Saint of the Day
Monday, July 13, 2026
Bishop of Hippo, the most influential theologian of the early Western church — Doctor of the Church.
Aurelius Augustinus was born in Thagaste, North Africa (modern Algeria), in 354 to a pagan father (Patricius) and a Christian mother (Saint Monica). His mother prayed for his conversion for over 30 years while he lived a worldly life: studying rhetoric in Carthage, fathering a son out of wedlock (Adeodatus, whom he loved deeply), joining the Manichaean sect, and pursuing professional success as a teacher of rhetoric. He moved to Milan in 384 to teach and there encountered the preaching of Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan. Augustine's intellectual journey to Christianity took years and is recorded in detail in his Confessions — one of the foundational works of Western literature and the first true autobiography.
Read full biography →Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace. Amen.