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Aurelius Augustinus was born in 354 in Tagaste to a Christian mother and a Pagan father, raised in Roman north Africa, educated in Carthage, and employed as a professor of rhetoric in Milan by 383. He followed the [[Manichaeism|Manichaean]] religion in his student days, and was converted to Christianity by the preaching and example of [[Ambrose of Milan]]. He was [[baptism|baptized]] at Easter in 387, and returned to north Africa and created a monastic foundation at Tagaste for himself and a group of friends. In 391 he was [[ordination|ordained]] a [[priest]] in Hippo Regius (now Annaba, in Algeria). He became a famous preacher (more than 350 preserved sermons are believed to be authentic), and was noted for combatting the Manichaean heresy.
In 396 he was made coadjutor [[bishop]] of Hippo (assistant with the right of succession on the death of the current bishop), and remained as bishop in Hippo until his death in 430. He left his [[monastery]], but continued to lead a monastic life in the episcopal residence. He left a Rule (''Regula'' in Latin) for his monastery that has led him to be designated the "patron saint of Regular Clergy," that is, [[parish ]] [[clergy ]] who live by a monastic rule.
Augustine died on [[August 28]], 430, during the siege of Hippo by the Vandals. He is said to have encouraged its citizens to resist the attacks, primarily on the grounds that the Vandals adhered to heretical [[Arianism|Arian]] Christianity.
Augustine's writings developed St Ambrose of Milan's theory of [[just war]]. He also advocated the use of force against the [[Donatism|Donatists]], asking "Why . . . should not the Church use force in compelling her lost sons to return, if the lost sons compelled others to their destruction?" (''The Correction of the Donatists'', 22-24). However, he objected to capital punishment and said that it would be preferable to set his opponents free than to execute them.
The addition of Augustine to the [[Menologion]] is uncertain. Some regard him as [[Glorification|glorified]] by popular recognition in the distant past, yet he was not added to the [[Horologion]] in Greece until 1983 (and then only in the index, but with no mention of his name on the page for June 15). He appears to have been added to the calendar in Russia during the "Western Captivity" when the influence of Latin scholasticism was at a high point. His [[feast day]] in the Orthodox Church is [[June 15]]. In the West, he is remembered on [[August 28]]. which was the day of his death in A.D. 430.
==Reception of Augustine in the Orthodox Church==
