Saint Augustine of Hippo Medal Necklace - Doctor of the Church, Patron of Converts

About Saint Augustine of Hippo

Augustine was born in 354 in Thagaste, in what is now Algeria, to a pagan father and a devout Christian mother named Monica. He was brilliant, restless, and almost entirely uninterested in the faith his mother practiced. He studied rhetoric in Carthage, took a mistress, fathered a son, spent nine years as a Manichaean, and eventually moved to Rome and then Milan in pursuit of a career that matched his considerable intellect. His mother followed him, prayed for him, and wept for him for seventeen years without stopping.

In Milan he encountered Ambrose, the bishop whose preaching began to dismantle the intellectual objections Augustine had constructed against Christianity one by one. The conversion, when it finally came, was not gradual. Augustine was in a garden in Milan in the summer of 386 when he heard a child's voice saying "take up and read." He opened Paul's letter to the Romans, read a single passage, and later wrote that a light of certainty flooded his heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled. He was baptized by Ambrose at Easter 387. His son Adeodatus was baptized with him. His mother Monica died that same year, on the way home to Africa, having lived to see the thing she had prayed for.

He returned to North Africa, was ordained a priest against his wishes by popular demand, and became Bishop of Hippo in 396. He held that position for 34 years, writing continuously - the Confessions, the City of God, On the Trinity, and hundreds of letters, sermons, and treatises that shaped the theology of the Western Church so thoroughly that it is impossible to fully separate what Catholicism thinks from what Augustine wrote. He died in 430 as the Vandals laid siege to Hippo. He was 75 years old. He had spent more than four decades writing his way through every serious theological question his era produced, and he had not finished.

Saint Augustine of Hippo's feast day is August 28. He spent the first half of his life running and the second half writing down everything he found when he finally stopped - and the Church has been reading it ever since.

His Patronage

Augustine of Hippo is the patron saint of converts, theologians, brewers, and those with a restless or searching spirit. He is a Doctor of the Church - one of the most cited theological authorities in Catholic history - and the saint whose story is most specifically about the distance between where a person starts and where faith eventually takes them.

He is the natural confirmation saint for a boy who takes ideas seriously, who has questions he cannot resolve, or who has resisted faith in the way that intelligent people sometimes do before it finally breaks through. Choosing Augustine for confirmation is not a generic choice. It is a specific one - a statement that the boy making it understands something about the nature of conversion: that it is not always early, not always easy, and not always clean, and that those facts do not disqualify it. His feast day is August 28.

He is also the right patron for a recent convert - someone who came to the Church late, through difficulty, or from a place of serious doubt. No saint in the catalog has a more direct claim on that experience. And for the parent who has been praying for a child who is not yet there - Monica prayed for seventeen years. She is Augustine's saint as much as Augustine is hers.

The Saint Augustine of Hippo Medal

This medal depicts Augustine full-face, wearing full episcopal vestments: the mitre, the cope with ornate detailing, and a cross medallion at the chest. He holds a bishop's crozier in his left hand and an open book in his right - the book referencing both the Scripture he preached and the body of writing he produced as bishop, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. A halo frames his head. The background is baroque scrollwork filling the outer ring. The face is direct and intense - not serene, not soft - which suits a man who spent his entire adult life thinking harder than most people are willing to. The metal forms the illustration itself: black ink is applied to the pendant surface and the gold or silver shows through as the image. A shatterproof liquid glass coating seals the surface.

Personalization and Engraving

The optional engraving on the reverse is rendered in Tangerine cursive. Two lines, up to 20 characters each. Two lines that fit:

Line 1: "Our heart is"
Line 2: "restless for Thee."

For a confirmation gift, most people engrave the recipient's name and confirmation date. For a convert, a name and the date of baptism or reception into the Church. For a theology student or graduate, a name and a significant academic date.