St. Augustine Amphitheatre

The St. Augustine Amphitheatre is a venue for outdoor concerts and other large gatherings on A1A in St Augustine, Florida, United States. The Amphitheatre seats 3,493 persons, and is managed by the St. Johns County Parks & Recreation department.

History

The Amphitheatre was built in 1965 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine. The land was originally part of Anastasia State Park. The amphitheatre itself was constructed in one of the old coquina quarries used to supply building materials for St. Augustine and the Castillo de San Marcos.

The Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paul Green was commissioned to write a play to be performed at the Amphitheatre. The result was Cross and Sword: A Symphonic Drama of the Spanish Settlement of Florida, a musical reenactment of the first years of St. Augustine's existence. Cross and Sword was designated the official state play in 1973 by the Florida Legislature. The play ran until 1996, when budget constraints ended its more than 30-year run.

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine of Hippo (/ɔːˈɡʌstᵻn/ or /ˈɔːɡəstɪn/;Latin: Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, Saint Austin, or Blessed Augustine, was an early Christian theologian and philosopher whose writings influenced the development of Western Christianity and Western philosophy. He was the bishop of Hippo Regius (modern-day Annaba, Algeria), located in Numidia (Roman province of Africa). He is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers in Western Christianity for his writings in the Patristic Era. Among his most important works are The City of God and Confessions.

According to his contemporary, Jerome, Augustine "established anew the ancient Faith." In his early years, he was heavily influenced by Manichaeism and afterward by the neo-Platonism of Plotinus. After his baptism and conversion to Christianity in 387, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine of original sin and made seminal contributions to the development of just war theory.

Saint Augustine (disambiguation)

Saint Augustine most often refers to Augustine of Hippo (354-430), bishop, theologian and father of the Latin Catholic Church.

Saint Augustine may also refer to:

People

Places

Places of worship

St. Augustine's Church (Bronx)

The Church of St. Augustine was a Roman Catholic parish church under the authority of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. It was located at 1183 Franklin Avenue between East 167th Street and East 168th Street in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. The church was closed in 2011 and demolished in 2013.

Buildings

The church was built 1894 to the designs of architect Louis H. Giele with Baroque Revival and Renaissance Revival design elements. It was dedicated in 1895 by the Archbishop of New York. The parochial school nearby was completed in 1904. The AIA Guide to New York City (2010) describes the architecture as "Renaissance and Baroque elements combine in this somber but imposing facade. The parish school across the street to the north is distinguished by glazed blue and white terra-cotta sculpture set into the tympanum of its Classical pediment." Plans were filed by owner the Augustine Society of Tompkinsville, Staten Island, in April 1906 for a site on the southeast of Andrew Avenue, 200 feet south of Fordham Road. The structure would be a two-storey brick school, 54x100 feet, to the designs by architect J. O'Connor for $50,000. The church developed leaks and was deemed unsafe in the summer of 2009 with worship service continuing in the auditorium of St. Augustine's Parochial School. Funds from the school have been helping pay the church building's upkeep. The Rev. Thomas Fenlon, the present pastor of the church, has been seeking a developer to demolish St. Augustine’s Church and build affordable housing on the site, constructing a new smaller church next door. September - December 2013, The Convent, Rectory, and Church have been demolished. The site is now available to build affordable housing in 2014.