CrucisSt. Augustine of Hippo
St. Augustine was born on 13 November 354 in Thagaste, a town in Roman North Africa (modern Souk Ahras, Algeria), and died on 28 August 430 as the city of Hippo Regius lay under Vandal siege. After a restless youth pursuing rhetoric, worldly ambition, and the Manichaean sect, he was drawn toward the faith through the preaching of St. Ambrose and the prayers of his mother, St. Monica, and was baptized at Milan in 387. Ordained and later made bishop of Hippo, he served his people for some thirty-five years as pastor, preacher, and tireless defender of orthodoxy against the Manichaeans, Donatists, and Pelagians.
He is honored as a Doctor of the Church and is often called the Doctor of Grace for his profound teaching on grace, free will, and original sin. His Confessions, the first great spiritual autobiography of the West, and City of God, written as Rome fell to the barbarians, shaped Latin theology for over a millennium and remain among the most influential works in Christian history.
Selected quotes
“Humility is the foundation of the entire spiritual life; without it, every virtue is built on sand and every good work is threatened by pride.”
“Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward of this faith is to see at last what you have believed.”
“The mercy of God is an ocean without a shore; however deep the wound of sin, His grace goes deeper still.”