When the O. Moves in the Heart: The Annunciation of the End in the Journal of Saint Veronica Giuliani (1) (Critical Essay‪)‬

In the first book of the Confessions, recounting the first years of his life, Augustine poses a fundamental question to the divinity, that is, whether "utrum alicui iam aetati meae mortuae successerit infantia meae. An illa est, quam egi intra viscera matris meae?" (I, 6, 16). Augustine is aware of the fact that, as the book of Job confirms, "nemo mundus a peccato coram te, nec infans, cuius est unius diei vita super terram (14:4-5 LXX)" (I,7, 18-20). If human existence coincides with fall and exile, Augustine ponders, is there a lapse of time in which we exist, and thus sin, even before we actually exist? If I sin before I am, how can I possibly retrieve the memory of the crimes committed before coming to life? Although I may assess the crimes of my infancy by observing other infants, Augustine implies, comparison does not correspond to the recovery of an actual memory. Who will remind him of the sins of his infancy, he asks himself. The time he spent in his mother's womb, he states, lies in the darkness of a complete forgetfulness: Hanc ergo aetatem, domine, qua me vixisse non memini, de qua aliis credidi et quam me egisse ex aliis infantibus conieci ... piget me adnumerare huic vitae meae, quam vivo in hoc seculo. Quantum enim adtinet ad oblivionis meae tenebras, par illi est, quam vixi in matris utero. (I, 7, 22)