St. Augustine of Hippo
354-430
📅 Feast Day: Aug 28
📖 Life Timeline
354
Born in Thagaste, North Africa
370
Studies rhetoric in Carthage
383
Converts to Christianity in Milan garden
387
Baptized by St. Ambrose at Easter
391
Consecrated Bishop of Hippo
413
Begins writing City of God (completed 426)
430
Dies during Vandal siege of Hippo
✝ Biography
Born Nov 13, 354 AD at Tagaste in Numidia (North Africa). His mother was St Monica, a devout Christian; his father Patricius was a pagan converted before his death. Educated in Madaura, Thagaste, and Carthage. Became a professor of rhetoric, teaching in Carthage, Rome (383), and Milan (384-386). In his youth he lived in moral vice and became a Manichaean sympathizer for nine years. Under the influence of St Ambrose's preaching, St Paul's epistles, and Neoplatonic writings, he experienced his conversion in a Milan garden in 386, hearing a child's voice saying 'Tolle, lege' (Take up and read)—he opened Romans 13:13-14. Baptized by St Ambrose at Easter 387. Returned to Africa the same year after his mother died at Ostia. Lived a monastic life near Tagaste (388-391). Ordained priest at Hippo in 391, coadjutor-bishop three years later. Devoted his life to defending Christian faith against Manichaeans, Donatists, Pelagians, and Arian Vandals. Wrote 'Confessions' (autobiography), 'City of God' (theodicy and ecclesiology), and over 95 treatises and 350 letters. Called the Doctor of Grace and Oracle of the Western Church. Died Aug 28, 430 AD during the Vandal siege of Hippo. One of the most prolific and influential Doctors of the Church.
🛡 Patronage
Patron of: Theologians, brewers, printers, Detroit, and Milwaukee. Doctor of Grace.
💬 Words of the Saint
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.
📜 Key Facts
Born
November 13, 354, Thagaste (Algeria)
Died
August 28, 430, Hippo Regius
Feast Day
Aug 28
Canonized
Pre-Tridentine
🕊 Legacy
One of the four great Doctors of the Western Church. 'Confessions' is one of the greatest spiritual autobiographies. His doctrine of grace shaped both Catholic and Protestant theology.
📜 Personal Writings
Read excerpts from the saint's own words — their personal letters, spiritual writings, and teachings.
📖 Confessions
Confessions, Book I: Opening
Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and Thy wisdom infinite. And Thee would man praise; man, but a particle of Thy creation; man, that bears about him his mortality, the witness of his sin, the witness that Thou resistest the proud: yet would man praise Thee; he, but a particle of Thy creation. Thou awakest us to delight in Thy praise; for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee. Grant me, Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call on Thee or to praise Thee? and, again, to know Thee or to call on Thee? for who can call on Thee, not knowing Thee? for he that knoweth Thee not, may call on Thee as other than Thou art. Or, is it rather, that we call on Thee that we may know Thee? but how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they believe without a preacher? and they that seek the Lord shall praise Him: for they that seek shall find Him, and they that find shall praise Him. I will seek Thee, Lord, by calling on Thee; and will call on Thee, believing in Thee; for to us hast Thou been preached. My faith, Lord, shall call on Thee, which Thou hast given me, wherewith Thou hast inspired me, through the Incarnation of Thy Son, through the ministry of the Preacher.
— St. Augustine of Hippo
📖 Confessions
Confessions, Book X: On Memory
BOOK X Let me know Thee, O Lord, who knowest me: let me know Thee, as I am known. Power of my soul, enter into it, and fit it for Thee, that Thou mayest have and hold it without spot or wrinkle. This is my hope, therefore do I speak; and in this hope do I rejoice, when I rejoice healthfully. Other things of this life are the less to be sorrowed for, the more they are sorrowed for; and the more to be sorrowed for, the less men sorrow for them. For behold, Thou lovest the truth, and he that doth it, cometh to the light. This would I do in my heart before Thee in confession: and in my writing, before many witnesses. And from Thee, O Lord, unto whose eyes the abyss of man's conscience is naked, what could be hidden in me though I would not confess it? For I should hide Thee from me, not me from Thee. But now, for that my groaning is witness, that I am displeased with myself, Thou shinest out, and art pleasing, and beloved, and longed for; that I may be ashamed of myself, and renounce myself, and choose Thee, and neither please Thee nor myself, but in Thee. To Thee therefore, O Lord, am I open, whatever I am; and with what fruit I confess unto Thee, I have said. Nor do I it with words and sounds of the flesh, but with the words of my soul, and the cry of the thought which Thy ear knoweth.
— St. Augustine of Hippo
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