The earliest known instance of this name AGOSTO was St. Aurelius Augustinus, also known as Augustine of Hippo (354-430) the greatest of the Latin church fathers. He was born in Tagaste in Numidia which is modern Tunisia. His father was a pagan but he was brought up a christian by his devout mother Monica. After living a fairly racy youth, he embraced christianity fully, and was baptised, together with his son, by St. Ambrose in the year 386. His monumental opus was the City of God which he wrote between 412-27. His namesake St. Augustine was the first archbishop of Canterbury circa. 596. He was prior of the Benedictine Monastery of St. Andrew in Rome, when in 596, he was sent with forty other monks by Pope Gregory I. to convert the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Landing in Thanet, the missionaries were kindly received by Ethelbert, King of Kent, whose wife Bertha, daughter of the Frankish King was a Christian. A residence was assigned to them at Canterbury, where they devoted themselves to monastic exercises and preaching. He was extremely successful in his mission, and it is recorded that in one day Augustine baptised one thousand persons in a day in the river Swale. He died in 604, and in 612 his body was transferred to his abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul. The name has numerous variant spellings which include AGUSTO, AUGUSTE, AUGUSTO, AUGST, AGOSTONI, AUGUSTONI and AUGUSTSSON. A notable member of the name was AGOSTINO DI DUCCIO ((1418-81) the Italian sculptor, born in Florence. His best and most original work is the relief decoration for the Tempio Malatestiano at Rimini, a church designed by Alberti. His style is characterized by a strong emphasis on line and, in its essentially decorative quality. Although compelled to leave Florence - due it was said, to being accused of stealing from a church - he returned for sufficient time to begin working on a large piece of marble, which, left unfinished, was later used by Michelangelo to produce the famous statue of David. In the Middle Ages heraldry came into use as a practical matter. It originated in the devices used to distinguish the armoured warriors in tournament and war, and was also placed on seals as marks of identity. As far as records show, true heraldry began in the middle of the 12th century, and appeared almost simultaneously in several countries of Western Europe. |
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