Saint Augustine of Hippo, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Augustine was born in 354 at Thagaste in North Africa, the son of Monica. He taught rhetoric in Carthage, Rome and Milan, and for nine years followed the Manichees. In a garden in Milan in 386, as he tells in the Confessions, he heard a child's voice chanting “take up and read”, opened Paul's letters and resolved to change his life; Ambrose baptized him at Easter 387. Back in Africa he lived in community with friends, was ordained at Hippo in 391 and became its bishop about 395. For 35 years he preached, judged disputes and wrote: the Confessions, The City of God, works on the Trinity and on grace, and a rule followed by many religious communities. He died on 28 August 430 while the Vandals were besieging Hippo. He is one of the first Doctors of the Church.