He passed many years in unrest of mind and doubt, but ultimately a passage from Romans xii. 13, 14 seemed to pour the light of peace into his heart. He became a Christian and was baptised in his thirty-third year. Patricius was also converted and baptised, and Monica found the desire of her life fulfilled and her dear ones united to her in faith.
After some years of retirement, Augustine made a journey to Hippo Regius, a Roman colony on the River Rubricatus in North Africa, and became a presbyter.
His principal writings are ‘The City of God,’ ‘Confessions,’ and ‘The Trinity.’
He died during the siege of Hippo by the Vandals at the age of 75.
The theological position and influence of Augustine may be said to be unrivalled. No single name has ever exercised such power over the Christian Church, and no one mind has ever made such an impression upon Christian thought.
The Augustinians look upon this great Christian moralist as their founder, and reverence his memory and that of his saintly mother.
Whether he personally drew up the rules they observe or not, they were his disciples, following in his foot-steps, and finding their inspiration in his writings and example.
Great indeed must have been the magnetic force of that vehement nature that it could give an impetus to his followers that carried them all over Europe, that made them the companions of the discoverers and conquerors of the New World, and that filled their hearts with zeal and courage to face the dangers of the great lone ocean in company with Villalobos and Legáspi.
The Order traces its inception to the town of Hippo, and fixes the date at A.D. 395. Many, doubtless, were its vicissitudes, but in the year 1061, and again in 1214, we find the Order remodelled and extended. The Augustinians were very numerous in England and Scotland. In 1105 they had settled at Colchester and at Nostell, near Pontefract. Later they had abbeys at Bristol, Llantony, Christchurch, Twynham, Bolton and London, where part of their church (Austin Friars) is still standing. Altogether they had 170 houses in England. Their first house in Scotland was at Scone in 1114, and they soon had 25 houses, including churches or abbeys at Inchcolm in the Firth of Forth, St Andrew’s, Holyrood, Cambuskenneth and Inchaffray.
The Austin Friars or Black Canons were then described as an order of regular clergy holding a middle position between monks and secular canons, almost resembling a community of parish priests living under rule, and they have retained these characteristics to the present day.