Pope Leo XIV offered Mass yesterday at the basilica near the site where St Augustine died nearly 1600 years ago, making a deeply personal pilgrimage in the saint’s footsteps in Algeria. Source: OSV News.
“Here the martyrs prayed; here St Augustine loved his flock, fervently seeking the truth and serving Christ with ardent faith,” the Pope said in his homily, delivered in French. “Be heirs to this tradition, bearing witness through fraternal charity to the freedom of those born from above as a hope of salvation for the world.”
Preaching to hundreds of people inside the Basilica of St Augustine, the Pope, who called himself a “son of Augustine” in his first speech as Pope from the loggia of St Peter’s Basilica, emphasised Augustine’s dramatic conversion from a restless seeker of truth to one of Christianity’s greatest saints.
“We revere him for his conversion even more than for his wisdom,” said Pope Leo, who twice quoted directly from St Augustine’s autobiography Confessions.
He also recalled the role of Augustine’s mother, St Monica, whose persistent prayers and tears accompanied her son’s conversion.
“Can we truly start our lives over again?” Pope Leo asked the congregation. “Yes! The Lord’s response, so full of love, fills our hearts with hope. No matter how weighed down we are by pain or sin: The crucified One carries all these burdens with us and for us.”
The Mass marked the second day of the Pope’s 11-day pilgrimage through four African nations – Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea – and the culminating moment of the first papal visit to the North African country.
Before the Mass, Pope Leo visited the nearby archaeological ruins of ancient Hippo Regius, the Roman city where Augustine served as bishop from about A.D. 396 until his death in 430, as Vandal forces besieged its walls.
Arriving in the rain beneath a white umbrella, the Pope laid a wreath of flowers, planted a small olive tree and paused in silent prayer before the ancient columns.
At the age of 70, Pope Leo has spent most of his life as an Augustinian, including as prior general of the Augustinian Order, during which he twice visited the Augustinian missionaries in Algeria.
FULL STORY
‘Son of Augustine’: Pope Leo XIV retraces St Augustine’s steps in Algeria (By Courtney Mares, OSV News)
