St. Augustine, Florida is known as the “Nation's oldest city” of America. Founded in 1565, it is the longest inhabited European-founded city in America. How fitting that the first city of the New World was named after one of the greatest saints of the Catholic Church! If America were completely devoted to Jesus Christ, and immersed in Catholic truth, would we finally have the City…or Country of God?

St. Augustine’s City of God

City of God was written at the beginning of the 5th century AD, in response to the accusations that Christianity was responsible for the great Sack of Rome – which happened exactly 1614 years ago this week, in 410 AD between August 24th - 27th. The original Latin title of Augustine's book is 

De Civitate Dei contra Paganos, in English - The City of God Against the Pagans. The book was published in 426 AD, as the empire was still reeling from the end of 800 years of security in the Eternal City. 

But before we dive into St. Augustine, let's give a bit of context. We all know about Emperor Constanine’s divine revelation in 312 AD, when he saw a glowing cross in the sky and saw the words - “In this sign, conquer.” He then had his army place the cross on all of their shields, and they went on to have a military victory at Milvian Bridge. Emperor Constantine, and his mother St. Helena, became devout Christians, but paganism still thrived in the Roman Empire. Shrines to Greco-Roman gods were commonplace, pagan temples and state sponsored pagan priests maintained the de facto religion, and Constantine embraced tolerance in his Edict of Milan. Yet, he called paganism “an outmoded illusion.”

Emperor Constantine gathered the First Ecumenical Council in Nicea, in 325 AD. His goal was uniformity and consensus in the Christian church. 

This is where the beginning of the Nicean Creed was formed:

We believe in one God. The Father Almighty. Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light; true God of true God; begotten not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and he shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; whose Kingdom shall have no end." 

However, as we all know, the holy fire of Christianity spreads fast when kindled. Fast forward 70 years, and we now have a Christian raised Emperor by the name of Theodosius I. 

Bust of Emperor Theodosius and AI generated image

Catholicism quickly became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD, when the newly baptized, devout Theodosius, impressed into the theology of Catholicism the belief of Nicene Christianity, decreed as the sole Christian Orthodox belief of the Empire. 

Per the Theodosian Codex - (a compilation of Roman laws under Christian Emperors since 312 AD):

"It is Our will that all the peoples who are ruled by the administration of Our Clemency shall practice that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans....The rest, whom We adjudge demented and insane, shall sustain the infamy of heretical dogmas, their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches, and they shall be smitten first by divine vengeance and secondly by the retribution of Our own initiative" (CTh. XVI.1.2)

At the time, heresies were prominent in the Christian world, with great disputes and lack of consensus over the origins of Christ, His powers, and the role of the Holy Spirit. It was at the First Council in Constantinople in 381 AD (the second ecumenical council for the Christian Church,) formed by Emperor Theodosius, that this statement was added to the Nicene Creed:

And [we believe] in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver-of-Life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. And [we believe] in one, holy, catholic and Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins, [and] we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

We can thank Emperor Theodosius I-Theodosius the Great-St. Theodosius for using his power as Emperor, in the installation of one of the pillars of our beliefs recited in church every weekend. 

St. Theodosius’s Feast Day is January 17th

Pagan Conspiracy

Well, as always with Roman history, there's more to the story. Theodosius the Great, no doubt fired up with the power of the Holy Spirit, was not a fan of paganism. He called heretical Christians “demented and insane” and a target of “divine vengeance,” can you imagine how he felt about pagans? 

He was the first emperor to renounce the title “Pontifex Maximus,” a title given to the Emperor as the religious head of pagan cults, venerated in early-mid Roman history. While modern scholars choose to debate on his veracity of pagan suppression, I question whether they are attempting to liberalize history through a proto-American “freedom of religion” lens. They claim there isn't enough evidence in archaeological digs to prove widespread destruction of pagan temples, but I find this theory unconvincing. Roman emperors were not exactly tolerant of anything they considered the enemy. 

What is proven, however, is that he was not pressed to protect pagan temples. He became Emperor of the Eastern half of the Roman Empire, leaving the West to Emperor Valentinian II. When the 

21-year-old Valentinan II was found mysteriously to have committed suicide, Emperor Eugenius was elevated to Emperor of the West by a seemingly “trusted” Roman General Arbogast. Emperor Eugenius, reportedly a Christian, decided to favor pagan politicians and their pagan projects in the Senate. They wanted money to revive their temples, and maintain their traditional Roman way of life. However, Emperor Theodosius easily caught on to this, and within two years Rome was seized by the Eastern Emperor, Theodosius’s young son was made emperor of the West, and Emperor Eugenius and his puppet master, General Arbogast, were eliminated. 

While Emperor Theodosius was tolerant of paganism at the beginning of his reign, most likely the period liberal proto-American modern scholars wish to focus on, a curious event happened in 390 that changed everything.

Enter St. Ambrose

Mosaic of St. Ambrose in Westminster, London

Heavyweight Doctor of the Church and an overnight Catholic Bishop, the formidable St. Ambrose brought a Roman Emperor to his knees, repenting in sackcloth and shaved head at the cathedral in Milan in 390 AD. So how did he do it?

We will dig into this in the next blog post. Don’t worry, we will eventually get to St. Augustine! 

IHS,
Jill