St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) — Bishop, Doctor of the Church, Convert
Before he became one of the greatest minds in Christian history, Augustine was lost. Born in 354 in Tagaste, North Africa, to a pagan father and a fiercely faithful mother — St. Monica — he spent his youth chasing worldly pleasures, fathered a son out of wedlock, and fell into the Manichaean heresy for nearly a decade. His brilliant intellect only deepened his pride.
Everything changed in a garden in Milan. After years of his mother’s relentless prayers and the preaching of St. Ambrose, Augustine heard the voice of a child singing, “Take up and read.” He opened the Letters of St. Paul, and the first passage he saw — a call to abandon impurity and live in Christ — shattered him. He was baptized by St. Ambrose at Easter, 387.
Augustine returned to North Africa, was ordained a priest against his own will in 391, and became Bishop of Hippo in 396. Over the next 34 years, he wrote over five million surviving words — including the Confessions and The City of God — defended the faith against heresy, founded monasteries, and served the poor. On the wall of his room he kept a single rule in large letters: “Here we do not speak evil of anyone.”
He died on August 28, 430, while Vandals besieged his city, spending his final days praying the Penitential Psalms he had pinned to his walls. Feast day: August 28. Patron of theologians, brewers, and printers. Doctor of the Church.
This alla prima underpainting by Jacob Zumo captures Augustine in his bishop’s mitre — the restless sinner who became a titan of the Catholic faith. A sacred art print for your home, chapel, or parish.
St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) — Bishop, Doctor of the Church, Convert
Before he became one of the greatest minds in Christian history, Augustine was lost. Born in 354 in Tagaste, North Africa, to a pagan father and a fiercely faithful mother — St. Monica — he spent his youth chasing worldly pleasures, fathered a son out of wedlock, and fell into the Manichaean heresy for nearly a decade. His brilliant intellect only deepened his pride.
Everything changed in a garden in Milan. After years of his mother’s relentless prayers and the preaching of St. Ambrose, Augustine heard the voice of a child singing, “Take up and read.” He opened the Letters of St. Paul, and the first passage he saw — a call to abandon impurity and live in Christ — shattered him. He was baptized by St. Ambrose at Easter, 387.
Augustine returned to North Africa, was ordained a priest against his own will in 391, and became Bishop of Hippo in 396. Over the next 34 years, he wrote over five million surviving words — including the Confessions and The City of God — defended the faith against heresy, founded monasteries, and served the poor. On the wall of his room he kept a single rule in large letters: “Here we do not speak evil of anyone.”
He died on August 28, 430, while Vandals besieged his city, spending his final days praying the Penitential Psalms he had pinned to his walls. Feast day: August 28. Patron of theologians, brewers, and printers. Doctor of the Church.
This alla prima underpainting by Jacob Zumo captures Augustine in his bishop’s mitre — the restless sinner who became a titan of the Catholic faith. A sacred art print for your home, chapel, or parish.