The City of God

Augustine (AD 350-430), a major scholarly saint recognized in all Christian denominations, is known as a “Doctor of the Church” for his contributions to theology. He came to Christianity in his 30s, and recorded the sometimes-tortured process of his conversion in Confessions, one of the first great works of spiritual autobiography.

Augustine was born to a patrician family in a Roman province in what is now Algeria. He was well-educated, but led a rowdy and dissolute young life before his conversion. (He famously recalls praying to God: “Make me chaste—but not yet.”) He at last became a priest, and then the Bishop of Hippo. He traveled extensively through the Roman empire, visiting and studying in Milan and Rome, and became well-known for his tracts and books, which were hugely influential in the formalization of Christian theology.

After his travels, he returned to Hippo (also in modern-day Algeria), where he worked until his death. Among his other works, he established a cathedral that was one of the few buildings to survive an attack by the Vandals, who were also responsible for the Sack of Rome that Augustine addresses in City of God.