St. Augustine informs us himself that he was born at Thagaste (now Souk Ahras, Algeria), in proconsular Numidia, November 13, 354; he died at Hippo Regius (near modern Annaba, Algeria), August 28, 430. [Thagaste is about 60 miles west-southwest, and Hippo 65 miles west, of ancient Carthage, modern Tunis.]
His father Patricius, a member of the local council, belonged to the influential classes of Thagaste. He was, however, financially strained and unremarkable in intellect or character—a lively, sensual, hot-tempered man, consumed by worldly concerns and hostile to Christianity until late in life. He became a catechumen shortly before Augustine’s sixteenth year (369-370).
His mother Monnica (born 331, died 387) was, Augustine later believed, key to his becoming. Though honorable, loving, self-sacrificing, and capable, her early faith showed traces of formality and worldliness, maturing later through Ambrose and Augustine. Her ambition for her son initially lacked deep moral focus, and she regretted his Manicheanism more than his youthful sensuality.
Augustine’s parents were intensely proud of his boyhood. He began his education at Thagaste, learning to read and write, alongside rudiments of Greek and Latin literature, from teachers using traditional pagan methods. He received little systematic Christian instruction during this time. Enrolled as a catechumen, he neared baptism only during a childhood illness, a step urged by his own fleeting desire and halted by recovery.
Patricius, pleased with his progress, sent him first to nearby Madaura, then to Carthage, a two-day journey away. A year’s delay, amid modest moral decline while funds were gathered for this costlier schooling, was later amplified in Augustine’s *Confessions*. We must guard against overstating his early vice based solely on this penitential lens.
Theodor Mommsen’s term "frantic dissipation" overweights Augustine’s self-reproach. As a bishop, he viewed his pre-baptism life (up to 387) as wayward, but shortly after his conversion, he saw his philosophical turn at nineteen (~373) as pivotal. This earlier judgment, echoed in *Confessions*, likely better reflects his youth than tales of deep immorality.
At Carthage, studying rhetoric, he indulged in sensual pleasures with coarser peers, though ambition kept his excesses in check. His son Adeodatus was born in summer 372 to a mistress he met around late 370. He remained faithful to her until about 385, and his grief at their parting reveals the bond’s depth.
This monogamous union, common in that era’s culture, differed from formal marriage only in legal status and dissolvability. The Church was slow to fully condemn such arrangements, and Monnica seemingly received the child and mother publicly at Thagaste. Augustine was known in Carthage not as a roisterer but as a quiet, honorable student.
Yet he was inwardly restless. Cicero’s *Hortensius*, read around 373, left a lasting mark, igniting a deep wish to know truth. He began to see Christianity as the path to his ideal, but intellectual pride held him back—the scriptures paled beside Cicero’s polish. He sought wisdom, not humble submission to authority.
Extract adapted from St. Augustine, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), 2001. Ref URL: http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/augustin.htm
Created by Paul Brians, March 11, 1998. Last revised May 18, 2000.
Acknowledgment: I’d like to thank Grok, an AI by xAI, for helping me review and refine this article, adapting content from the IEP. The final edits and perspective are my own.
