an Augustinian on the verse which reads:
Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust, 8 enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever.
From which book or letter of the New Testament does one find these verses?
Answer: First Letter of John (�St. Nicholas of Tolentino� in NCE vol. 10, p. 427)
3. The process for the canonization of St. Nicholas of Tolentino was begun twenty years after his death. In what year did he die?
Answer: 1305 (Ibid)
4. St. Nicholas of Tolentino is the first canonized saint of the Order of St. Augustine. In what year was he canonized?
Answer: 1446 (Ibid)
5 . The Order of Augustinian Recollects8 started out as a movement in one of the Augustinian Provinces in Spain. Which was this Province?
Answer: The Province of Castille
6. A famous friar was tasked to compose the Constitutions for the government of this movement. Who was this friar?
Answer: Luis de Leon9
7. The Recollects became the Order of Augustinian Recollects in what year?
Answer: 1912
8. Who was the Pope who elevated them to the level of �Order�?
Answer: Pius X
9. The Recollects started out as a contemplative group within the Order of St. Augustine. But Philip III wanted them to go to the missions. In what year did the Recollects enter the missions?
Answer: 160510
10. In what year was the Recollect movement founded by the Augustinian Province of Castille?
Answer: 1588
1 In 1331 Pope John XXII had appointed the Augustinian Hermits guardians of the tomb of St. Augustine in the Church of S. Pietro in Ciel d'Oro at Pavia. They were driven thence in 1700, and fled to Milan. Their monastery being destroyed in 1799, and the church desecrated, the remains of St. Augustine were taken back to Pavia and placed in its cathedral. In recent times the church of S. Pietro was restored, and on 7 October, 1900, the body of the saint was removed from the cathedral and replaced in San Pietro--an event commemorated in a poem by Pope Leo XIII. The Augustinians are again in possession of their old church of S. Pietro. (Source: The Hermits of St. Augustine in the Catholic Encyclopedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/
2 The emperor was anxious for the presence of the most venerated prelate of the whole world, Augustine, and sent a special messenger to that great man with a letter in honourable terms. But the saint had died during the siege of Hippo in the preceding August, though the troubles of Africa had prevented news from reaching Constantinople. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05491a.htm
3 Ad Salutem, par. 26. It was a wise resolution of Theodosius the Younger to command that, with every mark of respect, our Saint be summoned to the Council of Ephesus, where the Nestorian heresy was crushed. However, the unexpected death of Augustine stilled that voice of vehemence and power ere it could swell the chorus of the assembled Fathers and utter its anathema against the heresiarch, who had the hardihood to cleave Christ asunder, if we may so speak, and to assail the Divine maternity of the Blessed Virgin.
4 And yet--as Thine handmaid related to me, her son--there had stolen upon her a love of wine. For when she, as being a sober maiden, was as usual bidden by her parents to :draw wine from the cask, the vessel being held under the opening, before she poured the wine into the bottle, she would wet the tips of her lips with a little, for more than that her inclination refused. For this she did not from any craving for drink, but out of the overflowing buoyancy of her time of life, which bubbles up with sportiveness, and is, in youthful spirits, wont to be repressed by the gravity of elders. And so unto that little, adding daily littles (for "he that contemneth small things shall fall by little and little,,),6 she contracted such a habit as, to drink off eagerly her little cup nearly full of wine. Where, then, was the sagacious old woman with her earnest restraint? Could anything prevail against a secret disease if Thy medicine, O Lord, did not watch over us? Confessions, Bk. IX
5 (When) she was prostrated by fever; and while she was sick, she one day sank into a swoon, and was for a short time unconscious of visible things. We hurried up to her; but she soon regained her senses, and gazing on me and my brother as we stood by her, she said to us inquiringly, "Where was I?" Then looking intently at us stupefied with grief, "Here," saith she, "shall you bury your mother." I was silent, and refrained from weeping; but my brother said something, wishing her, as the happier lot, to die in her own country and not abroad. Confessions, Bk. IX
6 And since at that time (as Thou, O Light of my heart, know-est) the words of the apostle were unknown to me, I was delighted with that exhortation, in so far only as I was thereby stimulated, and enkindled, and inflamed to love, seek, obtain, hold, and embrace, not this or that sect, but.wisdom itself, whatever it were; and this alone checked me thus ardent, that the name of Christ was not in it. For this name, according to Thy mercy, O Lord, this name of my Saviour Thy Son, had my tender heart piously drunk in, deeply treasured even with my mother's milk; and whatsoever was without that name, though never so erudite, polished, and truthful, took not complete hold of me. Confessions, Bk. III
7 We took into our company the boy Adeodatus, born of me carnal]y, of my sin. Well hadst Thou made him. He was barely fifteen years, � and we were baptized Confessions IX, 6, 14
8 All the questions about the Recollects are based on the article by La Mountain in NCE vol. 1, p 1061.
9 Luis de Leon, is one of the representatives of the Spanish Golden Age of Literature. He was also a spiritual director of St. Theresa of Avila.
10 They first came to the Philippines in 1606.