St. Augustine of Hippo

Augustine was a brilliant teacher of rhetoric who lived a wild youth while his mother, St. Monica, prayed for him with tears. In Milan he heard St. Ambrose preach, and in a garden he heard a child sing “Take up and read.” He opened Paul’s letters and was converted. He became bishop of Hippo in North Africa and wrote the Confessions, which begins, “You have made us for Yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” He died in 430 as the Vandals besieged his city.

• Feast: June 15 (New Calendar)
• Lived: 354–430
• Place: Hippo, North Africa