Possidius

Possidius was born in North Africa in the middle of the fourth century. Around 391 he entered the monastery Augustine had founded at Hippo and lived there for about six years as one of the community. About 397 he was made bishop of Calama, a town in Numidia some distance inland, and he held that see for more than thirty years.

He was Augustine's friend for almost forty years, and his working partner in every controversy Augustine fought. Possidius took part in the great conference at Carthage in 411 where the Catholic and Donatist bishops of Africa argued their case before an imperial commissioner. He was sent to Italy on church business. Donatist partisans attacked him more than once, on one occasion, according to Augustine, they set fire to the house where he had taken shelter.

In 429 the Vandals crossed from Spain into Africa under Geiseric and moved east, taking the countryside. Possidius's own city fell, and he fled to Hippo. He was inside the walls with Augustine during the siege, and he was at the bedside when Augustine died on 28 August 430, in the third month of it. He describes the old man having the penitential Psalms copied out and pinned to the wall where he could see them from his bed, weeping over them, and asking to be left alone to pray.

After Hippo fell, Possidius was among the bishops expelled by the Arian Vandals for refusing to give up the Nicene faith. He was still alive in 437, when he is recorded among the exiles. Nothing is known of his death.

He wrote two things, and both were acts of preservation.

The Life of Augustine, written soon after 430, is the earliest biography, the record of a man who had eaten at Augustine's table, watched him preach, and knew his household rules: the table with the verse carved on it warning gossips away, the plain clothing, the refusal to let women live in the house, the way he handled money. Where the Confessions tell the inside of Augustine's early life, Possidius tells the outside of the later one.

The second is the Indiculus, a catalogue of Augustine's writings, books, letters, and sermons, sorted by the controversy each addressed. It is a dry list, and it is priceless. Augustine wrote more than any other ancient Christian author, the Vandal invasion put the library at Hippo in real danger, and the catalogue is how scholars know what has been lost and what has survived. Possidius made the list because he expected the books to be scattered, and he was right.

Sources: Possidius, Vita Augustini and Indiculus (English translation in Fathers of the Church, volume 15); Augustine, Letters and Retractationes; Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church.