Augustine on Death Essay - 1187 Words

Augustine on Death Death is a very natural occurrence in life, and everyone experiences death differently, but yet in the same way. When Augustine was a young boy his father died, and he makes a small account of this in the Confessions. Later on in life, he loses a dear friend, and his loving mother. With time, he mentally matures and death affects Augustine differently each time. The death of his father was merely mentioned in the Confessions, while the death of Monica, his mother, was an elaborate detailed account of the time of her death. The death of his close friend, when Augustine was a child made him realize that life is temporal. Growing up, Augustine was not very close to his father. He confided in his mother and†¦show more content†¦They both went to school together, and enjoyed each other’s company. â€Å"†¦I had come to have a friend who because of our shared interests was very close. He was my age, and we shared the flowering of youth. As a boy he had grown up with me, and had gone to school together and played with one another†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Augustine and this unnamed friend knew each other for a short time, yet Augustine felt that he was losing someone he had known all his life. â€Å"You [God] took the man from this life when our friendship had scarcely completed a year. It had been sweet to me beyond all sweetnesses of life that I had experienced.† The unnamed friend came down a bad fever, and he was baptized while he was unconscious. Augustine felt as if this baptismal sacrament would have no affect on him and he would carry all the sins of his childhood. The unnamed friend did awake from his unconscious state and Augustine and the friend had a minor conflict over a joke Augustine made over the friend’s baptism. The friend did not find it a laughing matter, but they did resolve the conflict. Augustine left for a few days and while he was gone, his friend passed away. Augustine explains that he was stricken with grief from the death of his friend, which made him want to leave his hometown. Everything made him think of his friend, and he was always looking for him. Augustine was constantly weeping and was a wreck. â€Å"My home became a torture to me; my father’s house a strangeShow MoreRelatedDeath And Enlightenment By Augustine1313 Words   |  6 Pages Death and Enlightenment It may seem reasonable that Augustine accepted, at the time of his friend’s death, that God is unchangeable and humans are a temporary creation and just a part of the whole. However, by paying close attention to the text Augustine is writing the Confessions retrospectively. He ends up recognizing the directionality of his love and the change in his grieving in the future, after the deaths of his friend and Monica. 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