Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was born into a Romanized family in Numidia, a province roughly 250 miles from Carthage. At the age of seventeen, Augustine moved to Carthage to continue his studies in rhetoric. Two years later he returned home to teach grammar for two years before again settling in Carthage, where he taught for another eight years. At the end of that term, Augustine, now twenty-nine, had raised enough money to go to Rome, but he became quickly disenchanted there and was fortunate to get an appointment to the imperial court in Milan in 385.While in Milan, he learned of and was profoundly moved by St. Anthony the Great and resolved to study St. Paul's writings. His resulting conversion to Christianity in late 386 is described in Confessions.

Augustine was ordained a priest in 391 and appointed Bishop of Hippo in 395, where he spent the remaining thirty-five years of his life.