Saint Raymond Nonnatus – The Saint Who Really Exists

Juan de Mesa, Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Spanish, 1626
Seville, Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla

Anyone who has watched the long-running BBC television series, “Call the Midwife”, knows that it is about the memories of the young women who worked as nurse-midwifes in the East End of London during the late 1950s and into the  1960s.  They also know that these young women live together in the convent of a group of Anglican nuns.  

We are told in the very first episode that the nuns belong to a nursing order of sisters “the Sisters of St. Raymond Nonnatus, midwives and district nurses”.1 However, the actual name of the sisters with whom Jennifer Worth, the author on whose memoirs the series is based, lived is the still existing order of the Sisters of St. John the Divine.  Though greatly shrunken in numbers, they are currently based in Birmingham, West Midlands, UK.

When I originally saw “Call the Midwife” I assumed that the producers had decided to make up a name for the order, using a completely fictitious saint name.  I had never heard of a St. Raymond Nonnatus who was the patron saint of childbirth and midwives.  I was completely wrong.  St. Raymond Nonnatus may be overshadowed by other saints also named Raymond, but he is very, very real indeed.  In fact, I already knew more about his life than I thought, in spite of the fact of not having ever heard of him.

In spite of his name, which means “not born” (non natus), Raymond Nonnatus was born in Portello, in Catalonia, in the kingdom of Aragon in northeastern Spain, around the year 1200.  Like Julius Caesar he was born through an incision in his mother, that is by caesarian section, when she died during childbirth.  Hence his odd descriptive name, for he was not born in the usual manner.  Presumably this indicates that he may have been of noble birth, but this is not certain.  

As a young man he joined the newly founded Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy of the Redemption of Captives, known as the  Mercedarians.  It is through this connection that I was aware of at least some parts of his story, for the Mercedarians have a long history in Spain and, consequently, in the New World.  Indeed, the town of Merced in California is named for them, for they were a well-known order with a past filled with martyrdom by the time the Americas became part of Spain’s empire. 

Francisco Pacheco, Mercedarians Ransoming Christian Captives
Spanish, 1600-1611
Barcelona, Museo de arte de Catalunya

Founded sometime between 1218 and 1230 2 by Saint Peter Nolasco, this new order had as its aim the ransom of poor Christians sold into slavery by the Moors who had occupied much of Spain since the 8^th century.   

Spain was divided between the Christian (Catholic) northern kingdoms and the Moorish (Muslim) emirates of the south.  There was frequent raiding along the borders between the two as well as raiding along the coasts by North African Moors.  The main aim of the order was to raise money to ransom the captives seized in these raids.  

As with kidnappings today, captives would be held for ransom for some time after seizure and then, if unable to pay, sold on into slavery in North Africa.  The principal aim of the Mercedarians was to ransom the poorer Christians, those whose families could not raise enough money to free them.  Their entire purpose was to free the captives, so they could return to their families in Christian Spain.

Mercedarian friars were sent to deliver the ransoms both inside Spain and across the Mediterranean in North Africa, as required.  If they did not have enough money to ransom every captive, they were to offer their own person as a substitute.  All friars had to take a fourth vow (in addition to poverty, chastity and obedience) "to visit and to free Christians who are in captivity and in power of the Saracens or of other enemies of our Law… By this work of mercy… all the brothers of this Order, as sons of true obedience, must always be gladly disposed to give up their lives, if it is necessary, as Jesus Christ gave up his for us."3  This left them open to mistreatment, torture and even death as the pirates and slave traders reacted to the loss of their "stock".  

Jose Risueňo y Alconchel, Mercedarian Martyrs
Spanish, 1693-1712
Granada, Museo de Bellas Artes

This was the Order into which young Raymond Nonnatus entered as one of its earliest novices.  Because its original concept derived from the orders of Crusader knights (Hospitallers or Templars) most of the Mercedarians were lay brothers, not priests.  However, some men were chosen to study for ordination in order to enable the order to have its own priests.  Raymond Nonnatus was one such, being ordained in 1222.    He was also one of the men chosen for the hazardous position of Redeemer.  This is the title for those brothers sent across the borders to personally redeem groups of captives (individual redemptions appear to have been handled mostly by intermediaries).   

Raymond appears to have gone on several such trips in 1224, 1229 and 1232.  However, on his final trip, in 1236 to Algiers, he was cruelly tortured.  On this occasion, he did not have enough funds to finance all the necessary redemptions so, in order to ransom at least one more person, he gave himself up in place of another.

