In Cassago Brianza on April 2, Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, archbishop of Milan, blessed the cornerstone for what has already been named an Augustinian Citadel. This is one more visible sign of the continuing life of the Saint of Hippo sixteen centuries after his death, which occurred in the year 430 in the city now known as Annaba in Algeria.
The town of Cassago Brianza, with a population of a little over 4,000, is filled with Augustinian memories. Cardinal Tettamanzi was welcomed by the religious authorities there in Saint Augustine Archeological Historical Park. Located in Cassago is the Saint Augustine Cultural Association, founded in 1967, which since 1991 has been organizing Augustinian cultural weeks on a national level. This association (https://www.cassiciaco.it/default.html) produces its own publications dealing with the Saint of Hippo and has established interesting projects related to the Saint, such as the Augustinian Road going from Cassago to Milan, the city where Saint Augustine lived and was baptized, and to Pavia, where he is buried.
Cassago Brianza, the Town Where His Conversion Began
The present town of Cassago Brianza, according to popular belief, is on the site of the ancient villa Cassiciacum, not far from Milan, where Saint Augustine withdrew from the city in the fall of 386, after he had decided to become a Christian. The country estate was the property of his friend Verecundus, and the saint went to live there with a considerable following of friends and relatives, including his son and his mother, Saint Monica. Their common purpose was to withdraw from the hustle and bustle of the city and dedicate themselves to the reading of Sacred Scripture, to reflection and to prayer. Saint Augustine wrote about this time of retreat in his Confessions and later expounded more at length on the life they lived there and their meetings and conversations in his book of Dialogues.
Augustine found happiness there. For a few months he was able to experience an ideal life that he had not formerly been able to bring to reality. He would later come to experience it more fully when he was in Africa living as a religious in community with his brothers. For this reason Cassiciacum is for all Augustinians a point of reference. It offers a formula for what every Augustinian community attempts to live in reality. And for this reason, Cassago Brianza and its interest in restoring its Augustinian patrimony should be for every Augustinian community a mirror in which it can see itself.