St. Augustine of Hippo
Patron of theologians, scholars, brewers, printers, Africa
Saint Augustine (354–430), bishop of Hippo in Roman North Africa, is in influence the greatest theologian of the Western Church. Reared by Monica, dissolute in youth, follower of the Manichees, professor of rhetoric at Milan, he was converted at thirty-two through the preaching of Ambrose and the famous 'Tolle, lege' in the garden, where he opened Romans 13 and read 'Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.' Made bishop against his will, he wrote against the Manichees, the Donatists and the Pelagians, and composed the Confessions, the City of God and On the Trinity — works that shaped Western thought for sixteen centuries. He died as the Vandals besieged his city, the Psalms of Penitence pasted on the walls of his room.