The Victory of Truth Is Love: From “Bad Boy” to Saint

Does this person sound familiar?

If things weren't going his way as a kid, he would lie, cheat, or steal to get what he wanted. 

At 16, he dropped out of school for awhile, ran around with the "wrong crowd," and had a baby at 19.

After finishing school, he struggled to provide for his family, changing jobs and moving around. 

Nine years into their relationship, he separated from the mother of his son, got engaged to someone else, and then cheated on his fiancée.

Eventually, he faced the fact that he was deeply unhappy and began to explore the Christian faith he had fallen away from. Even when he realized the truth of the faith, though, he wouldn't commit to actually changing his ways.

But God didn't give up on him and finally, three years later, he was baptized into the Church. Then a few years after, he became a priest, and later a bishop.

And over the next forty years, he defended the Church against heresies, established a monastic community, and wrote volumes on God and the world. Now almost 1600 years after his death, he remains one of the most recognized and respected thinkers of Western civilization.

This is St. Augustine's story.

To his mom, it probably felt impossible at times that he could ever come back to God. But “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You."

St. Augustine's feast day is this Saturday, August 28. If you know someone who has fallen away from the faith, ask Augustine's intercession for them. And if you are far from God, ask him to pray for you. He's been there, and done that, and his story reminds us that “Only the truth gains the victory, but the victory of truth is love” (Sermon 385,1).

St. Augustine, pray for us!