The Conversion of Augustine

Today, the Church marks the feast of the conversion of St Augustine. He was baptised on the Easter Vigil by Ambrose of Milan, together with his son Adeodatus and his 'brother of the heart' Alypius. It had been a long journey but, possibly with the exception of the conversion of Paul, the most consequential in the history of Christianity.

Pope Benedict XVI reflected on this in his general audience held on the 27 February 2008: "Augustine converted to Christ who is truth and love, followed him throughout his life and became a model for every human being, for all of us in search of God...

Even today, as in his time, humanity needs to know and above all to live this fundamental reality: God is love, and the encounter with him is the only response to the restlessness of the human heart; a heart inhabited by hope, still perhaps obscure and unconscious in many of our contemporaries but which already today opens us Christians to the future, so much so that St. Paul wrote that 'in this hope we were saved' (Rom 8:24)."