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The saints

St Augustine of Hippo

A brilliant, restless man in a garden in Milan, and the grace that changed him.

Feast: 28 August · 354 to 430 · Thagaste and Hippo, North Africa

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The ruins of ancient Hippo Regius near Annaba, Algeria, among green trees, with the Basilica of St Augustine on the hill beyond.

Oris. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Home / The saints / St Augustine of Hippo

A garden in Milan, September 386

A famous teacher of rhetoric is in a garden in Milan, at the end of years of searching.1

At the age of thirty-three, a grand stroke of grace strikes him to the ground.1

He had tried every philosophy and broken his mother’s heart. He was about to become one of the greatest saints in history.

01St Augustine of Hippo

The long way round

Augustine was born at Thagaste in North Africa to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Monica.1

Bishop Ambrose of Milan, who told him the story of another famous convert, prepared the way for his conversion.1

He was baptized at Easter 387.1

02St Augustine of Hippo

Bishop of Hippo

Back in Africa, the people of Hippo pressed him to be ordained, and in spite of his tears he yielded in 391; he later became their bishop.1

Early in a long siege of Hippo he fell fatally ill, and he died on 28 August 430.1

The Catechism quotes his prayer that our hearts are restless until they rest in God.2

The ruins of ancient Hippo Regius near Annaba, Algeria, among green trees, with the Basilica of St Augustine on the hill beyond.
The ruins of Hippo Regius, Algeria, where Augustine was bishop for thirty-five years. Oris. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Notes

  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “St. Augustine of Hippo”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org
  2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 30. vatican.va

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision (public domain). Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an error.