Who Is St. Augustine?:
St. Augustine was an important figure in the history of Christianity. He wrote about topics like predestination and original sin. Some of his doctrines separate Western and Eastern Christianity, with St. Augustine defining some doctrines of Western Christianity. He lived in Africa during the time of the attack of the Vandals.
Dates:
St. Augustine was born on 13 November 354 at Tagaste in North Africa and died in 28 August 430.
Offices:
St. Augustine was ordained Bishop of Hippo in 396.
Controversies / Heresies:
St. Augustine was attracted to Manicheeism and Neo-Platonism before his conversion to Christianity in 386. As a Christian, Augustine was involved in a controversy with Donatists and opposed the Pelagian heresy.
Sources on Augustine:
St. Augustine was a prolific writer and his own words were very important for the formation of church doctrine. His disciple Possidius wrote a Life of Augustine. In the sixth century, Eugippius, at a monastery near Naples, compiled an anthology of the writing of St. Augustine. St. Augustine is also featured in Cassiodorus' Institutiones.Distinctions:
St. Augustine was one of the 8 great Doctors of the Church (Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, and Gregory of Nazianzus). St. Augustine may have been the most influential philosopher ever.
Augustine's Writings:
Confessions and City of God are St. Augustine's most famous works. A third important work was On the Trinity. Augustine wrote 113 books and treatises, and hundreds of letters and sermons.
Augustine's Saint's Day:
August 28.
