On 1,650th anniversary of Augustine's birth, his relics come to Rome

Published: 2004-11-11

ROME (CNS) -- As part of celebrations marking the 1,650th anniversary of St. Augustine's birth, the relics of the African-born saint were making the rounds of Rome churches. At an inaugural Mass in the packed Church of St. Augustine Nov. 7, people with digital cameras crowded around the remains, contained in a 10-sided, gold-rimmed glass case. A nun leading a prayer stuck out her arm to block an eager onlooker from inching too close to the relics. People everywhere like to have contact with symbols of holy people, said U.S. Father Robert Prevost, prior general of the Augustinian religious order. "In the United States a few years ago, the remains of St. Therese (of Lisieux) were brought out, and thousands of people came," said Father Prevost, who is from Chicago. St. Augustine's tomb lies in a basilica in Pavia, in northern Italy, where a Lombard king took the relics in the eighth century. The remains were being moved to various churches in Rome and Ostia Antica, the port city where St. Augustine's mother, Monica, died, to coincide with a week of Masses and conferences involving cardinals, theologians and religious orders.

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