St Monica Widow (331-387) Saint of the Day August 27

St Monica, a Christian, was married at the age of 20 to Patricius, a pagan official at Tagaste (North Africa). The violent temper and dissolute pagan habits of her husband, whom she bore three children, caused her much suffering, and made the Christian education of their offspring rather difficult; but after 18 years of married life Patricius finally embraced the faith, and died soon after.

Thenceforth Augustine, her eldest son, was her sole preoccupation, for during his studies at Carthage he had become ensnared by the Manichaean heresy, and his passions had led him into an illicit attachment with a woman who became his mistress for the next 15 years. Monica tried in vain to persuade a visiting Bishop, who had himself passed the Manichaean errors, to lead her son back to the truth; but he felt the time was not ripe, and she had to content herself with his assurance that “it is impossible that the son of such tears should perish!”

When Augustine decided to teach rhetoric in Rome, Monica wished to accompany him, but he deceived her by a ruse and sailed off alone. From Rome he moved on to Milan, where he obtained a professorship. Monica followed him there, where she befriended the great Bishop, St Ambrose whose eloquence and sanctity helped Augustine to come into the Church at Easter 387.

“My son, I had but one object in life, and that was to see you a Catholic,” Monica once said to Augustine; “God has done more than I had dared to hope for in that he has taught you to despise all that the world can offer in order to follow him. Bury my body where you will. All I ask is that you remember me always at the altar of God!”

When Monica and her illustrious son reached Ostia, the port of Rome, to embark for Carthage, she died in his arms, aged 56.

Under the patronage of St Monica, as one who knew well how to overcome evil with good, there was founded in the 19th century in Paris an association of Christian mothers for mutual prayers on behalf of wayward sons and husbands.