He was born Aurelius Augustinus (aw-gu-STY-nus) on November 13, 354, but it was by the name Augustine (aw-
"Suddenly every vain hope became worthless to me, and with an incredible warmth of heart I... began now to arise that I might return to thee.... How ardent was I then, my God, how ardent to fly from earthly things to thee!"
From the Confessions
Portrait: Reproduced by permission of the Corbis Corporation.
Augustine
Born 354 Died 430
North African church leader and philosopher
GUS-tin) that he would become famous. His hometown was Tagaste (tuh-GAS-tee), a city in what is now Algeria, which at that time was part of the Western Roman Empire.
Like many Romans, Augustine's father Patricius believed in the old Roman religion, which was pagan, meaning that its followers worshiped a variety of gods. Many other Romans, including Augustine's mother Monica, had accepted Christianity. The latter religion had developed in the three centuries following the deaths of Jesus and his followers, and had gained wide acceptance among the emperors of Rome.
As for young Augustine, he did not believe in the pagan gods, but he refused to accept Christianity either. He later recalled in the Confessions, a book detailing his experiences as a youth and his eventual acceptance of the Christian faith, that Monica prayed for him often during his wayward youth.
World History
