AD 386

Conversion of Augustine of Hippo

Augustine resolves to embrace ascetic Christianity in Milan

The visitor who changed Augustine’s life first noticed Paul’s letters lying on a table normally used for games.

A codex on the gaming table

At Augustine’s Milan residence in 386, the imperial official Ponticianus noticed a codex of Paul’s letters lying on a gaming table. He then told Augustine and Alypius about Antony of Egypt, and about two imperial agents at Trier who had abandoned their careers after reading Antony’s life.

This was a courtier’s private conversation, not a sermon.

The Confessions supplies no calendar date for what followed and was written more than a decade afterwards as a crafted theological autobiography; modern chronologies place the scene in the summer of 386, variously in July or August.

Take up and read

Shaken by Ponticianus’s story, Augustine withdrew with Alypius into a garden, separated himself to weep beneath a fig tree, and heard a childlike voice repeating “take up and read”.

He opened Paul’s letters and read Romans 13:13–14, which told the reader to reject revelry and sexual indulgence and to “put on” Christ. He wrote that his uncertainty immediately vanished.

Alypius read the following verse, applied it to himself and joined him; they then told Monica, who rejoiced at Augustine’s new commitment.

What the garden did not settle

The decision was specifically a conversion to an ascetic Christian life. Augustine relinquished his projected marriage, his teaching career and his courtly ambitions.

He was already a Christian catechumen and had substantially abandoned Manichaeism, so this was not a single step from one religion to another. Scholars have debated whether to describe the episode as conversion to Christianity, conversion to Christian asceticism, or the culmination of earlier changes.

He was not baptized until Easter 387, and was ordained a priest only around 391.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~0386-08.

What the sources leave uncertain

The Confessions supplies no calendar date for the garden scene. Modern chronologies place it in the summer of 386, variously in July or August; “late August” is a reconstruction, not a date stated by Augustine.
The Confessions was written more than a decade afterward and is a crafted theological autobiography. Scholars have debated whether the episode should be described as conversion to Christianity, conversion to Christian asceticism or the culmination of earlier intellectual and religious changes.