St. Augustine of Hippo

Their story

Augustine was born in 354 in Thagaste, North Africa, in what is now Algeria. His mother, St. Monica, was a devout Christian; his father was not. Augustine was brilliant and ambitious, and he became a successful teacher of rhetoric. He admired Jesus as a great moral teacher, but for years he resisted the Church. He followed a popular religious sect, lived with a woman outside of marriage, and fathered a son, Adeodatus. All the while, Monica prayed for him with tears. In Milan, Augustine went to hear the bishop, St. Ambrose, preach, at first only to admire his speaking skills. Slowly the truth of the Gospel took hold of him. One day, troubled and weeping in a garden, he heard a child’s voice singing, “Take up and read.” He opened the Scriptures to Paul’s Letter to the Romans and read a call to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. His heart was finally won. Ambrose baptized Augustine and his son at Easter in 387. Augustine became a priest and then bishop of Hippo. His Confessions, the story of his search for God, is still read around the world. He died in 430 and is a Doctor of the Church.