St. Augustine's Retractions

254 Words2 Pages
St. Augustine lived from 354 to 430 and was, therefore, seventy-six when he died. He was converted in the year 386 and was, accordingly, thirty-two years old at that time. He was ordained a priest in 391 and consecrated bishop in 393 at the age of forty-two. In his Retractions he lists no less than ninety-six books; twenty-eight of these were written before or during the time he was a priest. Eventually sixty-give others appeared, the most extensive and the most important works dating from his thirty-four years as bishop. He actually composed one hundred eighteen works, but fails to mention them all in his Retractions. The two dimensions, temporality and eternity, make up the very substance of Augustine’s spiritual life. Its characteristics