” “A figure that "left an extremely strong mark on Western culture and in the world", an "unprecedented model" in Western literature and "even in modern literature". With these words, the Pope defined today Saint Augustine of Hippo, a figure that will be the focus announced the Holy Father at the end of his catechesis at today’s general audience also of the "next meetings". "The mystery of God, which is hidden in man": this, said Benedict XVI off the cuff, is one of the spiritual traits of Augustine’s philosophy, considered by the Holy Father "an extraordinary, unprecedented thing, which remains, as it were, a spiritual mountain". "A man of passion and faith, of an extremely lofty intelligence and an indefatigable pastoral zeal began the Pontiff , this great saint and doctor of the Church is often known, at least by reputation, even by people who know nothing about Christianity or are not used to it". Due to his "unprecedented relevance", went on the Pope, "Saint Augustine had an extremely wide influence", so much so that "one could state, on one side, that all the roads of Christian literature lead to Hippo and, on the other side, that this city in Roman Africa, of which Augustine was the bishop from 395 until his death in 430, branches off into many roads of the later Christianity and of the Western culture itself" (continued).” “
