With an improved newly edited and typeset text, Possidius’ Life of Augustine is now available on the SALM website, for all to read. The text can be accessed on its own page, as well as from the Tamil Resources page.

The original author is Possidius, who was bishop of Calama, Numidia, in the 5th century. Possidius had frequent direct contact with Augustine, both as a close friend and as a contemporary North African bishop. Possidius is known especially for his role in the ongoing conflict between the ‘Catholic’ and ‘Donatist’ churches, in their struggle for imperial recognition. With respect to his own relationship to Augustine, the reader should note from chapter 12 of this work Possidius’ reference to himself as ‘one of the bishops he [Augustine] had furnished to the Church from his monastery’, and from the last chapter his claim, ‘by the grace of God I have lived with this man, who is now dead, on terms of intimate and delightful friendship, with no bitter disagreement, for almost forty years’. Augustine’s own letters acknowledge Possidius as a man who was ‘nourished by the Lord’s bread through my ministry’ (Letter 101.1) and one of ‘our brothers most closely connected to us’ (Letter 95.1). Possidius’ work is therefore of great historical value, as it gives us a reliable account of Augustine’s life, as recorded by a very close associate.