AUGUSTINE AS A LUMINARY AMONG ECCLESIASTICAL TEACHERS: REFLECTIONS ON POPE PIUS XI’S AD SALUTEM

Résumé

On the twentieth day of April 1930, the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and the year of the Fifteenth Centenary Anniversary of the Death of St Augustine, the ninth year of the Pontificate of Pius XI, joining his predecessors in the praise of Augustine, for his gift of the cognition of the divine and hoping that humanity may again attain the image of divine revelation through his cognition, issued the Apostolic Letter Ad Salutem in Saint Peter's Basilica Rome. This piece studies Pope Pius XI’s ecclesiastical document, which begins by focussing on the rich perspectives of the Roman Pontiffs who had gone before him, in relation to Augustine. Taking this as a basis for reflection, this paper further discusses the chief end of human existence in Augustine, the Roman Pontif’s perspective on the Church, the Trinity and divine grace.