A bishop's memoir of his own sins became one of the first Western autobiographies

Written around 397-400 AD, Augustine of Hippo's Confessions recounts his restless youth, his years following Manichaeism, and his eventual conversion to Christianity, framed as a direct prayer addressed to God rather than to the reader. Its unflinching self-examination — including his famous request that God grant him chastity, 'but not yet' — made it one of the first extended works of personal introspection in Western literature, centuries before autobiography became a form.

— Augustine of Hippo, Confessions — c. 397–400 AD
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