“Our heart is restless until it rests in you”: Augustine of Hippo, the African who shaped Western Christianity

One of the most influential thinkers in the history of Christianity was an African. Augustine was born in North Africa, served as a bishop in North Africa and died there.

Aurelius Augustinus was born in 354 in Thagaste, in the Roman province of Numidia, now Souk Ahras in Algeria. His father, Patricius, was a pagan; his mother, Monica, was a devout Christian who prayed for her son for years.

A restless youth

Augustine was brilliant. He studied in Carthage and became a teacher of rhetoric. As a young man he lived with a partner, with whom he had a son, Adeodatus, and followed Manichaeism, a religious movement that he later rejected. He moved to Rome and then to Milan, where he heard the preaching of Bishop Ambrose.

In 386, in a garden in Milan, Augustine was in turmoil over his life. He heard a child’s voice chanting, “Take up and read.” He opened a book of Paul’s letters and read Romans 13:13 to 14, which calls believers to put on Christ and make no provision for the flesh. He was converted and was baptised by Ambrose in 387.

Monica and Hippo

His mother died shortly afterwards at Ostia, near Rome, as they prepared to return to Africa. Augustine later wrote movingly of their final conversations. Back in Africa, Augustine was ordained a priest at Hippo Regius, now Annaba in Algeria, and became its bishop around 395. He served there for about 35 years, preaching, writing and leading the church through controversies.

His writings and legacy

His Confessions, written around 397 to 400, is often called the first Western autobiography. It opens with the famous line addressed to God: “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” The City of God, written after the sack of Rome in 410, contrasts the earthly city with the heavenly city.

His teaching on grace, sin and the church shaped both Catholic and Protestant theology, influencing Martin Luther and John Calvin. Augustine died in 430, while Hippo was under siege by the Vandals. African Christians today increasingly point out that Augustine, like Tertullian and Cyprian, was African. Christianity in North Africa flourished centuries before it reached much of Europe.

His heart was restless for thirty years. His words about that restlessness have spoken to readers for sixteen centuries.