Augustine, bishop of Hippo, in Africa, was born at Tagaste, in Numidia, November 13th, 354. His Monica, was a Christian and a woman of piety, who took c re to have her eon instructed in the true faith and plac id among the catechumens. His father I, and appears to have cared more I i ce his son in worldly knowledge: he spared
nothing for his education ; and, after giving him the rudiments of grammar .-it Tagaste, sent him to Ma- daura, a town in the neighborhood, and afterward re-
moved him to Carthage, to learn rhetoric (this was about the end of the year 371) ; and here he first im- bibed the Manichsean errors. He also fell into im- moral habits, of which he afterward gave a minute account in his remarkable "Confessions." In 383 he left Carthage, against the will of his mother, and re- paired to Rome ; and, still adhering to his sect, he lodged at the house of a Manichsean, where he fell ill. After his recovery he was sent by Symmachus, the pre- fect of the city, to Milan, where the inhabitants were in want of a professor of rhetoric. Here he came into intercourse with Ambrose, and was in a short time so convinced by his doctrine that he resolved to forsake the Manichasan sect: this design he communicated to his mother, who came to Milan to see him. " Au- gustine listened to the preaching of Ambrose frequent- ly, but the more he was forced to admire his eloquence, the more he guarded himself against persuasion. Ob- stinate in seeking truth outside of her only sanctua- ry, agitated by the stings of his conscience, bound by habit, drawn by fear, subjugated by passion, touched with the beauty of virtue, seduced by the charms of vice, victim of both, never satisfied in his false de- lights, struggling constantly against the errors of his sect and the mysteries of religion, an unfortunate run- ning from rock to rock to escape shipwreck, he flees from the light which pursues him — such is the picture by which he himself describes his conflicts in his Con.: fessions. At last, one day, torn by the most violent struggles, his face bathed in tears, which flowed invol- untarily, he fled for solitude and calm to a retired spot in his garden. There, throwing himself on the ground, he implored, though confusedly, the aid of Heaven. All at once he seemed to hear a voice, as if coming from a neighboring house, which said to him, Tolle; lege : Take and 7-ead. Never before had such emotion seized his soul. Surprised, beside himself, he asks himself in vain whence came the voice, or what he was to read. He was sustained by a force he knew not, and sought his friend Alype. A book was placed before him — the epistles of St. Paul. Augustine opens it at hazard, and falls upon this passage of the apos- tle : ' Let us walk honestly, as in the day ; not in rioting and drunkenness. . . . But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.' Augustine needed not any further reading. Hardly had he finished this passage before a ray of divine light broke upon him, enlight- ening his understanding, dissipating all his shadows, and kindling in his heart a flame of celestial fire. The conversion of Augustine was fully as striking and effi- cacious as St. Paul's had been. All the apostle's spirit had passed in an instant into the new proselyte. He was then in his thirty-second year. When once again with his mother, the virtuous Monica, to whom his wanderings had cost so many tears, he related to her all that had passed, and also communicated his new resolutions, with that peaceful firmness which changes' not. Monica heard this consoling recital with lively joy. All these particulars he himself gives in his Confessions-, with a charm and simplicity which have, before or since, never been surpassed."
After remaining for the space of two years among the catechumens, ho was baptized hj- Ambrose at Easter, 387. Soon after his baptism, having given up his profession, he resolved to return to his own coun- try ; and on his way thither, while at Ostia, his mother died. About this time he wrote his treatises Be Mo- ribus Eccl. Catholicce et de Moribns Maniclurimim, also De Quantitate Aninvr. He arrived in Africa at the end of 388, and removed to Tagaste, where he dwelt for three years with some of his friends, occupied solely with prayer, meditation, and study. At this period he wrote the treatises De Genesi contra Afanichasos and De 1 'era R* ligione. In 391 he went to Hippo ; and while there, in spite of his tears and reluctance, the people of that city chose him to fill the office of priest in their
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church, and brought him to Valerius, their bishop, that he might ordain him. When priest, he instituted a monastery in the chnreh of Hippo, where he entirely devoted himself to works of piety and devotion, and to teaching. Valerius, the bishop, contrary to the cus- tom nf the African churches, permitted Augustine to preach in his place, even when he himself was pres- ent; and, when this was objected to, he excused him- self on the ground that, being himself a Greek, he could not so well preach in Latin. After this the practice became more general. About 393 Augustine wrote the treatise De duabiis ani mains, contra Mani- chcBOS. In 395 he was elected colleague to Valerius in his episcopacy, and consecrated Bishop of Hippo, con- trary to the canons of the church. The duties of his office were discharged with the greatest fidelity; but, amid all his labors, he found time for the composition of his most elaborate works. His treatise De Libero Ai-bitrio was finished in 395; the Ccmfessionum Libri XIII in 398 ; most of the treatises against the Donatists between 400 and 415 ; those against the Pelagians be- tween 412 and 428. The De Cirttate Dei was begun in 413 and finished in 42G. The singular candor of Augustine is shown in his Retractationes (written in 428), in which he explains and qualifies his former writings, and not unfrequently acknowledges his mis- takes of opinion. In 430, the Vandals, under Genseric, laid siege to Hippo, and in the third month of the siege (August 28) Augustine died, in his 7Gth year.