While in captivity, he offered support to his fellow captives and attempted to preach Christianity to the Muslim guards.  In retaliation for his preaching, his captors pierced his upper and lower lips and inserted a padlock to stop him from speaking.   The padlock was removed each day only for as long as it took him to eat.  He remained in this condition for eight months, until he himself was redeemed from captivity.4 

Francisco Pacheco, Martyrdom of Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Spanish, 1600-1611
Private Collection

Following his return to Spain, he was elevated to the status of Cardinal by Pope Gregory IX, who also called him to come to Rome. On his way to Rome, Raymond fell ill in the Aragonese town of Cardona and died there on August 31, 1240, which became his feast day.  He was beatified in 1627 and canonized in 1657 by Pope Alexander VII.  He is the patron saint of childbirth, of pregnant women and newborn babies, as well as of professions that require secrecy.5

Iconography of St. Raymond Nonnatus

The iconography of St. Raymond Nonnatus ranges from the historical to the imaginative.  Primarily, it begins to appear in the seventeenth century, when he was first beatified.  It is historical or at least historical as much as the seventeenth-century was historical in its art.  Some fabulous elements did appear, such as the miraculous feeding of the infant St. Raymond by angels, but in the main his iconography remained primarily in the historical dimension. 

 

Follower of Eugenio Cajes, Saint Raymond Nonnatus Fed by Angels
Spanish, c. 1630
Private Collection

Many of the paintings of St. Raymond Nonnatus come from two important building projects undertaken by the two branches of the Mercedarian order during the first half of the seventeenth century in Spain.

In the beginning of the century the Mercedarians of Seville constructed a monastery (today the Museo de Bellas-Artes de Sevilla) and dedicated the decorations to the memory of their founder and his early disciple.  Most of the images reference the life of St. Peter Nolasco, but many also record the stories of St. Raymond Nonnatus.  The paintings are primarily the work of Francisco Pacheco, who is chiefly remembered today as the teacher of his far greater pupil (and son-in-law), Diego Velazquez.  These pictures focus primarily on his life, although occasionally imaginative touches are included.

Francisco Pacheco, Apparition of the Virgin Mary to the Young Raymond Nonnatus
Spanish, c. 1600-1611
Seville, Museo de Bellas Artes

Francisco Pacheco, Last Communion of Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Spanish, 1611
Barnard Castle, Co. Durham, UK, Bowes Museum

Closer to the middle of the century, the Discalced (sandal wearing) Mercedarians, also in Seville, commissioned the great artist, Francisco Zurbaran, to decorate their new monastery.  His breathtaking paintings of St. Peter Nolasco, now in the Prado, are well known, but those of St. Raymond Nonnatus are not, partly because they are now in private collections and are represented by very indifferent old photographs.

Francisco de Zurbarán, Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Spanish, c. 1636-1641
Private Collection

Francisco de Zurbaran, Saint Raymond Nonnatus Crowned by Christ
Spanish, c. 1636-1541
Private Collection

Other painters also contributed to the formation of an iconography of St. Raymond, by reflection on the life and sanctity of the man, so that by the end of the eighteenth century his attributes were pretty well fixed.  Among them are the martyr’s palm encircled by three crowns which represent the Apostolic Counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience which he had vowed as a religious, his white Mercedarian habit, with the red and white shield shaped pendant that is the symbol of the order, and sometimes partial application of the red clothing of a Cardinal.

Vicente Carducho, Martyrdom of Saint Raymond Nonnatus

Spanish, c. 1600-1630

Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Carlo Saraceni, Sermon of Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Italian, c. 1612-1614
Rome, Curia Generalizia of the Mercedarians

Antonio del Castillo, Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Spanish, c. 1640-1650
Zaragoza, Museo Goya

Anonymous, Saint Raymond Nonnatus Preaching
Spanish, c.1650
Real Monasterio de El Puig de Santa Maria

Pablo Pontons, Last Communion of Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Spanish, c.1650
Real Monasterio de El Puig de Santa Maria

Pablo Pontons, Presentation of the Mercedarian Habit to Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Spanish, c. 1650
Valencia, Museo de Bellas Artes

Diego Gonzalez de la Vega, Saint Raymond Nonnatus Crowned by Christ
Spanish, 1673
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Jeronimo Jacinto Espinosa, Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Spanish, 17th century
Madrid, Museo del Prado

Jose Vergara Gimeno, Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Spanish, c.1750

Because of the circumstances of his birth, Saint Raymond Nonnatus has long been considered a patron saint of childbirth and protector of both expectant mothers and newborn children,

Francisco de Zurbarán, A Young Mother Praying to Saint Raymond Nonnatus for Her Newborn
Spanish, c. 1636-1641
Private Collection

He remains better known in the Spanish speaking world, including the Americas, than among English speakers, which is probably not surprising, and his veneration is very much alive today.

