the final confession of saint augustine

The concerns of the Fifth Century, solving problems with war; keeping people boxed in with vetted norms; keeping women in their places; keeping certain races in their places ring as clearly as the issues of the Twenty-first Century.

Splashed across the landscape of the fall of the Western Empire, of Roman civil war, of Barbarian invasion is the story of the final days of Aurelius Augustinus, St. Augustine.

Aged, tortured by incessant challenges to his authority from abroad as well as in his own backyard, Augustine’s worldly troubles mirror his inner turmoil which he hopes to soothe in the company of the friend-of-his-youth, a lover and bonvivant whom he thought had been dead for fifty years.

The interlocking story of his concubine and child of that woman-turned Christian seer, both needles and comforts the 72 year old Augustine, poised to destory or love his long-left partner.