Roman Catholics will celebrate Sunday, Aug. 28, the feast of Saint Augustine (San Agustin), one of the Roman Catholic Church’s most popular saints and the revered founder of the Augustinian Order.
Seventeen masses will be celebrated by the hour from 4 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. at the Diocesan Shrine of San Agustin de Tanza in Sta. Cruz, Tanza in Cavite on Sunday in commemoration of the feast of the revered “Tata Usteng.”
Imus Bishop Reynaldo G. Evangelista presided over the concelebrated mass with the clergy of Imus last Aug. 26 at 5 p.m.
The diocesan shrine will mark its 242nd parish anniversary on Monday, Aug. 29.
Feast masses will also be celebrated on Sunday, Aug. 28, at the San Agustin Parish in San Fernando Pampanga at 6:30 a.m., 8 a.m., 10 a.m., and 7 p.m. Bishop Paciano B. Aniceto will celebrate the mass at 5:30 p.m. A procession will be held on Saturday, Aug. 27, after the 6 p.m. mass.
Feast masses will also be celebrated in parishes churches dedicated to the revered saint such as at the San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila.
Also known as St. Augustine of Hippo, his feast follows that of his mother, Saint Monica, the patron saint of wives and mothers, whose feast day was commemorated Saturday, Aug. 27.
Known as the Doctor of Grace because of his miraculous transformation from his wayward ways through the perseverance of his mother, St. Monica, and his mentor, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine discovered, through prayer, a change of heart.
Ordained priest in the year 391, he served as bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa from 396 until 430. His masterpiece, the “Confessions,” became a classic of Christian theology and western literature.
Born on Nov.13, 354 in Tagaste, North Africa, he died in 430. St. Augustine was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303.