St augustines life biography

Childhood and education

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Augustine of Hippo

1. Life

Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus) lived from 13 November 354 to 28 August 430. He was born in Thagaste in Roman Africa (modern Souk Ahras in Algeria). His mother Monnica (d. 388), a devout Christian, seems to have exerted a deep but not wholly unambiguous influence on his religious development. His father Patricius (d. 372) was baptized on his deathbed. Augustine himself was made a catechumen early in his life. His studies of grammar and rhetoric in the provincial centers of Madauros and Carthage, which strained the financial resources of his middle-class parents, were hoped to pave his way for a future career in the higher imperial administration. In Carthage at the age of ca. 18, he found a mistress with whom he lived in a monogamous union for ca. 14 years and who bore him a son, Adeodatus, who was baptized together with his father in Milan and died a little later (ca. 390) aged 18. Ca. 373 Augustine became a “hearer” (auditor) of Manicheism, a dualistic religion with Persian origins that, in Northern Africa, had developed into a variety of Christianity (and was persecuted by the state as a heresy). His adherence to Manicheism lasted for nine years and was strongly opposed by Monnica. Though probably active as a Manichean apologist a

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Saint Augustine’s Story

As a fiery student at Carthage, and as a restless teacher in Africa and then Rome, he searched for understanding of life’s meaning.

Appointed professor of rhetoric at the imperial court at Milan, he finally found in the sermons of Bishop Ambrose a compelling call to grace and truth. After his baptism in 387 he returned to Africa to live a quiet life of study with like-minded friends. The city of Hippo, however, called him to be bishop.

Augustine’s service as bishop, pastor and scholar greatly influenced subsequent Christian life and thought. His emphasis on grace and the primacy of love in all things, on the reliability of faith and reason in the search for truth, and on our vocation to transform society have had a profound influence on hundreds of seminal thinkers, Catholic and Protestant, medieval and modern, religious and secular. His voluminous writings, especially “Confessions,” “The Trinity” and “City of God,” have set the standards for Christian intellectual and spiritual life. They continue to be read as classics in world literature.

Augustine’s life, thought and work have been the inspiration for the Order of St. Augustine. From their teaching and study at the great medieval universities to their contemporary educational and pastoral minist