Augustine of Hippo

2 series 2 books in order 1882–2007

Augustine was born in Thagaste, present-day Souk Ahras, Algeria, the son of a Catholic mother and a pagan father. He was raised in the Catholic faith and attended school in Madaurus at age 11, where he was exposed to both Latin literature and pagan beliefs. He returned home in 369 and read Cicero's Hortensius. At 17, he moved to Carthage to study rhetoric and adopted the Manichaean religion, leading a hedonistic life and taking a lover who bore him a son. He taught grammar in Tagaste from 373 to 374 and later conducted a school of rhetoric in Carthage. In 383, he moved to Rome but was disillusioned with the schools and later secured a professorship in rhetoric at the imperial court in Milan in 384. There, he abandoned Manichaeanism for the skepticism of the New Academy and ended his relationship with his lover. In 386, he converted to Catholic Christianity, left his career in rhetoric, and returned to North Africa. He sold his inheritance and gave the money to the poor, converting his family home into a monastic foundation. He was ordained a priest in Hippo Regius in 391 and became a bishop in 396. He remained bishop until his death in 430. Augustine was a prolific writer, with over a hundred surviving works, the most famous being his Confessions, written between 397 and 398.

Active years

1882–2007

Known for

Harvard Classics, Classics of Western Spirituality

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