Spanish Colonial School, The Virgin Mary with Saints Peter Nolasco and Raymond Nonnatus
Colonial Spanish, 18th Century
Private Collection

In this image the Virgin Mary, as Mother of Mercy, holds the attributes of the two saints.  Above the head of Saint Peter Nalasco, she holds the Mercedarian shield, and above Saint Raymong Nonnatus she holds the shackles he wore as a slave.

Anonymous, Saint Raymond Nonnatus
Spanish Colonial (Guatemala), c. 1800
Guatemala City, Church of Santa Rosa

Felipe de la Espada, Saint Raymond Nonnatus
American (Puerto Rico), c. 1800
Washington, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Jose Aragon, Saint Raymond Nonnatus

American (New Mexico), c.1820-1835

Philadelphia, Museum of Arts

One of the most interesting aspects of this are the offerings to him at the Municipal Cathedral in Mexico City, where his martyrdom has not been forgotten.  A collection of padlocks honors his suffering and represents the hope of the faithful that he will help them with whatever secrets they are carrying.

Offerings of Padlocks, Altar of SaintRaymond Nonnatus
Mexican, 2010
Mexico City, Metropolitan Cathedral

© M. Duffy, 2016, additional material added 2022

_______________________________________________________

1.        Call the Midwife, Series 1, Episode 1.
2.        The difference in dates is the spread between the traditional date of the foundation by Peter Nolasco and the first appearance of documentary evidence for it. The true date is likely to be somewhere between. In any event, Raymond Nonnatus would appear to have been and very early member of the order. See Brodman, James William. Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain: The Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic Frontier, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986. Also available online ©1998 by James William Brodman on The Library of Iberian Resources Online at http://libro.uca.edu/rc/captives.htm
3.     . This fourth vow has given the order a large number of martyrs over time, including 19 Spanish Mercedarians who were beatified on October 13, 2013 in Tarragona, Spain. They were killed in 1936, during the Spanish Civil War, which unleashed savage attacks on the Church. The attacks not only killed priests and laity, but included the destruction of a great deal of the art kept in churches. See reference on this blog at http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2015/09/day-one-new-york.html and at http://orderofmercymen.org/tag/martyrs
4.       Devesa, Fr. Juan, O de M. Saint Raymond Nonnatus, trans. Colette Joly Dees, Mercedarian Press, LeRoy, NY, 1997, available at http://orderofmercy.org/assets/docstraymond.pdf   See also, Brodman, James William. Ransoming Captives in Crusader Spain: The Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic Frontier, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986. Also available online ©1998 by James William Brodman on The Library of Iberian Resources Online at http://libro.uca.edu/rc/captives.htm
5.       Olson-Rudenko, Jennifer. Francisco de Zurbaran’s Paintings for the Calced and Discalced Mercedarians of Seville, Doctoral Dissertation in Art History in the Pennsylvania State University Graduate School College of Arts and Architecture, May 2011.  Available at https://etda.libraries.psu.edu/catalog?f%5Bkeyword_ssim%5D%5B%5D=FRANCISCO+DE+ZURBAR%C3%81N&f%5Blast_name_ssi%5D%5B%5D=Olson-Rudenko

Saint Augustine – The Restless Heart

Piero della Francesca, Saint Augustine
Italian, ca. 1454-1469
Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

Augustine of Hippo is one of the most influential persons who has ever lived. A man of the fourth century, he still has a profound influence on the twenty-first   He is one of the first persons to be designated as a Doctor of the Church for his profound works of philosophy, which laid the basis for most of the thought of Western Europe and, more specifically, for the Christian thinkers that have followed him.  The great works of succeeding centuries are built on the foundation that he prepared.  Both Catholic and Protestant theological arguments on the nature of grace and the effects of free will can claim to have sprung from his thought. 

He is also the founding father of the autobiography, having written the book Confessions to explain his journey from a debauched hedonism through Manicheanism to conversion to Christ, baptism and his first tentative steps as a Christian.

It is difficult now for us to imagine the world into which Augustine was born, in 354 in the town of Tagaste in what is now Algeria in North Africa.1  Constantius II, the son of Constantine the Great, was Emperor of the West.  Unlike today this North Africa was dominated by a Roman Empire with Imperial centers at Constantinople and Milan.  The province, called Numidia, was part of the western Empire, and was under the control of Milan.  

