Augustine comes about it would seem, as the result of three major forces. Augustine"s mother was a Christian and never quit praying for him or witnessing to him; Augustine himself, spent, it would seem, every day of his life, in a search for something he could identify as Truth; and finally as he continued to "hold out against God," there were a series of witnesses to him where people shared either their own conversion or the conversion of others including some famous teachers.

             A major factor in Augustine"s whole life is the influences his mother had on him. She was Christian, and through his whole time of seeking for truth she made no secret of her wishes and prayers for him.

             In Book III of Saint Augustine: Confessions, Augustine relates his life at the time he went to Carthage to continue his studies. He opens this Book with this statement, "I went to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lust." He goes on to relate all the things that he got into there. He fell in love-and in our rude vernacular-just "shacked up" with the lady. He apparently wasn"t really concerned with fidelity because he also says he, ".muddied the waters of friendship with the filth of lewdness and clouded its clear waters with hell"s black river of lust." Augustine also relates that he was, "much attracted by the theater," because the sorrow portrayed on the stage seemed wonderful to him. He declares himself guilty of being in pursuit of, "an unholy curiosity," through which he, ".deserted you (God) and sank to the bottom-most depths of skepticism and the mockery of devil-worship." Although Augsutine continues to heap criticism on himself for his behavior at this time in his life-he was all of sixteen when he first arrived in Carthage-he also acknowledges that he was much better behaved than a group of students who called themselves "The Wreckers.