Possidius was thus at the side of Augustine when he died at Hippo.
In the terrible months that preceded and followed that death, Possidius worked briskly to ensure that the books and papers of Augustine would survive the attack on Hippo, and remain available for future ages.
He worked his way through the library of Augustine, and wrote a complete list of the works of Augustine, called the Indiculum.
It listed more than the titles of the formal writings of Augustine (as Augustine himself had done in when he wrote his Rectractationes in 427).
It also included brief titles of the sermons and letters that lay on the library shelves.
Possidius eventually attached this list to the end of his book, Life of Augustine, which he wrote in about the year 438, which was eight years after Augustine died. The book was not published immediately, for it refers to the city of Carthage being taken by Genseric in the year 439.
The list is a more detailed register of the sermons of Augustine than any list that Augustine himself had compiled.
The Life of Augustine is the only known written work by Possidius, and is the only quasi-contemporary biography of Augustine that was recorded into history and that has survived until today. Its structural framework was influenced by Classical secular biography and by previous writings on the early saints of the Church.
Over and beyond the Augustinian bibliography it contains, the Life of Augustine by Possidius is also a valuable work for reporting what Possidius himself saw during the last days of Augustine on earth. In this he has provided later historians with valuable information.
Few other authors have included as much of their life story in their own writings as Augustine did, yet the words about him by his friend Possidius give a slightly different - although not contradictory - insight into Augustine.
The words of Possidius offer a simple, modest and accurate description that truly captured the spirit and the virtues of Augustine in special ways that the words of Augustine about himself did not achieve.
Possidius provided the image of a model Augustine who, through his monastic and pastoral commitment, combatted heresy and helped realize the peace and unity of the Church.
He was writing of Augustine, who was his close friend, yet portrayed him for the ages more as a Father of the Church, a great contributor to Christian thought and practice.
The theme stressed is the triumph of the Church through the thought and actions of Augustine. Possidius wrote that the peace and love of God’s Church increased through Augustine’s work.
(Continued on the next page.)
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