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event · MILEVIS, Numidia, this year, 426 AD

St. Augustine goes to Milevis to settle a bishop's succession

Edition of

Saint Augustine of Hippo
An empty stone bishop's chair raised on two steps against the curved apse of a small whitewashed brick church, with stone benches on either side, an open codex and inkwell on the step, wicker book-boxes on the mosaic floor, and an arched doorway open on an olive tree in the sun.
The bishop's chair stands empty in the basilica at Milevis, Numidia, in 426 AD, after the death of its bishop, Severus.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a buon fresco on lime plaster, from the paper's reference portrait based on St Augustine's Vision of St Jerome (scene 16, east wall), from the Life of St Augustine (Benozzo Gozzoli, 1464-1465, apsidal chapel, Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano) View source artwork.

MILEVIS, Numidia, this year, 426 AD — Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius in Roman North Africa and seventy-one, travelled this year to Milevis in Numidia, where his fellow bishop Severus had died. Clergy and monks there sent for him, fearing trouble. St. Augustine says a church is commonly disturbed after its bishop dies by ambitious or contentious men.

The choice was not in dispute: Severus had designated his successor, and the people accepted him once they learned of it. Severus, St. Augustine said afterwards, had thought it enough to name the man to the clergy and “did not speak of the matter to the people, which gave rise to dissatisfaction in the minds of some.” The complaint was settled and the man was ordained bishop; the record does not name him.

On 26 September 426 AD at Hippo, before more laymen than usual, St. Augustine named the presbyter Eraclius his successor, giving Milevis as the reason.

About this story

Catholic Saints News tells the lives of the saints as news from their own time and place. This story was written with AI from the historical record, and we read and approved it before it ran.

The Saints' words. This newspaper will never make a saint say something the historical record does not preserve.

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Image. AI-generated image, in the manner of a buon fresco on lime plaster, from the paper's reference portrait based on St Augustine's Vision of St Jerome (scene 16, east wall), from the Life of St Augustine (Benozzo Gozzoli, 1464-1465, apsidal chapel, Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano) — see the original.

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A painted still life of a wooden desk holding a large open handwritten codex, a reed pen in a small inkpot, hinged wax tablets and a lit clay oil lamp, with a bare hand resting on the open page and a wicker basket of books beneath.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a buon fresco on lime plaster, from the paper's reference portrait based on Sant'Agostino nello studio (Saint Augustine in his Study) (Sandro Botticelli, c. 1480; photograph by Sailko, CC BY 3.0, Church of Ognissanti, Florence) View source artwork.

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About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a buon fresco on lime plaster, from the paper's reference portrait based on Funerali di sant'Agostino (Funeral of St Augustine, scene 17), from the Life of St Augustine (Benozzo Gozzoli, 1464-1465, apsidal chapel, Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano). View source artwork.

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