Augustine of Hippo

Who is Augustine of Hippo?

Augustine was born in the Roman city of Thagaste, in the province of Numidia — modern Souk Ahras, in northeastern Algeria — to a Berber family; his mother, Monica, was a devout Christian later canonized as a saint. He studied rhetoric in Carthage and taught in Rome and Milan before his conversion to Christianity in 386 AD, an experience he later described in his autobiographical "Confessions." He returned to North Africa and, in 395 AD, became Bishop of Hippo Regius, a coastal city in Numidia now known as Annaba, Algeria, where he served for roughly 35 years until his death. As bishop, he wrote extensively against rival Christian sects of his day and produced some of the most influential works in Western philosophy and theology, including "Confessions" and "The City of God," the latter written in response to the sack of Rome in 410 AD. His writings on grace, free will, and original sin shaped both Catholic and later Protestant theology for over a millennium. Augustine died in Hippo in 430 AD while the city was under siege by the Vandals, shortly before it fell.

Sources: Augustine, Confessions (circa 397-400 AD) · Augustine, The City of God (413-426 AD) · Possidius, Life of Saint Augustine (circa 432 AD)