Monday, June 15

Golden Age · 354–430

Augustine of Hippo

Bishop of Hippo, theologian of grace

Augustine was born at Tagaste in Roman North Africa to the devout Monica and the pagan Patricius. A brilliant teacher of rhetoric, he passed through Manichaeism and skepticism while resisting his mother's prayers, until in Milan, under the preaching of St Ambrose and after his famous experience in the garden with the words 'take up and read,' he was converted and baptized at Pascha in 387. Returning to Africa, he was ordained priest and then bishop of Hippo Regius, where he served for thirty-five years as pastor, preacher, and the most influential theologian of the Latin Church. His Confessions created the genre of spiritual autobiography; the City of God answered the fall of Rome; his works on the Trinity, grace, and the Church shaped all later Western thought. He reposed in 430 as the Vandals besieged his city.

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