Villanova is well known for the collection of art displayed throughout campus, much of which depicts  religious themes.  In our website, we focus on five images and symbols that relate specifically to St. Augustine, whose values are the basis for Villanova’s foundation. For each image we cover three areas: a description of the image; its relation to Augustine's Confessions; and how the image itself is significant to Villanova students today.    The images are the painting of “Augustine the Rhetor” in the St. Augustine Center for Liberal Arts, the “Tolle Lege,” “Baptism,” and “The Vision at Ostia” windows in the St.Thomas of Villanova Church, and mosaic of the University seal in the stairwell of the St. Augustine Center.  These five particular images illustrate the life and challenges of St. Augustine, and also relate to the lives of Villanova students and their progression and transitions during their college experience. 

Thank you for visiting our website,

The students of the St. Augustine and Culture Seminar (1000-V10), Fall 2008

You are also invited to visit a similar website with five additional images, prepared by our classmates in section V09.

Illustration: St. Augustine writing Confessions, one of the stained glass windows in the St. Thomas of Villanova Church.

All quotations from Confessions are from St. Augustine, The Confessions.  Trans. Maria Boulding. Hyde Park: New City Press, 1997.