Tagaste was a mid-sized inland town.  Augustine came from a relatively well-to-do family, although they were not wealthy.  His father, Patricius, was a pagan, a follower of the old Roman gods, and his mother, Monica, was a devout Christian.   Although infant baptism was not yet the norm, she intended for her three children to be baptized and enrolled them as catechumens, but baptism was consistently blocked by her husband.  So, Constantine grew up unbaptized and with only his mother’s example of Christian life. 

Nicolo di Pietro, Saint Augustine Taken to School by Saint Monica and Patricius
Italian, 1413-1415
Vatican City State, Pinacoteca Vaticana

He seems to have been a very bright little boy because his parents used all their resources, and even borrowed money, to ensure that he received a very good education, unusual at the time for someone of his class.  He attended school in his home town of Tagaste and then was sent under a form of scholarship for additional instruction, first at the larger town of Madauros, also in Algeria, and then at Carthage, the greatest of African cities, in what is today Tunisia.

Benozzo Gozzoli, School of Tagaste
Italian, 1464-1465
San Gimignano, Church of Sant'Agostino

At Carthage he completed his studies in rhetoric, once considered the pinnacle of education, which had a very different definition at this period than it does today.  It included mastering the ability to persuade others through the use of language, both spoken and written, but it also included a broad knowledge of all kinds of things.  Augustine was a master of the subject and, after completing his own education, he set himself up as a teacher of rhetoric, first in Tagaste and then in Carthage.

Benozzo Gozzoli, Saint Augustine at the University of Carthage
Italian, c. 1464-1465
San Gimignano, Church of Sant'Agostino, Apsidal Chapel

While in Carthage he lived the typical social life of a Roman man of the educated class.  He drank, attended the games and acquired a mistress.  In the description he later wrote about his life at this time, he did not divulge her name, but did reference their son, Adeodatus, who was born in 372, when Augustine was 18.  He lived with his mistress for 15 years, only leaving her during the turmoil of his conversion to Christianity.  In that time, he found great success as a teacher of rhetoric and sought larger fields to spread his wings.  He moved his family twice, leaving Africa to go first to Rome and then to the Imperial capital in Milan, arriving there in 383. 

Benozzo Gozzoli, Saint Augustine Teaching in Rome
Italian, c. 1464-1465
San Gimignano, Church of Sant'Agostino, Apsidal Chapel

Benozzo Gozzoli, Saint Augustine Departing for Milan
Italian, c. 1464-1465
San Gimignano, Church of Sant'Agostino, Apsidal chapel

Benozzo Gozzoli, Saint Augustine Arriving in Milan
Italian, c. 1464-1465
San Gimignano, Church of Sant'Agostino, Apsidal chapel

This time of career building was also the period in which Augustine became enamored of the exotic religion recently imported from the Persian Empire, Manicheanism.  He was hardly unique in being tempted to accept this dualist belief system, which seemed to explain a good deal about the world as people experience it.  For the Manicheans there are two principles, light and darkness.  Light belongs to the world of the spirit and to goodness.  The opposing darkness belongs to the material world and to evil.  History is seen as a duel between these two forces:  between light and dark, between good and evil, between the spirit and matter.  For the Manichean, matter is evil simply because it is matter.  Since there is a good deal of similar language in Christian thought as well, it is easy to see why people who were seeking some kind of enlightenment could confuse them.  However, Christianity never sees matter as evil, but as a gift from God which is inherently good in itself, although it can be manipulated by humans to serve evil purposes.  Christianity also carries a moral message and presumes personal responsibility for one’s actions.  It took 9 to 10 years for Augustine to become disillusioned with the Manichean philosophy.

Follower of Rogier van der Weyden, Saint Augustine Sacrificing to a Manichean Idol
Flemish, c. 1480
The Hague, The Mauritshaus Museum

It was his move to Milan, his second move after leaving Africa, that changed Augustine’s life.  In Milan he encountered Saint Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, a talented preacher and evangelist.  Hearing Ambrose explicate the Gospels and the Christian message, opened Augustine’s heart to truth.  But he did not immediately make the plunge.  It took three years for him to make a final decision.  This came, as he relates it, on an afternoon in a garden in Milan.  

