Saint Augustine

Augustine was born in 354 AD in North Africa to a Christian mother, Monica, and a pagan father. Brilliant but wild as a young man, he left the faith, lived with a woman outside of marriage, had a son, and followed a heretical sect called Manichaeism. Monica wept and prayed for him for almost thirty years. A bishop told her, 'It is not possible that the son of such tears should be lost.' Augustine traveled to Milan to teach rhetoric and there heard the preaching of St. Ambrose. Slowly his heart turned. One day in a garden, torn by his inner struggle, he heard a child's voice singing 'Take up and read.' He opened Scripture at random to Romans 13: 'Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh.' He was converted. He was baptized by Ambrose at the Easter Vigil in 387. He returned to Africa, became a priest and then the Bishop of Hippo. He wrote over 100 works, including the Confessions — the first true autobiography in world literature, addressed as a prayer to God — and the City of God, which shaped Western civilization. His theology of grace, original sin, and the Trinity remains foundational for the Church. He is one of the four great Doctors of the Western Church. He died in 430 AD as the Vandals besieged his city. His most famous line: 'You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.'