Catholic Western
✦
Doctor of the Church

Church Father

Augustine of Hippo

"The greatest theologian in the history of the Western Church — whose conversion, Confessions, and systematic theology shaped Christian thought for a millennium"

Born: AD 354 · Thagaste, Numidia (modern Algeria) Died: AD 430 · Hippo Regius (during the Vandal siege) Bishop of Hippo Regius, AD 396–430 Feast: 28 August Post-Nicene
Biography

Who was Augustine of Hippo?

Why this Father matters to Catholic apologetics: Augustine's most personal testimony is also his most important: his prayer for his dead mother Monica in the Confessions. He does not argue for prayer for the dead — he does it. The Confessions were written as an autobiography addressed to God. What is natural and unjustified is ancient. This is the kind of evidence worth more than ten systematic arguments.
Born
AD 354 · Thagaste, Numidia (modern Algeria)
Died
AD 430 · Hippo Regius (during the Vandal siege)
See / Role
Bishop of Hippo Regius, AD 396–430
Feast Day
28 August
Historical Period
Post-Nicene
Doctor of Church
1

Augustine was born AD 354 in Thagaste, North Africa, to Monica — a devout Catholic — and Patricius, a pagan. He became a professor of rhetoric, spent his twenties as a Manichaean, then encountered Ambrose in Milan, whose sermons demonstrated that Christianity was intellectually serious. In the summer of AD 386, reading Paul’s letter to the Romans in a garden in Milan, he was converted. He was baptised by Ambrose at the Easter Vigil of AD 387. He returned to North Africa, established a monastic community, was ordained presbyter in Hippo in AD 391 by popular acclamation, and became Bishop of Hippo in AD 396. He died on 28 August AD 430 while the Vandals were besieging Hippo, aged seventy-five.

Contemporaries

Who did Augustine of Hippo know?

Catholic saint
Emperor / ruler
Heretic / opponent
Pagan critic
Eastern Christian
Unknown
Ambrose of Milan
Teacher — Ambrose baptised Augustine at the Easter Vigil of AD 387
Jerome
Correspondence — famous letters debating Galatians 2 and biblical translation
John Chrysostom
Influence — Augustine read and cited Chrysostom's homilies on John and Matthew
Major Works

Major Works

Confessions
c. AD 397–401 · Latin
The most important spiritual autobiography in human history. Thirteen books addressed to God. The prayer for Monica in Book IX is key evidence for prayer for the dead.
Used in 2 verified claims on prayer for the dead and Purgatory
The City of God
c. AD 413–426 · Latin
Twenty-two books on the theological meaning of Rome's sack by Alaric. A theology of history: the two cities intermingled on earth, separated at the last judgment.
Used in 3 verified claims
On the Trinity
c. AD 399–422 · Latin
Fifteen books on the mystery of the Trinity — the definitive Latin treatment.
Background document
Enchiridion
c. AD 421 · Latin
A handbook of Christian doctrine. Contains Augustine's most explicit statements on Purgatory and prayer for the dead.
Used in 3 verified claims
Key Quotes

Key Quotes

Prayer for the Dead Confessions IX.13 · c. AD 397
"I pray you, O God, to grant rest and refreshment to my mother Monica, and Patricius her husband."
Apologetic Significance Augustine's personal prayer for his dead mother — not theological argument but lived practice. The naturalness of the prayer is its most important feature.
Purgatory City of God XXI.26 · c. AD 426
"It is a matter that may be inquired into, whether some believers shall pass through a kind of purgatorial fire, and in proportion as they have loved with more or less devotion the goods that perish, be less or more quickly delivered from it."
Apologetic Significance Augustine explicitly uses the concept of a purgatorial fire — the first use of this expression in the Fathers.
Scripture and the Church Against the Fundamental Letter of Manichaeus V.6 · c. AD 397
"I should not believe the Gospel unless moved by the authority of the Catholic Church."
Apologetic Significance The most cited patristic text in debates about the canon and the rule of faith — the logical priority of the Church's authority over Scripture.
Apostolic Succession

Where Augustine of Hippo stands in the chain

Ordination chain from Christ to this Father — and onward to students. Solid links cite named primary sources. Unknown means no ordainer is historically attested. Nodes with a profile are linked.

✝
Christ
The Source
→
Ambrose of Milan
Church Father
Baptised Augustine at Easter AD 387 — Confessions IX.6
→
VH
Valerius, Bishop of Hippo Regius
Unknown ordainer
Ordained Augustine priest AD 391 — Possidius, Vita Augustini 4. Valerius was a Greek-speaking bishop who needed a Latin preacher; Augustine wept at the ordination.
→
Augustine of Hippo
This Father

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