This Week in Christian History: Billy Graham, St. Augustine, and French Persecution

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, August 27, 2017

St. Augustine Dies — Aug. 28, 430

Saint Augustine of Hippo, as depicted in a Tiffany stained-glass window at the Lightner Museum, St. Augustine, Florida. | (Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Daderot)

This week marks the anniversary of the death of one of the most influential and prolific Christian writers in human history.

St. Augustine of Hippo was born in what is now Algeria to a devout Christian mother and a pagan father. Baptized as an adult, he became bishop of Hippo and wrote enduring works like The City of God and Confessions.

"Augustine's literary and intellectual abilities, however, gave him the power to articulate his vision of Christianity in a way that set him apart from his African contemporaries," noted Britannica.com.

"His unique gift was the ability to write at a high theoretical level for the most discerning readers and still be able to deliver sermons with fire and fierceness in an idiom that a less cultured audience could admire."

In 429, a tribe known as the Vandals invaded North Africa and eventually laid siege to Hippo. During the tribulation, Augustine came down with a fever and died.

"Augustine remains a central figure both in Christianity and in the history of Western thought," noted Religionfacts.com. "Augustine's writings helped formulate the theory of just war."

"It is largely due to Augustine's influence that Western Christianity subscribes to the doctrine of original sin, and the Roman Catholic Church holds that baptisms and ordinations done outside of the Roman Catholic Church can be valid ..."