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 Augustine was born in the province of Numidia, North Africa to a respectable family of modest income. His father, Patricius, was a pagan, but his mother, Monica, was a Christian. At an early age, Augustine followed the faith of his mother, but by 16, the influence of a pagan education and his many passions led him to break with Christianity. For the next seventeen years he experienced periods of immorality, entanglement in appealing philosophies, and spiritual crisis. During that time, he taught rhetoric and public speaking in Carthage, Rome, and Milan. The great Church Father, Ambrose, was bishop in Milan and Augustine would often hear him preach.
A change slowly took place in Augustine as he listened to the sermons of Ambrose. He eventually reached a turning point and committed his life to Christ. He said about that moment,
“I cast myself down under a certain fig tree, giving full vent to my tears. I said, ‘O Lord, how long? Will You be angry forever? Why is there not this hour an end to my uncleanness?’ While I was speaking, I heard from a neighboring house a voice of a child chanting, ‘Take up and read, take up and read.’ I arose, interpreting it to be a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. I opened and read, ‘Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.’ (Romans 13:13, 14) No further would I read for instantly at the end of this sentence all the darkness of doubt vanished away.”
From that moment on he was a changed man, and he devoted himself heart and soul to the service of the Church. In public debate and through his writings, Augustine defended the teachings of the Church against heretics and schismatics. He molded the theology of the Middle Ages in Europe and greatly influenced Luther and Calvin. Luther quoted Augustine over one hundred times in his commentary on Romans alone.
In 395, he was elected bishop of Hippo against his will, laboring there for 35 years until his death. Augustine was a prolific writer and is most famous for his autobiography Confessions, and his magnum opus The City of God, an unexcelled statement of the biblical view of history and one of the most influential books in history. The literary production of Augustine was so massive that it is difficult to arrive at even an approximation of what he taught on various subjects. Any bibliography on the study of Augustine will list thousands of works in numerous languages.
Next to the Apostle Paul, he did more to shape Christianity than any other person, laying the theological groundwork for the total Christian society. His concept of education, and his administrative energies, produced a system of schools that was the model for the entire Middle Ages – including the university system that began in the twelfth century.
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