Augustine of Hippo
African teacher of rhetoric, converted at Milan in 386 and for almost forty years presbyter and bishop at Hippo Regius. His Confessions, his City of God and his writings on grace shaped the theology of the Latin West.
Augustine was born at Thagaste in Roman Africa and taught rhetoric at Carthage, Rome and Milan (Possidius, Life of Augustine 1). For nine years he followed the Manichaeans (Augustine, Confessions 4.1.1). His conversion in a garden at Milan is told in his own Confessions (Augustine, Confessions 8.12.28–30), and his friend Possidius says that he was baptised by Ambrose at Easter (Possidius, Life of Augustine 1); see the Conversion of Augustine. His mother was Monica. Back in Africa he was made presbyter and then bishop of Hippo Regius (Possidius, Life of Augustine 4, 8).
As bishop he signed the decisions of the African councils that listed the books of Scripture (Council of Carthage (397) Breviarium Hipponense, subscriptions) (see African Councils List the Books of Scripture), began the City of God after the sack of Rome (Augustine, Retractations 2.43), and for some ten years wrote against the teaching of Pelagius (Possidius, Life of Augustine 18) (see Augustine and Pelagius Dispute over Grace). He died on 28 August 430, aged seventy-six, in the third month of the Vandal siege of Hippo (Possidius, Life of Augustine 29, 31) (Prosper, Chronicle 1304 (AD 430)). The year of his birth, 354, is reckoned back from that age.
In the timeline
- AD 386, firm dateThe Conversion of Augustine
In a garden at Milan the African teacher of rhetoric Augustine, after years of hesitation, reads a sentence of Paul and resolves to seek baptism. He tells the story himself in the Confessions. Ambrose baptises him the following Easter.
- AD 393 to AD 397, firm dateAfrican Councils List the Books of Scripture
The bishops of Roman Africa, meeting at Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397, rule that only canonical Scripture may be read in church and list its books: a New Testament of twenty-seven books and an Old Testament that includes Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach and Maccabees.
- August AD 410, firm dateThe Sack of Rome and Augustine’s City of God
Alaric’s Goths take and plunder Rome in August 410. Pagans blame the disaster on the abandonment of the old gods. Augustine answers with the City of God, twenty-two books on the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly, written over a number of years.
- AD 411 to AD 418, estimated dateAugustine and Pelagius Dispute over Grace
The monk Pelagius teaches that God made human nature able to choose the good and commands nothing impossible. Augustine answers that fallen nature can do no good without the grace of Christ. African councils and the bishops of Rome condemn Pelagius’s teaching in 418.
Primary sources
Life of Augustine
- Possidius, Life of Augustine 1tertullian.org
- Possidius, Life of Augustine 4, 8tertullian.org
- Possidius, Life of Augustine 18tertullian.org
- Possidius, Life of Augustine 29, 31tertullian.org
Retractations
- Augustine, Retractations 2.43augustinus.it
Chronicle
- Prosper, Chronicle 1304 (AD 430)archive.org