Biblical Adeodatus
Adeodatus, the only-known son of Augustine, bishop of Hippo, was born while his father was a student at Carthage to the first of the several mistresses with whom Augustine lived. In this particular case, though the woman’s name be unknown, they cohabited for a period of at least fourteen years, she finally leaving Augustine when he had taken up with others. The child was left with his father; the mother returned to the Roman province of Africa, from which she had come, “vowing never to give herself to any other man” .
Augustine’s father, Patricius, had died two years before Augustine was nineteen; his mother, Monica did not remarry. Augustine appears to have begun his daliances in that interval, even though it was ultimately his mother’s parental and religious influences which were to prevail. Monica had been instrumental in the conversion of her husband to Christianity not long before his death, and in the instilling within her son the seeds of such a possibility, in spite of the postponement of his baptism, long before these took root and grew into his statured role.
Accompanied by mistress and son, Augustine’s own career took him from higher education in Carthage, as determined by his father, whereat he studied philosophy and rhetoric, from whence he became a teacher of rhetoric first at Thagaste and then at Carthage, before voyaging via Rome to take up a comparable position at Milan where he not only encountered Ambrose but was joined by Monica for the remainder of her days. Adeodatus clearly came under the influence of his grandmother, such that he was baptized into the “Catholic” church at Milan along with his father on Holy Saturday, “although he was barely fifteen”. But within months, Monica died at the Roman port of Ostia as they were all returning to Africa, and this affected the lad most severely.
Nevertheless, by virtue of the fact that, as Augustine remarked, “there were many learned and respected men who were not his equals in intelligence,” Adeodatus came to play a significant role in Augustine’s further religious development, such that there is singled out “a book of mine called De magistro, which consists of a dialogue between Adeodatus and me”. The lad survived but a few years longer, sharing in the communal life with his father, established in what had been the parental home back in Thagaste, before succumbing prematurely, much to his father’s grief.
Augustine’s father, Patricius, had died two years before Augustine was nineteen; his mother, Monica did not remarry. Augustine appears to have begun his daliances in that interval, even though it was ultimately his mother’s parental and religious influences which were to prevail. Monica had been instrumental in the conversion of her husband to Christianity not long before his death, and in the instilling within her son the seeds of such a possibility, in spite of the postponement of his baptism, long before these took root and grew into his statured role.
Accompanied by mistress and son, Augustine’s own career took him from higher education in Carthage, as determined by his father, whereat he studied philosophy and rhetoric, from whence he became a teacher of rhetoric first at Thagaste and then at Carthage, before voyaging via Rome to take up a comparable position at Milan where he not only encountered Ambrose but was joined by Monica for the remainder of her days. Adeodatus clearly came under the influence of his grandmother, such that he was baptized into the “Catholic” church at Milan along with his father on Holy Saturday, “although he was barely fifteen”. But within months, Monica died at the Roman port of Ostia as they were all returning to Africa, and this affected the lad most severely.
Nevertheless, by virtue of the fact that, as Augustine remarked, “there were many learned and respected men who were not his equals in intelligence,” Adeodatus came to play a significant role in Augustine’s further religious development, such that there is singled out “a book of mine called De magistro, which consists of a dialogue between Adeodatus and me”. The lad survived but a few years longer, sharing in the communal life with his father, established in what had been the parental home back in Thagaste, before succumbing prematurely, much to his father’s grief.
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