AUGUSTINE, St, an illustrious father of the church, was born at Thagaste, a city of Numidia, on the 13th of November 354. His father, a burgess of that city, was called Patricius, and his mother Monica, who being a woman of great virtue, instructed him in the principles of the Christian religion. In his early youth, while in the rank of the. catechumens, he fell dangerously ill, and earnestly desiι ed to be baptized; but the violence of the distemper ceasing, his baptism was delayed. His father, who had not yet been baptized, made him study at Thagaste, Madaura, and afterwards at Carthage. Augustine having read Cicero s books of philosophy, began to entertain a love for wisdom, and applied himself to the study of the Holy Scriptures; nevertheless, he suffered himself to be seduced by the Manicheans. At the age of nineteen he returned to Thagaste, where he gave instructions in grammar,; and also frequented the bar: he afterwards taught rhetoric atCarthage with applause. The insolence of the scholars at Carthage made him take a resolution to go to Rome, though against his mother’s will. Here also he had many scholars; but disliking them, he quitted Rome, and settling at Milan, was chosen public professor of rhetoric in that city. Here he had opportunities of hearing the sermons of St Ambrose, which, together with the study of St Paul’s epistles, and the conversion of two of his friends, determined him to retract his errors, and quit the sect of the Manicheans: this was in the thirty-second year of his age. In the vacation of the year 386 he retired to the house of a friend of his named Verecundus, where he seriously applied himself to the study of the Christian religion, in order to prepare himself for baptism, which he received at Easter in the year 387. Soon after this his mother came to see him at Milan, and invite him back to Carthage; but at Ostia, whither he went to embark in order to return, she died. He arrived in Africa about the end of the year 388; and having obtained a garden-plot without the walls of the city of Hippo, he associated himself with eleven otherpersons of eminent sanctity, who distinguished themselves by wearing leathern girdles, and lived there in a monastic way for the space of three years; exercising themselves in fasting, prayer, study, and meditation, day and night. Hence sprung the Augustine friars, orcremites of St Augustine, who were the first order of mendicants; those of St Jerome, the Carmelites, and others, being but branches of that of St Augustine. About this time, or before, Valerius, bishop of Hippo, ordained him priest much against his inclination: nevertheless he continued to reside in his little monastery with his brethren, who, renouncing all property, possessed their goods in common. Valerius, who had appointed St Augustine to preach in his place, allowed him to do it in his presence, contrary to the custom of the churches in Africa. Hé explained the creed in a general council of Africa held in 393. Two years after, Valerius, fearing he might be preferred to be bishop of another church, appointed him his coadjutor or colleague, and caused him to be ordained bishop of Hippo, by Mega-lus, bishop of Calame, then primate of Numidia. St Augustine died on the 28th of August 430, aged seventy-six years; having had the misfortune to see his country invaded by the Vandals, and the city where he was bishop besieged for seven months. The works of St Augustine extend to ten volumes: the best edition of them is that of Maurin, printed at Antwerp in 1700.

Augustine, St, a fort of North America, on the east coast of Cape Florida, situated in Long. 81. 40. W. Lat. 30. 0. N.

Augustine, a cape of South America. Long. 35. 11. W. Lat. 8. 38. S.