CHAPTER XV. A merchant, Firmus by name, converted by a digression in Augustine's sermon
I know also, and not I only but also my brethren and fellow-servants who were at that time living together with the holy man in the church at Hippo, that when we were seated at the table he said: "Did you take notice of my sermon in the church to-day, that both the beginning and end worked out contrary to my usual custom? For I did not explain to its conclusion the subject which I had propounded but left it in |75 suspense." To which we replied, "Yes, we know it and remember that we wondered at it at the time." Then he said, "I suppose that perhaps the Lord wished some wanderer among the people to be taught and healed by our forgetfulness and error; for in His hands are we and all our utterances. For while I was investigating the margins of the question proposed, by a digression of speech I passed over to something else and so, without finishing or explaining the question, I ended my discourse by attacking the error of the Manichaeans, about which I had intended to say nothing in my discussion, rather than by speaking about those things which I had intended to explain." And after this, unless I am mistaken, lo, on the next day or the day after, there came a certain merchant, Firmus by name, to the holy Augustine, who was seated in the monastery, and in our presence fell down on his knees and prostrated himself at his feet, shedding tears and asking that the priest and his holy companions intercede with the Lord for his sins. For he confessed that he had followed the sect of the Manichaeans, had lived in it for many years and so had paid out much money in vain to the Manichaeans, or rather to those whom they call the Elect; but recently by the mercy of God he had been in the church and was converted and made a Catholic by Augustine's sermons. And when the venerable Augustine and we who were with him at the time inquired diligently of the man by what thing in the sermon he had been especially satisfied, he told us and we all recalled the course of the sermon. Wondering and marvelling at the profound plan of God for the salvation of souls, we glorified and blessed His holy Name; for when He wishes and by whom He wishes and in whatever way He wishes, by those who know and those who do not know, He works the salvation of souls. And from that time on this man held fast to the manner of |77 life of the servants of God, gave up his business as merchant and progressing among the members of the church, by the will of God he was called and constrained in another region to enter the office of presbyter, wherein he maintained and persevered in his sanctity of life. And perhaps he is still in active life across the sea.