” “Once baptised, Augustine decided to go back to Africa in the attempt to "lead an ordinary life of a monastic character, at the service of God. But, in Ostia, his mother suddenly fell ill and died quickly, breaking his son’s heart". Back home, he was ordained presbyter in 391, at Hippo we was made bishop in 395. Augustine was baptised "against his will", said the Pope, off the cuff, "he did not feel called to the pastoral life, but later on he understood that his life was to be a pastor for the others, for giving the truth to the others". "An exemplary bishop", he soon had "a vast influence on the guidance of the Church", in the presence of "powerful and disrupting religious trends and heresies, such as Manichaeism, Donatism and Pelagianism". And Augustine entrusted himself to God "every day, until the end of his life".” “"Caught by a fever while for nearly three months his Hippo had been sieged by the invading Vandals", Augustine said the Pope, mentioning Possidius’ "Vita Augustini" asked to copy in large characters the Penitential Psalms and had the sheets posted on the wall, so that while he was in bed during his illness he could see and read them, and he never stopped crying hot tears". This is how Augustine spent the last days of his life; he died on 28th August 430, just before turning 76.” “
