Augustine in His Own Words
Confessions 27 but a divine command that I should open a book and read the first passage I should find. For I had heard about Antony, that he had been admonished from a reading of the Gospel that he had come upon by chance, as if what was read was said for him: "Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me" (Mt 19:21)—and by such a revelation he was immediately "converted to You" (Ps 50:15).45 And so I hurried back to the place where Alypius was sitting. I had put there the volume of [the letters of] the Apostle [Paul] when I had gotten up. Snatching it up, I opened it and read in silence the first passage my eyes fell upon: "Not in revelries and drunkenness, not in eroticism and indecencies, not in rivalries and jealousies, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and as for the flesh, make no provision for its lusts" (Rom 13:13–14). No further did I desire to read, nor was there any need. Immediately by sentence's end, all darkness of doubt was dispersed, and a light of peace flooded into my heart.46
Cassiciacum
In the aftermath of this conversion, Augustine resigned from his post as orator and took a sabbatical during the fall of 386. His resignation was prompted as much by a respiratory illness as by any conversion. He spent this time in Cassiciacum with friends, family, and a few students. There he composed his earliest extant works, a set of four philosophical dialogues. From Confessions, Book 9:
(4.7) The day came on which I was actually to be released from the profession of rhetoric, though I had already been released from it in my thinking. And the deed was done. You delivered my tongue, as You had already delivered my heart from it. I blessed You in my joy and departed for a country house [in Cassiciacum] with all my associates. What I did there, by way of writing, my books of discussions with others present and with myself alone in Your presence47 are a witness of; those writings, though indeed dedicated to Your service, still breathe forth, as in a rest period, the school of pride. My letters also give evidence of what things were discussed with Nebridius while he was away. When shall I have enough time to bring back the memory of all Your great benefits towards us during that period, especially when I must hasten
45. Athanasius, Vita Antonii 2 (SC 400:136). 46. Conf. 8.7.17–12.29 (CCL 27:124–31); my trans., based on Bourke, FOTC 21:215–25. This "putting on" Christ was symbolized by the newly baptized wearing white robes for the week after their baptism. Augustine thus reads Rom 13:13–14 as a call to baptism. See O'Donnell, 3:61.
47. "Books of discussions with others . . . and with myself alone": At Cassiciacum Augustine composed three philosophical dialogues, using his students, friends, and family as dialogue partners; he also composed Soliloquies (Soliloquia), a dialogue between himself and his "Reason." For excerpts see Chapter 2.