In 391 Augustine went to Hippo...

In 391 Augustine went to Hippo, probably to select a suitable place for himself and his friends who had been living a common life of study and devotion at Tagaste in a monastery built by Augustine. In Hippo, at the will of the people, Augustine was ordained a priest. The newly ordained priest, while continuing his monastic life, entered into the mission of the apostolate, preaching against vice and voicing his formidable opposition to the heresies which at that time were harassing Africa.

Consecrated coadjutor Bishop of Hippo in 395 and titular Bishop of the same city in the following year, Augustine transformed his episcopal residence into a monastery, in which he lived together with his clerics, who assisted him in giving religious instructions and carrying on all forms of charitable works. Always ready to argue on theological, philosophical and moral questions, he took part in all the difficult theological disputes which disturbed the Church in Africa.

He opposed Donatism, which denied the validity of sacraments administered by ecclesiastics in the state of sin, and advocated a church of pure and perfect men, withdrawn entirely from the life of the world. He vigorously argued against Pelagianism, which exalted the absolute liberty of the human will and denied original sin and the necessity of divine grace.

He fought against Manichaeism, the doctrine which he has formerly espoused, and the Skepticism of the Academicians whom he had once joined when his mind was assailed by doubt. A fatal illness overtook Augustine in the year 430, at a time when the Vandals, barbarians of exceptional ferocity, were laying siege to the city of Hippo. Augustine was seventy-five years old, and had spent thirty-four years as Bishop of Hippo. The literary output of St. Augustine was prodigious.

The prevalent purpose of his writings is dogmatic and moral; i.e., he dwells on the problems which most directly concern the answer to the question of life. But because of his particular tendency to consider the problems of life in connection with speculative knowledge, he treats philosophical problems to some extent in every one of his works.

From the point of view of philosophy the most important are: the Confessions in thirteen books, a profound and suggestive autobiography; Soliloquia, in two books; De immortalitate animae; De libero arbitrio; Contra Academicos; De beata vita; De magistro.