Catholic Fire

Philippe de Champaigne, Saint Augustine, c. 1645-1650 By Jean M. Heimann Today, August 28th, is the feast of St. Augustine, a Western Father of the Church whose conversion to Christianity is well-known as one of the most important events in the history of the Church. He was an illustrious theologian, a bishop, and a great doctor of the Church. Augustine was born in Tagaste, Africa in 354 to Patricius, a pagan Roman official, and to Monica, a devout Christian. Monica raised Augustine in the Christian faith, but when he went to study law in Carthage, he turned away from his Christian beliefs and led a life of immorality and hedonism. At age 15, he took a took a mistress who bore him a son, Adeodatus, which means “the gift of God,” and at age 18, he and his friend, Honoratus became members of the Manichaean heretical sect, which accepted the dual principle of good and evil. The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen explained his attraction to the heresy: “The conflict between fl...

St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), a Swiss theologian and the patron saint of writers has long been my mentor and model, and one of my most powerful intercessors. As a theologian and writer, I look to him for guidance and for assistance in my work. His unique methods of evangelization have also greatly inspired me. At the age of thirteen, Francis studied theology at the University of Paris and immediately afterword earned a doctorate in law. However, he felt called to the priesthood and was ordained and during the time of the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church at this time was losing many of its parishioners to the new churches of the Protestant Reformation and Francis set out to restore Catholicism to the area around Lake Geneva known as Chablais. For three years, he trudged through the countryside, his feet frozen and bleeding, as he trampled through the snow. No one would listen to him, so he wrote out his sermons, copying them by hand in the form of leaflets, and p...