272
Aurelius Augustinus, Saint Augustine, was born of a Christian mother and a
pagan father in Thagaste, a small town in what is now Algeria, North Africa. In
many ways, his family’s mixed religious background represented the crumbling
Roman Empire. Even though the influence of Christianity had grown since
Emperor Constantine’s edict of religious toleration in A.D. 313, there were still
many rivals to his mother’s faith.
As a boy, Augustine showed intellectual promise, and at 17 he was sent to
Carthage to study rhetoric. While there, Augustine found philosophy, rejected
Christianity, took a mistress (who bore him a son), and began to investigate some of
the religions of the time. He turned first to the followers of the prophet Mani—the
Manichaeans. Mani was a third-century prophet who called himself “the apostle of
God.” He developed the ancient Persian teaching of Zoroaster (or Zarathustra),
which said that there are two great forces in the world, one good and one evil, and
that neither can overcome the other. Living a life of sensual indulgence, Augustine
took comfort from the idea that God could no more overcome evil in the universe
than Augustine could in his own life.
In 375, Augustine returned to Thagaste to begin teaching rhetoric. When his
mother, Monica (later sainted for her perseverance in prayer for her son), discov-
ered that he had become a Manichaean, she expelled him from her house. Finding
Thagaste boring, and his mother difficult, Augustine returned to Carthage. Over
the next seven years, he grew disenchanted with Manichaeism. In 384, he left
Carthage for teaching positions in Rome and finally Milan. In Milan, Augustine
encountered the writings of Plotinus and was converted to Neoplatonism. At the
same time, he came into contact with a group of Christians led by the Bishop of
Milan, Ambrose. Under the influence of this group, Augustine was forced to
reconsider his earlier rejection of Christianity, yet he was still unwilling to give upAUGUSTINE
A.D. 354–430