Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo was a Christian thinker and bishop from Roman Africa. His books shaped the Church and Western thought for more than 1,500 years. He was born on 13 November 354 in Thagaste, modern Souk Ahras, and died on 28 August 430 in Hippo Regius, modern Annaba.
Augustine of Hippo was a Christian thinker and bishop from Roman Africa. His books shaped the Church and Western thought for more than 1,500 years. He was born on 13 November 354 in Thagaste, modern Souk Ahras, and died on 28 August 430 in Hippo Regius, modern Annaba.
Monica, his mother, was a devout Christian of Berber origin.
He went to school in Madauros. At 17 he left for Carthage to study rhetoric, the art of public speaking. He later taught in Rome and Milan, where he was baptised in 387 with his son, Adeodatus.
Back in Africa, he became a priest in Hippo Regius, now Annaba, in 391 and its bishop in 396. There he wrote the Confessions, the story of his life and faith, and The City of God, finished in 426.
When he died, the Vandals were besieging the city. In 1298 the Church named him a Doctor of the Church, a title for its greatest teachers.
Today visitors to Annaba can walk among the ruins of Hippo and visit the Basilica of Saint Augustine. In April 2026 Pope Leo XIV, himself an Augustinian, came to the city to honour him.
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