As he describes it, he was sitting in the garden weeping over the crisis of faith he was in the midst of when:  “I was saying these things and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo, I heard the voice as of a boy or girl, I know not which, coming from a neighboring house, chanting, and oft repeating, “Take up and read; take up and read.” Immediately my countenance was changed, and I began most earnestly to consider whether it was usual for children in any kind of game to sing such words; nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So, restraining the torrent of my tears, I rose up, interpreting it no other way than as a command to me from Heaven to open the book, and to read the first chapter I should light upon. For I had heard of Antony, that, accidentally coming in while the gospel was being read, he received the admonition as if what was read were addressed to him, Go and sell that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me. (Matthew 19:2l) And by such oracle was he immediately converted unto You. So quickly I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I put down the volume of the apostles, when I rose thence. I grasped, opened, and in silence read that paragraph on which my eyes first fell—Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. (Romans 13:13-14) No further would I read, nor did I need; for instantly, as the sentence ended—by a light, as it were, of security infused into my heart—all the gloom of doubt vanished away.”2

Guariento di Arpo, "Tolle Lege", The Conversion of Saint Augustine
Italian, c. 1361-1365
Padua, Church of the Eremitani

Immediately after this he withdrew to the country and devoted himself to the study of Christianity for several months.  This is the time in which he reached his decision to devote his life entirely to God and gave up all thoughts of his career as a teacher and of marriage, also deciding to return to Africa after his baptism.

Guariento di Arpo, The Baptism of August and His Vesting in a Religious Habit
Italian, c. 1361-1365
Padua, Church of the Eremitan

Augustine was baptized, along with this son, Adeodatus, and his friend, Alypius, at the Easter Vigil of the year 387 by Saint Ambrose.  His mother, who had followed him to Italy, was in the congregation. 

Benozzo Gozzoli, Baptism of Saint Augustine
Italian, c. 1464-1465
San Gimignano, Church of Sant'Agostino, Apsidal Chapel

Shortly afterward the entire troupe began their journey back to Italy, moving down the peninsula from Milan to Ostia, the port of Rome.   While waiting for a ship in Ostia, Monica, Augustine’s mother, became ill and died.  She was buried in Ostia at her own request.

Benozzo Gozzoli, Death of Saint Monica
Italian, c. 1464-1465
San Gimignano, Church of Sant'Agostino, Apsidal chapel

After returning to Africa Augustine and his friends formed a small monastic type community on his ancestral property where they lived undisturbed for several years.  In 391 Augustine was ordained a priest for the church in Hippo Regius, in his native Algeria and a few years later became bishop of Hippo (395).  He remained there until his death in 430 and died during the siege of Hippo by the invading Vandals.  Consequently, his life spans the period in which the Western Roman Empire began to crumble under the blows of the barbarian invasions.  It begins in the solid seeming Empire under Constantius II, son of Constantine the Great, and ends in the reign of Valentinian III, only 46 years before the events in 476 that effectively mark the end of the Roman Empire in the west. 

During his time in Hippo Augustine wrote an astonishing number of books, which are all the more impressive because so many have survived the centuries.3 There are books dealing with philosophy, with apologetics in confrontation with the heresies of his day (many of which reappear from time to time), on exegesis, on dogma.  There are letters and sermons and of the writings that have been gathered together to create the Augustinian rule, which still governs several groups of religious men and women.  And, of course, there are his two most widely known works:  The Confessions, in which he reflects on his early life and his conversion, and The City of God, in which he first, responds to pagan claims that it was Christianity that had weakened the Empire and permitted the sack of Rome (410) by the Goths, and second, describes the proper relationship of Christians to the world in which they find themselves and their ultimate home with God.  Both books have been copied and or printed continuously since his own day.

Maïtre François, The City of God and the City of Man
From La Cité de Dieu (Vol. I) by Augustine of Hippo (Translation from the Latin by Raoul de Presles
French (Paris), c. 1475 and 1478-1480
The Hague, Meermano Museum
MS MMW 10 A 11, fol. 6r

He has left us a mighty legacy, on which numerous other philosophers, theologians and apologists have continued to build to this day.

Art was not much in evidence in his works, however.  It remained for future generations to supply an iconography for Augustine, which they certainly did.  And they developed several strands of iconography.  Below is a sampling of these various strands, presented in chronological order by the date of their creation,  not in the order of occurrence in Saint Augustine's life.

Life Events

Some of these have been interspersed above, in the description of his life.  Others are shown below.

Pietro Sano, The Death of Saint Jerome and His Apparition to Saint Augustine
Italian, c. 1450
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Saint Augustine Disputing with Doctors and Philosophers; Overhead is a Vision of the Throne of Grace
From De civitate Dei
French, c. 1464-1471
The Hague, Meermano Museum
MS MMW 10 D 33, fol. 15r

Vergós Group, Saint Augustine Disputing with the Heretics
Catalan, 1470-1475
Barcelona. Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Master of Saint Augustine, Scenes from the Life of Saint Augustine of Hippo
Italian, c.1490
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters

Girolamo Genga. Saint Augustine Baptizes the Catechumens

Italian, 1516-1518

Bergamo, Accademia Carrera

Carle van Loo. Agony of Saint Augustine

French, c.1700

Tours, Musée des Beax-Arts

Johann Zick, Saint Augustine Bestowing His Rule
German, 1746
Schussenried, Premonstratensian Church of St. Magnus

Conversion and Baptism  

Some of these have been interspersed above as well.  Some images include his robing as a cleric with the scene of his baptism.

