When the Holy Father made a visit to one of his seminaries, the Seminario Maggiore, he said this:
On his memories of the seminary, the Holy Father recounted that among the subjects of study, he preferred philosophy and exegesis.
"I was fascinated from the beginning especially by the figure of St. Augustine and then also the school of St. Augustine in medieval times, St. Bonaventure, the great Franciscans, the figure of St. Francis," the Pope said.
"Especially fascinating for me was St. Augustine’s great humanity," he added. "He had to struggle spiritually to find access to the Word of God little by little, access to life with God, to the great yes to his Church."
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I find this very interesting. I got a sense of that struggle that S. Augustine experienced reading his “De Doctrina Christiana” where he takes up the theme of eloquence and compares Sacred Scriptures and their apparent simplicity of style compared to some secular authors and their polished style, and he goes to prove that content is more important than fancy language, or rather, that beauty in language is the consequence of truth in content and therefore he disapproves of those who were more concerned with fancy words and how well something sounds (verba cultiora … quid bene sonet) whereas one should be concerned with content (quid bene indicet atque intimet quod ostendere intendit.) And accuses those who like to talk fancy while the content is shallow of a certain kind of “negligent diligence” (in tali genere locutionis esse quamdam diligentem neglegentiam.)