author
active 370-437 Saint Possidius
A close friend and early biographer of Augustine of Hippo, this North African bishop offers a rare firsthand window into the Christian world of late antiquity. His surviving work is especially valued for preserving details about Augustine’s life, character, and writings.
1 Audiobook
Les confessions de saint Augustin, évêque d'Hippone: précédées de sa vie par S. Possidius, évêque de Calame... ; traduction nouvelle par L. Moreau
by Saint of Hippo Augustine, active 370-437 Saint Possidius
About the author
Little is known for certain about his early life, but Possidius was a North African bishop of Calama and a longtime companion of Augustine of Hippo. He is best remembered for writing a Life of Augustine, one of the earliest and most important sources on Augustine’s life.
Sources on Possidius describe him as part of Augustine’s circle and as an active church leader during a turbulent period marked by conflict with the Donatists. Later tradition also remembers him as a saint, and records suggest he was still alive in 437, after the Vandal upheavals in North Africa.
For modern listeners, Possidius matters because he was not just writing about a famous figure from afar. He knew Augustine personally, shared in the religious debates of the time, and left behind a portrait shaped by friendship, memory, and lived experience.