Maria wrote:From what I was taught, St. Augustine repented, wanted to rewrite his older books, but ran out of time.
Bishop Augustine of Hippo actually completed a book titled in Latin Retractationes, which means reviews, corrections, reconsiderations, second thoughts, etc. It does not really mean "retractions," although such a book could include some actual retractions. The book was written about three or four years before his repose and reviews and corrects all his books up to that point, but not sermons and letters. He died before writing a book reviewing his letters and sermons. To my knowledge, he did not offer any repentance on the issues that Orthodox are agreed that he erred on. In his final years he was quite stubborn in his opinions. We should also note that whereas Augustine's teacher Saint Ambrose of Milan knew Greek well and tried to faithfully follow the Greek Church Fathers, Augustine struggled with the Greek language and departed from the Greek patristic approach on numerous issues. Augustine also, in a self-willed manner, departed from Ambrose's teachings on some issues (see Romanides for details).
Even those who honor Bishop Augustine of Hippo, such as Father Seraphim Rose and Vladimir Moss, admit that he made serious errors. My point is that people need to be warned about those errors.
As I wrote on another thread: I hope we can agree that it was a mistake for Father Seraphim to push veneration for Bishop Augustine among the faithful more than Father Seraphim cautioned the faithful about Bishop Augustine's serious errors, including Augustine's very false view of "valid-but-ineffectual" sacraments among schismatics and heretics. It is a fact that Platina became vagante and then ecumenist after Father Seraphim's repose. When Bishop Augustine is being quoted by the ecumenists to "justify" their attacks on Orthodoxy, it is necessary, if we want to defend Orthodoxy, to point out how serious Augustine's errors were. We all agree that Father Seraphim was correct to point out that Bishop Augustine is morally responsible only for his own serious errors, not the even greater errors of those who followed him. Bishop Augustine of Hippo reposed in 430 and became one of the most famous bishops in Christian history. Yet he was not added as a saint to any official Orthodox Church calendar until 1955!!!!!!! The calendar was by ROCOR. Why did it take 15 centuries? Because a strong liturgical veneration for him as saint was not present in the Eastern Orthodox Church. I looked up all of the references to Augustine in the records of the proceedings of the Fifth Ecumenical Council. (The records were not passed down in the Eastern Churches, but only survived in Latin manuscript form [now with an English translation], possibly with Latin interpolations .) I think that some individuals are making an error of interpretation when they claim that the Council proclaimed him a "Church Father." The mentions of Augustine in the proceedings are references to "Holy Fathers" in the sense of "Bishops of the Orthodox Church." Also referred to in this way is Archbishop Theophilus of Alexandria, who was the persecutor of Saint John Chrysostom, but whose canons are accepted in the Church. Theophilus was a "Holy Father" in the sense of a "Bishop of the Orthodox Church who wrote something the Church accepts." Theophilus is not venerated as a "saint" in the Orthodox Church. Rather, the Church commemorates those monks who were unjustly killed after Theophilus initiated an inquisition against alleged Origenists. Theophilus falsely accused Saint John Chrystostom and "deposed" him, yet he is still called a "Holy Father" in the sense of a "Bishop of the Orthodox Church who wrote something the Church accepts." He is not a universally-recognized Orthodox saint. Factually, Bishop Augustine of Hippo has never attained the status of a universally-recognized Orthodox saint. All Orthodox agree that Augustine made serious errors that the faithful need to be warned about. The dispute, apparently, is about how seriously we take the need to warn the faithful about his unreliability. The Church does accept Augustine's view that the Donatists were wrong.