Fra Angelico, Conversion of Saint Augustine
Italian, 1430-1435
Cherbourg, Musée Thomas-Henry

Charles Antoine Coypel, Conversion of Saint Augustine
French, 1736
Versailles. Musée national des chateaux de Versailles et de Trianon

As a Bishop

These images present Augustine in the garb of bishop, often holding a book and carrying the crozier, the symbolic shepherd’s staff that bishops in the Latin church carry.  One interesting observation occurred to me as I examined these pictures.  The majority show Augustine wearing the cope, a capelike vestment worn for liturgies other than the celebration of Mass.  It is interesting to note that as techniques advanced, and especially after the introduction of oil painting, the orphreys, the decorated bands on the front edges of the cope, become more and more elaborately embroidered.  This probably reflects the actual embroideries that were being worn at the time the paintings were made.

Saint Augustine
From a Book of Homilies
Italian (Pistoia), c. 11th - 12th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 790, fol. 1r

Saint Augustine
from Picture Bible
French (St. Omer, Benedictine Abbey of St. Bertin),
c.1190-1200
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76F5, fol. 38v

Collaborator of the Willehalm Master, Saint Augustine
From A Book of Homilies
German (Lower Rhine), First half of the 14th Century
Baltimore, Walters Art Museum
MS W148, fol. 21v 

Flemish School, Saint Augustine

Flemish, 15th Century

Paris, Musée du Louvre

Venetian School, Saint Augustine
Italian, c. 1450-1475
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Anonymous, Saint Augustine
German, 1450-1500
Suhl, Evangelical Parish Church of Sankt Ulrich

Paolo Giovanni, Saint Augustine
Italian, 1470-1475_
Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais

Jaime Huguet, Consecration of Saint Augustine
Spanish, 1463-1475
Barcelona, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Bartolome Bermejo, Saint Augustine
Spanish, c. 1477-1485
Chicago, Art Institute

Joseph Chinard, Saint Augustine
French, 1781
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts

     

 As a Scholar and Doctor of the Church  

      Augustine and three other saints (Gregory the Great, Ambrose and Jerome) were the first to be proclaimed with the title of Doctor of the Church by Pope Boniface VIII in 1298.  Doctors of the Church are saints whose writings and lives have been particularly important to the entire church.  

The list has been added to over the centuries and there are now 36 Doctors, including four women.

Saint Augustine
Late Antique, 6th Century
Rome, Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano

Saint Augustine
From De Civitate Dei by Augustine of Hippo
Flemish (Tongeren), c. 1300
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 71 A 1, fol. 8r 

Saint Augustine Receiving Inspiration
From Legenda aurea by Jacobus de Voragine
French (Paris), Beginning of the 15th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 242, fol. 189r

Sandro Botticelli, Saint Augustine
Italian, 1480
Florence, Church of Ognissanti

Michael Pacher, Saint Augustine
From Altarpiece of the Church Fathers
German, c.1483
Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakotek

Sandro Boticelli, Saint Augustus in His Cell
Italian, c. 1490-1494
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Master of Claude de France, Saint Augustine and Saint Cyril of Jerusalem

French, c.1500

Ecouen, Musée national de la Renaissance

MS ECL11764

Jean Bourdichon, Confessor Saints
From Grandes heures d'Anne de Bretagne
French (Tours), c. 1503-1508
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 9474, fol. 181v

Abraham Bloemart, Four Doctors of the Church Venerating the Eucharist

Dutch, 1632

Private Collection

Abraham Van Diepenbeeck. The Four Doctors of Church
Flemish, 1650-1660
Bordeaux, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Saint Augustine
Italian, 1657-1666
Vatican City, St. Peter's Basilica, Throne of Peter

With Other Saints

A very common image of Augustine is as a saint among saints, frequently surrounding the Madonna and Child, in what is known as a sacra conversazione (a sacred conversation) group.

