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Life of St Augustine
Possidius, tr. Weiskotten, 1919
Preface
Inspired by God, the Maker and Ruler of all, and mindful of my purpose wherein through the grace of the Saviour I resolved faithfully to serve the omnipotent and divine Trinity, both formerly as a layman and now as a bishop, I am eager with whatever ability and eloquence I possess, to aid in the edification of the holy and true Catholic Church of Christ the Lord, and so [have resolved] not to keep silent concerning the life and character of the most noble Bishop Augustine, predestined long ago and presented in his own time—the things that I have seen in him and heard from him. I have read and observed that this very thing was often done in times past by most devout men of the holy Catholic Mother Church. Inspired by the divine Spirit, yet using their own speech and style, they spoke and wrote like histories for the ears and eyes of those who wished to learn, and thus brought to the notice of the studious the great men who were counted worthy by the Lord’s free grace both to live amid human affairs and to persevere to the end of their course. Therefore in that faith unfeigned whereby all righteous and faithful souls must serve and please the Lord of Lords, I also, the least of all His stewards, have determined, with the Lord’s help, to set forth the origin, career and end of this venerable man as I have learned them from him and observed them through so many years of loving fellowship. But I beseech the divine Majesty that by His aid I may carry out and complete this task, which I have undertaken, without sinning against the truth of the Father of Lights or seeming in any way to disappoint the loving expectation of good sons of the Church. It is not my purpose to touch on all those things which the blessed Augustine noted about himself in his books of the Confessions, telling what his life was before receiving the divine grace and what it became on his conversion. For it was his purpose that, in the words of the Apostle, “no man should believe or think him to be above that which he knew him to be or heard of him.” Therefore in his practice of holy humility he deceived no one and sought not his own praise for those things he had already received, but the glory of his Lord because of the blessing of his own deliverance, and desired the prayers of his brethren for the things which he hoped to obtain. For, as declared by the angel, though “It is good to hide the secret of a king: yet it is honorable to reveal and confess the works of God.”