ALIPIO, SANTO

ALIPPIUS, St. — Bishop of Tagaste, disciple and very close friend of St. Augustine, to whom we owe almost everything we know about him. Born in Tagaste a few years after Augustine, he attended his lectures both in their native city and in Carthage. The friendship that ensued, and which was never to lose any of its intimacy throughout their lives, though it drew the pupil away from the unbridled passion for circus games, bound him to his teacher in adherence to Manichaeism. Having gone to Rome to study law, where he was appointed comes largitionum, A. experienced a painful relapse into his passion for gladiatorial spectacles; but he was then drawn away from it by the keen sense of moral probity he possessed and by the goodness and mercy of the Lord (Confess., 6, 8, n. 13). He followed Augustine to Milan, took part in all the vicissitudes, struggles, and anxieties of his conversion, supported him in the harsh battles and defeats of the senses, and in return received from him the most pressing invitations to embrace the Christian religion. The two friends were baptized together (25 Apr. 387) and together lived at Cassiciacum, taking part in those philosophical disputes which Augustine describes in the two treatises: Contra Academicos and De Ordine (PL 32, 905 ff.; 977 ff.). Returning to Africa, A. was Augustine’s companion in the monastery at Hippo; he made a brief journey to the East, where he met St. Jerome, and shortly afterwards was elected bishop of Tagaste (394). Under his guidance, the city flourished again in holiness, exactitude, and orthodoxy, as prevailed at Hippo. He took part in several councils and vigorously combated heretics, strengthened by Augustine’s example, letters, and love. He is thought to have died in 429 or 430. His name was included in the Roman Martyrology only in 1584, under the date of 15 Aug., though the Hermits and the Augustinian Canons celebrated his feast on the 18th.