Carolo da Milano, Saints Benedict and Augustine
Italian, 15th Century
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Francesco di Stefano, called Pesellino, Madonna and Child with Six Saints
Italian, late 1440s
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fra Filippo Lippi, Saints Augustine and Ambrose
Italian, c. 1437
Turin, Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti

Zanobi di Jacopo di Piero Machiavelli. Madonna and Child with Saints Sebastian, Peter, Bernardino, Paul, Lawrence
and Augustine
 Italian, 1460s
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts

Cosimo Rosselli, Enthroned Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist, Augustine, Dominic, Peter and the Holy Innocents

Italian, c. 1475

Berlin, Gemäeldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Luca Signorelli, Saints Eustachia, Mary Magdalene, Jerome, Augustine, Catherine of Alexandria and Anthony of Padua
Italian, c. 1478-1518
Berlin, Gemäeldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Neri di Bicci, Virgin and Child with Saints Margaret, Roch, Jerome, a Pope, Sebastian and Augustine
Italian, c. 1480-1490
Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais

Sandro Botticelli, Coronation of the Virgin
San Marco Altarpiece
Italian, c. 1490-1492
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Carlo Crivelli, Saint Augustine and Jerome
Italian, ca.1490
Venice, Galleria dell'Accademia

Ambrogio Fassone, called Il Bergognone, Circumcision of Christ with Saints and Donors
Italian, ca. 1494
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Giovanni Bellini, The Virgin in Glory with Saints
Italian, c. 1510-1515
Venice, Galleria dell'Accademia

Luca Signorelli, Madonna and Child with the Holy Trinity, Angels, Saints Augustine and Athanasius of Alexandria
Italian, c 1513-1514
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Andrea del Sarto, Disputation on the Trinity
Italian, 1517
Florence, Pitti Palace

Lorenzo Lotto, Santo Spirito Altarpiece, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Catherine, Augustine, Sebastian, Anthony Abbot and the Infant John the Baptist
Italian, 1521
Bergamo, Church of Santo Spirito

Giovanni Lanfranco. Coronation of the Virgin  with Saints Augustine and William of Acquitaine
Italian, ca. 1616
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Peter Paul Rubens, The Defenders of the Eucharist:  Saints Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Clare, Thomas Aquinas, Norbert and Jerome
Flemish, 1625
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Giambattista Tiepolo, Saints Augustine, Louis of France and John
Italian, 1740-1760
Lille. Palais des Beaux-Arts

His Meditations on the Trinity

      The story is told that Augustine had a hard time trying to work out the nature and internal relationship of the Holy Trinity.  Trying to work it out while walking alone the seashore near Hippo he encountered a small child with a seashell, who was running back and forth from the sea to a hole in the sand into which he would dump the small amount of water in the shell.  Augustine asked what he was doing and the child told him that he was trying to empty the sea into the hole.  When Augustine told him it was impossible to do such a deed with the seashell and the hole the answer he received was that it was just as impossible for him to understand the mystery of the Trinity with his human mind.  Not a bad reminder to all of us!

Maitre de la Mazarine & Workshop, Holy Trinity with Saint Augustine and the Child
From Grandes heures de Jean de Berry
French (Paris), 1409
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 919, fol. 93r

Benozzo Gozzoli, Parable of the Trinity

Italian, 1464-65

San Gimignano, Church of Sant' Agostino

Vergós_Group, Saint Augustine and the Trinity
Spanish, 1470-1475
Barcelona, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Bavarian Artist, Saint Augustine
German, c. 1480
Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek

Sandro Botticelli, Saint Augustine Meditating on the Mystery of the Trinty
Italian, ca. 1483-1488
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Rubens Workshop, Saint Augustine Meditating on the Mystery of the Trinity
Flemish, 17th Century
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Guercino, Saint Augustine Meditating on the Trinity
Italian, 1636
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Peter Paul Rubens, Saint Augustine
Flemish, 1639
Prague, Narodni Galerie

Gaspard Dughet, Landscape with Saint Augustine
French, 1651-1653
Rome, Galleria Doria Pamphilli

Gaspar de Crayer, Saint Augustine and the Trinity
Flemish, 1655
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Johann Baptist Zimmerman, Saint Augustine and the Trinity
German, 1729
Weyarn, Church of Saints Peter and Paul, formerly Augustinian Canons

Miracles Attributed to Augustine

Augustine is not one of the saints well-known as a miracle worker, but there are several attributed to his intercession. 

Joseph Parrocel, Saint Augustine Healing the Sick
French, 1680-1700
Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Miguel Jacinto Melendez. Ssiny Augustine Vanquishing a Plague of Locusts(in 1248)
Spanish, 1734
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Saint Augustine As a Visionary

Legends sprang up regarding various visions which Augustine had seen.  

