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What happened in the Milan garden scene described in St. Augustine’s Confessions?

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Justus of Ghent: Saint Augustine — St. Augustine *Saint Augustine*, oil on wood panel by Justus of Ghent, c. 1475; in the Louvre Museum, Paris.

In the eighth book of his Confessions, St. Augustine describes a pivotal moment in a garden in Milan that served as the catalyst for his conversion to a life of chastity.12

While Augustine had already achieved an intellectual understanding of Christianity, he struggled to commit to the baptism he desired because he could not reconcile his faith with his sexual desires. During this period of intense internal conflict, he experienced a decisive scene in the garden where he heard a child’s voice—which he interpreted as a divine command—bidding him to "take up and read".12

Following this instruction, he turned to the letters of St. Paul. The passage he encountered provided the spiritual inspiration he needed to renounce his former lifestyle and fully commit to a life of purity, marking the final step in his transition toward his eventual role as a bishop.12