Augustine, Saint

(354-30)

   Born in Tagaste to a pagan Roman official and Christian mother, Augustine was brought up a Christian. In 370, he went to Carthage to study rhetoric and law. He eventually abandoned law and Christianity all together, took a mistress with whom he lived for 15 years, and had a son with her in 372. During this time, he became keenly interested in philosophy and, after teaching at Tagaste and Carthage for the next decade, he moved first to Rome, where he opened a school of rhetoric, and then Milan where he heard the sermons of Bishop Ambrose. Influenced by the man's preachings, Augustine returned to his Christian faith and was baptized in 387. After losing his son, he devoted himself to monasticism and preaching. In 395, he was appointed coadjutor to Bishop Valerius of Hippo and in the following year he succeeded him as bishop. He died at Hippo during a siege.

   Augustine was a prolific writer. He left about 200 treatises, 300 letters, and 400 sermons that have had a major impact in theology and philosophy. His thinking dominated Western Christian thought for centuries, which has earned him placement among the Doctors of the Church. Not only is St. Augustine often included in paintings — for example, in Fra Filippo Lippi's Barbadori Altarpiece (beg. 1437, Paris, Louvre) and El Greco's Burial of Count Orgáz (1586; Toledo, Church of Santo Tomé)—but his writings also affected the iconography of decorative programs. Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, Rome (1508-1512), for instance, has been interpreted at times as a work that reflects the saint's exegesis.