Biographical dossier

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine’s life joins late Roman education, conversion, monastic aspiration, episcopal ministry and major doctrinal controversies. His own writings make it possible to distinguish autobiography, pastoral action and retrospective interpretation.

Church FathersAugustine in North AfricaCarthage and PelagianismCarthageOpen map
Chronology and historical sequence

The sequence runs from Thagaste and Carthage through Rome and Milan, baptism by Ambrose in 387, return to North Africa, priestly ordination, episcopate at Hippo and death during the Vandal siege in 430.

Primary witnesses
  • The Confessions narrates the path to conversion in a theological form.
  • The Retractations reviews Augustine’s own literary development.
  • Possidius, Life of Augustine, supplies a near-contemporary episcopal biography.
  • Letters, sermons and anti-Donatist and anti-Pelagian works document public controversies.

Office, vocation and historical agency

Augustine was bishop, preacher, exegete and theologian. His authority in later Western theology should not obscure the local African conciliar setting in which many disputes were handled.

Geographic itinerary

Thagaste, Carthage, Rome, Milan and Hippo Regius form the principal life arc. North African roads and sees clarify the regional scale of the Donatist controversy.

Source path
  1. Augustine, Confessions and Retractations
  2. Possidius, Life of Augustine
  3. Augustine’s letters, sermons and controversy works
Catalogue record and limits
Research ID
catholon:person:person:wd:Q8018
Catalogue ID
person:wd:Q8018
Indexed life span
354 to 430
Source index
PANTHEON_2_2020

The catalogue dates and point anchors support identity and navigation. They do not replace the textual chronology, doctrinal judgement or critical biography above.