Key Arguments

• He presents Verecundus as anxiously attached to Augustine’s company yet bound by social obligations and a Christian wife, unable to join their journey: "Verecundus was torn by anxiety at the happiness which had come to us because he was firmly tied by the chains of his obligations and saw himself losing our society. He was not yet a Christian, but his wife was a baptized believer. Fettered by her more than anything else, he was held back from the journey on which we had embarked."
• Verecundus offers generous hospitality at his own expense, which Augustine explicitly asks God to repay at the ‘rewarding of the just’: "Most generously he offered us hospitality at his expense for as long as we were there. Repay him, Lord, at the rewarding of the just (Luke 14: 14)."
• Augustine sees Verecundus’ later illness, death, and baptism as God’s double mercy to him and to them, sparing them the anguish of losing him outside the fold: "For when we were absent during our stay in Rome,7 he was taken ill in body, and in his sickness departed this life a baptized Christian. So you had mercy not only on him but also on us. We would have felt tortured by unbearable pain if, in thinking of our friend’s outstanding humanity to us, we could not have numbered him among your flock."
• He interprets Verecundus’ country estate, where they had rested in God, as typologically answered by God’s gift of paradise: "in return for Verecundus’ country estate at Cassiciacum8 where we rested in you from the heat of the world, you rewarded him with the loveliness of your evergreen paradise. For you forgave his sins upon earth and translated him to the mountain flowing with milk,9 your mountain, the mountain of abundance (Ps. 67: 16)."
• Nebridius, though formerly Manichaean, had become a seeker of truth and then was baptized Catholic after Augustine: "He had fallen into that ditch of pernicious [Manichee] error which taught him to believe that the flesh of your Son, the truth, was illusory. Nevertheless he had emerged from that to the attitude that, though not yet initiated into any of the sacraments of your Church, he was an ardent seeker after truth. Soon after my conversion and regeneration by your baptism, he too became a baptized Catholic believer."
• Augustine emphasizes Nebridius’ chaste service and his role in converting his whole household before death: "He was serving you in perfect chastity and continence among his own people in Africa, and through him his entire household became Christian, when you released him from bodily life."
• He locates Nebridius’ soul in ‘Abraham’s bosom’, calling him both a ‘sweet friend’ and God’s ‘former freedman and now adopted son’, highlighting adoption and liberation: "Now he lives in Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16: 22). Whatever is symbolized by ‘bosom’, that is where my Nebridius lives, a sweet friend to me, but, Lord, your former freedman and now adopted son.10"
• He imagines Nebridius now directly ‘drinking’ wisdom from God, and insists he has not forgotten his earthly friends because God, whom he drinks, remembers them: "He no longer pricks up his ear when I speak, but puts his spiritual mouth to your fountain and avidly drinks as much as he can of wisdom, happy without end. I do not think him so intoxicated by that as to forget me, since you, Lord, whom he drinks, are mindful of us."

Source Quotes

Fettered by her more than anything else, he was held back from the journey on which we had embarked. He used to say that he did not wish to be a Christian except in the way which was not open to him.6 Most generously he offered us hospitality at his expense for as long as we were there. Repay him, Lord, at the rewarding of the just (Luke 14: 14). Indeed you have already rewarded him with their lot (Num.

Your encouragements and consolations so assure us. Faithful to your promises, in return for Verecundus’ country estate at Cassiciacum8 where we rested in you from the heat of the world, you rewarded him with the loveliness of your evergreen paradise. For you forgave his sins upon earth and translated him to the mountain flowing with milk,9 your mountain, the mountain of abundance (Ps.

Faithful to your promises, in return for Verecundus’ country estate at Cassiciacum8 where we rested in you from the heat of the world, you rewarded him with the loveliness of your evergreen paradise. For you forgave his sins upon earth and translated him to the mountain flowing with milk,9 your mountain, the mountain of abundance (Ps. 67: 16). (6) Though at that time Verecundus was upset, Nebridius shared in our joy.

Nevertheless he had emerged from that to the attitude that, though not yet initiated into any of the sacraments of your Church, he was an ardent seeker after truth. Soon after my conversion and regeneration by your baptism, he too became a baptized Catholic believer. He was serving you in perfect chastity and continence among his own people in Africa, and through him his entire household became Christian, when you released him from bodily life.

Soon after my conversion and regeneration by your baptism, he too became a baptized Catholic believer. He was serving you in perfect chastity and continence among his own people in Africa, and through him his entire household became Christian, when you released him from bodily life. Now he lives in Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16: 22).

He was serving you in perfect chastity and continence among his own people in Africa, and through him his entire household became Christian, when you released him from bodily life. Now he lives in Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16: 22). Whatever is symbolized by ‘bosom’, that is where my Nebridius lives, a sweet friend to me, but, Lord, your former freedman and now adopted son.10 There he lives; for what other place could hold so remarkable a soul? There he lives, in that place concerning which he used to put many questions to me—a poor little man without expert knowledge.

There he lives, in that place concerning which he used to put many questions to me—a poor little man without expert knowledge. He no longer pricks up his ear when I speak, but puts his spiritual mouth to your fountain and avidly drinks as much as he can of wisdom, happy without end. I do not think him so intoxicated by that as to forget me, since you, Lord, whom he drinks, are mindful of us. So that was our state.

Key Concepts

• Most generously he offered us hospitality at his expense for as long as we were there. Repay him, Lord, at the rewarding of the just (Luke 14: 14).
• in return for Verecundus’ country estate at Cassiciacum8 where we rested in you from the heat of the world, you rewarded him with the loveliness of your evergreen paradise.
• For you forgave his sins upon earth and translated him to the mountain flowing with milk,9 your mountain, the mountain of abundance (Ps. 67: 16).
• Soon after my conversion and regeneration by your baptism, he too became a baptized Catholic believer.
• He was serving you in perfect chastity and continence among his own people in Africa, and through him his entire household became Christian, when you released him from bodily life.
• Now he lives in Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16: 22). Whatever is symbolized by ‘bosom’, that is where my Nebridius lives, a sweet friend to me, but, Lord, your former freedman and now adopted son.10
• He no longer pricks up his ear when I speak, but puts his spiritual mouth to your fountain and avidly drinks as much as he can of wisdom, happy without end. I do not think him so intoxicated by that as to forget me, since you, Lord, whom he drinks, are mindful of us.

Context

Book IX, iii (5–6): Augustine recounts the fates of his friends Verecundus and Nebridius in light of his own conversion, using their stories to illustrate God’s mercy, the value of hospitality and chastity, and his theology of baptism, reward, and the blessed dead.