<p><em>Fr. Cyprian Consiglio, OSB Cam, Prior</em></p>
<p />There could scarcely be a thinker more influential than Saint Augustine in church history. Certainly he was the greatest influence on Medieval theology, quoted almost as much as Scripture in the Summa Theologiae. He is the foundation for many of the thinkers of the Reformation, too, especially, mostly because of his doctrine on grace. Even today, there are by far more excerpts from the writings of St Augustine in the Roman Office of Readings than any other source. What I mostly focus on though is this amazing conversion experience, a sort of ambush of grace that enabled him to do what he could not do for himself.