Saints› Augustine of Hippo
August 28
Augustine of Hippo
Augustinus Hipponensis
354–430, Roman North Africa
Born in Thagaste (modern-day Algeria) in 354 to a pagan father and the future Saint Monica, Augustine spent his early adulthood in pursuit of rhetoric, philosophy, and pleasure. After years of interior turning he was baptized at Easter 387 in Milan by Saint Ambrose, and a few years later was made bishop of Hippo Regius — a see he held for over thirty years.
His writings shaped Western Christianity more profoundly than those of any other Father. The Confessiones (c. 397) is the first true autobiography in the Western canon; the De Civitate Dei (begun 413, finished 426) reframed history as the interlocked narratives of the City of God and the City of Man. Smaller works on grace, free will, the Trinity, and the sacraments have remained reference points ever since.
Tu nos fecisti ad te, et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te.
You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. (Conf. I.1)