Fra Filippo Lippi, Vision of Saint Augustine
Italian, c. 1438
Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Sano di Pietro, Apparition of Saint Jerome to Saint Augustine
Italian, 1444
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Saint Augustine Writing About the Trinity
From Hours of Louis of Savoy
French (Savoy), c. 1445-1460
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 9473, fol. 164v

Giovanni di Paolo, Saint Jerome Appearing to Saint Augustine
Italian, ca.1456
Berlin,  Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek

Vittore Carpaccio, Vision of  Saint Augustine
Italian, 1502
Venice, Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni

Caspar de Crayer, Saint Augustine in Ecstasy

Flemish, 1630-1640

Valenciennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Antonio Rodríguez, Vision of Saint Augustine
Mexican, 1650-1690
Mexico City, Museo Nacional de Arte

Bartolome Murillo, St Augustine Between Christ and the Virgin
Spanish, 1664
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Illustrating One of His Most Famous Quotes

Augustine is often shown holding a heart or with a heart nearby, sometimes it is pierced by an arrow, sometimes it is on fire.  This image refers to one of his most famous quotes, which occurs at the very beginning of the Confessions:  “You move us to delight in praising You; for You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You”.  (Augustine, Confessions, Book 1, Chapter 1, 1)

Anonymous, Saint Augustine
French, 1450-1475
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters

Jean le Tavernier & Workshop, Saint Augustine
From Hours of Philip of Burgundy
Flemish (Oudenarde), c. 1450-1460
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F 2, fol. 266v

Master of Margaret of York, Adoration of Christ
From De Civitate Dei by  Saint Augustine
Flem (Bruges), c. 1470-1480
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 17, fol. 467r

Saint Augustine
from Book of Hours
French (Paris), 1485-1495
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS H 3, fol. 180r

Saints Augustine and Jerome
From a Prayer Book
Flemish (Malines), c. 1500-1510
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 71 G 53, fol. 87v

Anonymous, Saint Augustine and the Augustinian Canoness
Dutch, 1525-1550
Chicago, Art Institute

Peter Paul Rubens, Saint Augustine
Flemish, 1620
Private Collection

Philippe de Champaigne. Saint Augustine
French, 1645-1650
Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Giuseppe Antonio Pianca. Saint Augustine
Italian, 1745
Private Collection

llustrations of The City of God

The City of God was a well-known book in the middle ages and there are several surviving illustrated copies.  Only a few scenes are reproduced here, but you can refer to the search websites of the Bibliotheque nationale de France or Pierpont Morgan Library to see more.

Master Francois, Saint Augustine and the Romans
from De Civitate Dei
French (Paris), 1469-1473
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 18, fol. 23

Master of Margaret of York and collaborators, Saint Augustine Denouncing Crime
from De Civitate Dei
Belgian (Bruges), c.1470-1480
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Français 17, fol. 111r

With His Mother

Augustine’s affectionate relationship with his mother, Saint Monica, is reflected in his iconography.  See also “St.Monica – The Persistent Mother”.

Follower of Master of Guillebert de Mets, Saints Augustine and Monica
from Book of Hours
Flemish (Tournai). 1435-1445
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 357, fol. 194r

Circle of Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Saint Augustine and Saint Monica
Flemish, 1500-1550
Private Collection

Sebastiano Conca, Madonna and Child with Saints Augustine and Monica
Italian, c. 1750
Gaeta, Museo Diocesano

Ary Scheffer. Saint Augustine and Saint Monica

French, 1846

Paris, Musée du Louvre

In Triumph in Heaven

Augustine is frequently see being received into heaven or in glory within it, especially in the Baroque and Rococo periods.

Claudio Coello, Triumph of Saint Augustine
Spanish, 1664
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Francisco Bayeu y Subia, Saint Augustine and the Virgin Adoring the Crucified Christ
Spanish, c.1750-1760
Private Collection

Johann Anwander, Apotheosis of Saint Augustine
German, 1754
Münnerstadt, Cloister Church of the Augustinian Hermits

These are simply a sampling of the hundreds of images I found in each of the categories.

© M. Duffy, 2016, updated 2022

1.   For the details of Augustine’s early life, based upon his own testimony in the Confessions see: 

    Portalié, Eugène. "Life of St. Augustine of Hippo." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2.     New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 28 Aug. 2016 .

2.   Augustine of Hippo.  Confessions, Book 8, Chapter 12, 29.  Translated by J.G.                        Pilkington. From  Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 1. Edited by                 Philip Schaff. (Buffalo, NY:   Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887.) Revised and         edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight  

3.   For a partial list of Augustine’s works see:  Portalié, Eugène. "Works of St. Augustine of         Hippo."   The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company,             1907. 28 Aug. 2016          . 

      See also: http://www.augnet.org/?ipageid=223