Au´gust, the eighth month from January. It was the sixth of the Roman year, and hence was called Sextīlis till the Emperor Augustus affixed to it his own name.
Augus´ta, the name of many ancient places, as Augusta Trevirorum, now Trèves; Augusta Taurinorum, now Turin; Augusta Vindelicorum, now Augsburg; &c.
Augusta (ou-gu¨s'ta˙), or Agos´ta, a seaport in the south-east of Sicily, 12 miles north of Syracuse. It exports salt, oil, honey, &c. Pop. 17,250.
Augus´ta, capital of Maine, United States, on the River Kennebec, which is crossed by a bridge and is navigable for small vessels 43 miles from its mouth, while a dam enables steamboats to ply for 20 miles farther up and furnishes immense water-power. Pop. (1920), 14,144.
Augusta, the capital of Richmond county, Georgia, United States, on the left bank of the Savannah River, 231 miles from its mouth; well built, and connected with the river by high-level canals; an important manufacturing centre, having cotton-mills, machine-shops, and railroad works, &c. Pop. (1920), 52,548.
Au´gustine (Aurelius Augustinus), St., a renowned father of the Christian Church, was born at Tagaste, in Africa, in 354, his mother Monica being a Christian, his father Patricius a pagan. His parents sent him to Carthage to complete his education, but he disappointed their expectations by his neglect of serious study and his devotion to pleasure. A lost book of Cicero's, called Hortensius, led him to the study of philosophy; but dissatisfied with this he went over to the Manichæans. He was one of their disciples for nine years, but left them, went to Rome, and thence to Milan, where he announced himself as a teacher of rhetoric. St. Ambrose, the bishop of this city, converted him to the faith of his boyhood, and the reading of Paul's Epistles wrought an entire change in his life and character. He retired into solitude, and prepared himself for baptism, which he received in his thirty-third year from the hands of Ambrose. Returning to
Africa, he sold his estate and gave the proceeds to the poor, retaining only enough to support him. At the desire of the people of Hippo, Augustine became the assistant of the bishop of that town, preached with extraordinary success, and in 395 succeeded to the see. He entered into a warm controversy with Pelagius concerning the doctrines of free-will, grace, and predestination, and wrote treatises concerning them, but of his various works his Confessions is most secure of immortality. He died 28th Aug., 430, while Hippo was besieged by the Vandals. He was a man of great enthusiasm, self-devotion, zeal for truth, and powerful intellect, and though there have been fathers of the Church more learned, none have wielded a more powerful influence. His doctrine of grace, which was an important contribution to Christian thought, triumphed at last in the Reformation and evangelical religion. His writings are partly autobiographical, as the Confessions, partly polemical, homiletic, or exegetical. The greatest is the City of God (De Civitate Dei), a vindication of Christianity.—Bibliography: Joseph McCabe, St. Augustine and his Age; Nourrisson, La Philosophie de St. Augustin.
Au´gustine, or Austin, St., the Apostle of the English, first Archbishop of Canterbury, flourished at the close of the sixth century, was sent, in 596, with forty monks by Pope Gregory I to introduce Christianity into Saxon England, and was kindly received by Ethelbert, King of Kent, whom he converted, baptising 10,000 of his subjects in one day. In acknowledgment of his tact and success Augustine received the archiepiscopal pall from the Pope, with instructions to establish twelve sees in his province, but he could not persuade the British bishops in Wales to unite with the new English Church. He died in 604 or 605. Cf. Sir H. H. Howorth, St. Augustine of Canterbury.
Au´gustins, or Augustines, members of several monastic fraternities who follow rules framed by the great St. Augustine, or deduced from his writings, of which the chief are the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, or Austin Canons, and the Begging Hermits or Austin Friars. The Austin Canons were introduced into Britain about 1100, and had about 170 houses in England and about twenty-five in Scotland. They took the vows of chastity and poverty, and their habit was a long black cassock with a white rochet over it, having over that a black cloak and hood. The Austin Friars, originally hermits, were a much more austere body, went barefooted, and formed one of the four orders of mendicants. An order of nuns had also the name of Augustines. Their garments, at first black, were afterwards violet.
Augusto´vo, a town of Poland, formerly in Russia, in the government of Suwalki, founded in 1557 by Sigismund II. Pop. 11,797. The battle of Augustovo was fought between the Russians and the Germans between 14th Sept and 3rd Oct., 1914.