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Aurelius Augustinus (354-430), better known as Saint Augustine, was born to poor parents, Patricius and Monnica, in the small town of Tagaste in Numidia, North Africa. Despite his mother's pious influence, Augustine embarked on several years of wild living when he began his education at the University of Carthage. During this time he fathered a child and adopted the Manichean faith, a sect whose followers professed to have received from their founder a higher truth than from Christ. After years of seeking and eventual disillusionment with the Manichean ways, Augustine acknowledged Jesus as Lord during a dramatic garden conversion. He was baptized the following year and became an ascetic--studying the foundations of faith, writing (chiefly against his former sect), and conversing with a group of disciples, first at Rome and then in his native town. During a visit to Hippo near his hometown he entered the priesthood and in 395 he became Bishop of Hippo, an office he held until his death. He is known for his literary accomplishments, chiefly The City of God and The Confessions, as well as his patient pastoral leadership in the Catholic Church.
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