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St. Augustine Windows

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Sea Shell

This window depicts the famous legend of Augustine talking to a little boy whom he meets one day on the beach. Augustine was supposedly working on the theological problem of the trinity at the time. The boy was trying to use a sea shell to carry the water from the ocean into a hole in the sand. Augustine reminded the boy that this would be a difficult task, and the boy replied, "No more difficult than trying to put three Gods into one, as you are doing in your book on the Trinity." According to some legends the boy then disappeared, suggesting that he was a divine messenger (and in the window, the boy has a halo).  Of course, mysterious children also played a role in Augustine's conversion, by their singing of the phrase "tolle lege, tolle lege." Notice the book over the boy's head.  Given the nature of the story, one would expect the book's title to be "De Trinitate" (On the Trinity), but for some reason the book is De Civitate Dei (The City of God). Gozzoli also has a fresco of this scene. Because of this story, the sea shell has also become a Christian symbol of St. Augustine, as well as of baptism.     

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Images are from the stained glass windows of St. Thomas of Villanova Church, produced by Aurora Imaging Company.  Quotations from St. Augustine's Confessions, translated by Maria Boulding, O.S.B., (Hyde Park, New York: New City Press) 1997.  Author: John Immerwahr.  May 29, 2008.