The Great Transformation of the Roman Catholic Church in Late Antiquity

Augustine's mother Monica was born during Rome's Diocletian persecution. The Edict of Thessalonica in 380 had made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Augustine and his contemporaries did not do this on their own, but under the influence of new narratives like Athanasius' life of Antony. They championed a version of the religion in which ascetic monks and dispassionate bishops were the human heroes.