St. Augustine of Hippo is a father of the Church and major philosopher and theologian of the Christian West. Since the beginning of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate, he has found himself at the center of attention.
The Pontiff, who presented himself as a “son of St. Augustine” on the day of his election, reserved one of his first international trips for Algeria last April. He traveled there to Annaba, the ancient city of Hippo where St. Augustine served as bishop for 35 years. But the saint isn’t buried there: His remains were transferred to Pavia in extraordinary circumstances. This gives Pope Leo an opportunity to visit this city of 70,000 inhabitants in northern Italy.
To understand this story, it’s first necessary to return to North Africa. Born in Thagaste, in present-day Algeria, in 354, Augustine became bishop of Hippo in 395. He died there in 430 while the Vandals besieged the city.
According to the testimony of his disciple Possidius, author of the Life of St. Augustine, the great Church doctor was buried in his episcopal city, where his tomb quickly became a place of veneration.
A detour through Sardinia
But the history of his relics was only beginning. The political and religious upheavals of North Africa eventually led to their displacement. St. Bede the Venerable, an English monk, relates an important tradition in his Martyrology: Catholic bishops driven from Africa by the Vandal king Huneric in the 5th century allegedly transferred Augustine’s remains to Sardinia, an island that made for something of a halfway point from Algeria to the relics' final resting place. They remained there for several centuries until Muslim incursions in the Mediterranean made their preservation uncertain.
It was then that the strangest episode of this story occurred. Around 720, the Lombard king Liutprand allegedly bought the relics and organized their transfer to Pavia, his kingdom’s capital, some 25 miles south of Milan. In 723, they were deposited in the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro [St. Peter in the Golden Sky]. This remains one of the world’s principal Augustinian shrines today. This transferral constituted a major event for medieval Christianity and contributed to Pavia’s spiritual influence for centuries.
Relics minus an ulna
However, numerous gray areas remain, and historical sources are sometimes contradictory. After significant ecclesiastical investigations, Pope Benedict XIII officially recognized the authenticity of the relics in 1728. They were temporarily moved to the Pavia Cathedral after the dissolution of religious orders and expulsion of the Augustinians in 1780. They returned to their historical shrine in 1900.
Today, these relics — with the exception of the right ulna, which was transferred to Algeria in the 19th century — rest in the majestic Ark of St. Augustine. This Gothic marble monument, created in the 14th century, is considered a masterpiece of Lombard sculpture. The intellectual and spiritual heritage of the man nicknamed the “Doctor of Grace” attracts pilgrims from all over the world every year to pray there.
Leo XIV in the footsteps of Benedict XVI
Among the most illustrious contemporary pilgrims to Pavia is Pope Benedict XVI, who visited on April 22, 2007. In his homily, the German pontiff explained that “the City of Pavia speaks of one of the greatest converts in the history of the Church,” St. Augustine.
“After the considerable turmoil of a turbulent history, the King of the Longobards acquired Augustine’s remains for the City of Pavia so that today they belong to this City in a special way, and, in it and from it, have something special to say to all of us, to humanity,” he explained.
Furthermore, during Vespers at the basilica, Benedict XVI offered “a special greeting to Father Robert Francis Prevost, Prior General of the Augustinians,” who had come to welcome him.
As Pope Leo XIV prepares to visit the Lombard city, this history of the saint’s relics is also a story of a shared memory among Mediterranean peoples. This narrative anchors the pontificate of the Pope in a geographical, cultural, and spiritual space to which his predecessor Pope Francis was deeply attached. The Mediterranean remains fertile ground for a Christianity in motion, marked by experiences of suffering and exile, even post mortem.
Yet, these displacements have also allowed devotions to bloom in new places. Ultimately, the transfer of St. Augustine’s relics to Pavia exemplifies how political contingencies have borne unexpected spiritual fruits in this region of Italy.
