Dr Jeanette Pinto –
Most mothers today are troubled, worried and distraught regarding the faith of their children, they feverishly pray that their children walk in the ways of the Lord. Technology is good, but has its negative side. The internet offers various addictive games, pornography, wrong relationships and other unhealthy influences. This leads children to disobedience, rebellion, lewdness, greed, confusion, helplessness, anxiety and depression. Youngsters do not realize that they are slowly moving into deeper darkness of an ungodly life. Under these circumstances, can any mother hope for her son to become a saint? A glimpse into the life of Saint Monica and her son Augustine is an inspiration and hope for all.
In the first few centuries of the Church, most female saints were virgins, martyrs or both. In the medieval or modern times most were nuns or foundresses of religious orders. There are few married female saints, among whom Saint Monica is outstanding because she is also the mother of Saint Augustine who is her son.
Monica, (c 331-387) is assumed to have been born in Tagaste, modern day Algeria, in North Africa, and was raised in a Catholic family. She was married early in life to a man called Patricius, a Roman pagan who held an official position in Tagaste. She converted him at least superficially. Patricius had a violent temper and was a person of dissolute habits also difficult to deal with. Monica was happy to do her act of alms deeds and prayer regularly. This annoyed Patricius, but he held her in respect.
Monica had three children who survived infancy, two sons – Augustine and Navigus, and a daughter Perpetua of Hippo. Not much is known about two of his siblings. Being unable to baptise them, she grieved heavily, and when Augustine fell ill, in her distress she asked Patricius to allow Augustine to be baptised. He initially agreed but then withdrew his consent when he recovered. Monica was constantly concerned about Augustine who unfortunately followed in the footsteps of his father. Although she was relieved at her son’s recovery, she turned anxious as he spent his renewed life being lazy and wayward.
Monica and her husband wanted their gifted son Augustine to receive the best education possible so they sent him to school. At age 17 while he was studying Rhetoric in Carthage Patricius died, leaving Monica a widow at age forty. There Augustine fell into serious and enduring moral and theological errors which formed the central drama of Monica’s life. Augustine became a Manichean at Carthage. A Manichean is a believer in a religious dualism originating in Persia in the third century AD. Monica did not share his views and had nothing to do with this religious belief. She was greatly pained and kept away from him.
Deep down however, Monica was very concerned about and ever present to Augustine. She would not let him out of her sight. When he prepared to sail for Italy from the port of Carthage, she surprised him with her intention to travel with him. He secretly deceived her and escaped without her knowledge. But she persevered, was persistent in her endeavours, and she traced his whereabouts. Later she followed him to Rome then to Milan and finding him there moved in with him and his friends. Augustine wrote: “She liked to have me with her, as mothers do, but far more than most mothers.”
Now Monica, had a definite agenda and her top priority was to save her son and “to get him back home”. Yes, getting him back to his home – the Church. She desired to change his heart for eternity. She wept, she prayed, she fasted. Nothing seemed to work for fifteen years, while all along her son strayed far from the Catholic path seemingly without remorse.
Truly, in His time God listens to our woes, especially a mother’s prayers never go unanswered. In Milan, Monica befriended the great Saint Ambrose, then Bishop of Milan. He played a key role in Augustine’s conversion. Her pleas and prayers bore fruit and Augustine abandoned his sinful life. Monica and her son spent six peaceful months at Rus Cassiciacum (present day Cassago Brianza) Thereafter he was baptised by Ambrose in the Church of St John the Baptist at Milan. Soon Augustine decided to return to his native land in North Africa as a Christian leader. Great was Monica’s joy, her son had finally come home to the Church.
Her life’s mission now accomplished, Saint Monica died in her late fifties in the Roman port of Ostia, while waiting to board the ship to cross over to Africa. In her final hours Augustine asked if he should transport her body to Tagaste for burial next to her husband. She said she was happy to be buried wherever she died, for “nothing is far from God.” Her remains are now found in the Basilica of Saint Augustine in Central Rome. Saint Monica is remembered and honoured in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches although on different feast days; for her outstanding Christian virtues particularly, the suffering caused by her husband’s adultery, and her incessant prayerful life dedicated to the reformation of her son. Legend has it that Monica slept weeping every night for her son Augustine.
After Monica died, Augustine was grief stricken. He was inspired to write extensively of her pious acts and life with her in his 13 books titled: The Confessions. Although autobiographical narrative makes up the first 9 books it is incidental to the main purpose of the work, which has been rated by scholars as an intellectual master piece. His most famous line in his book is: “Thou hast made us for thyself O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” He became a renowned theologian, prolific writer and skilled preacher. He is formally recognised as one of the original four Doctors of the Church. Indeed, both mother and son today are well known saints in the Church.
Dr Jeanette is former Principal of Sophia College, members of Human Life Committee and a parishioner of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Chembur – Mumbai