By Leon Bent –
Saint Monica, also known as Monica of Hippo was born in 331 A.D. in Tagaste, which is present-day Algeria. She was the mother of St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest theologians of the church. All that we know about Monica comes from Augustine’s spiritual autobiography, The Confessions of Saint Augustine.
We are told but little of her childhood. She was married early in life to Patritius who held an official position in Tagaste. He was a pagan, though like so many at that period, his religion was no more than a name; his temper was violent and he appears to have had immoral habits. Consequently Monica’s married life was far from being a happy one, more especially as Patritius’s mother seems to have had a frustrated and vengeful person. There was of course a gulf between husband and wife; her alms-giving and her habits of prayer annoyed him, but it is said that he always held her in a sort of reverence. Monica was not the only matron of Tagaste whose married life was unhappy, but, by her sweetness and patience, she was able to exercise a veritable apostolate amongst the wives and mothers of her native town; they knew that she suffered as they did, and her words and example had a proportionate effect.
Augustine had been sent to Carthage, to prosecute his studies, and here he fell into grievous sin. Patritius died very shortly after his reception into the Church and Monica resolved not to marry again. At Carthage Augustine had become a Manichean and when on his return home he ventilated certain heretical propositions, she drove him away from her table, but a strange vision which she had urged her to recall him.
It was at this time that she went to see a certain holy bishop, whose name is not given, but who consoled her with the now famous words, “the child of your tears will never perish.” There is no more pathetic story in the annals of the Saints than that, of Monica pursuing her wayward son to Rome, where he had gone by stealth; when she arrived he had already gone to Milan, but she followed him. Here she found St. Ambrose, and through him she ultimately had the joy of seeing Augustine yield, after seventeen years of resistance. Mother and son spent six months of true peace at Cassiacum, after which time Augustine was baptized in the Church of St. John the Baptist at Milan. Africa claimed them however, and they set out on their journey, stopping at Cività Vecchia and at Ostia. Death overtook Monica and the finest pages of his classic book, “Confessions”, were penned as the result of the emotion Augustine then experienced.
She was ambitious for her eldest and gifted son, Augustine. He received an excellent education. He did not accept Christianity as a young person, but embraced Manichaeism, then Neo-Platonism and living a wild life. He never married but lived with a woman for many years. They were the parents of a son. Monica prayed constantly for his conversion and wept over his sins. A sympathetic bishop once said to her, “Go now, I beg of you: it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish.”
Augustine left North Africa for a teaching position in Milan. It was there that he met and was baptized by Ambrose in 387. Monica had followed Augustine, against his wishes, to Italy. As she was preparing to return home, she fell ill. She died in Italy. Augustine was worried about her dying so far from home. She responded, “Nothing is far from God, and I need have no fear that he will not know where to find me, when he comes to raise me to life at the end of the world.” Monica died at Ostia, the port city near Rome, in 387. The feast of St. Monica occurs the day before the feast of her son, St. Augustine. Her tears, prayers, and sacrifices over many years helped bring about his conversion. It is only proper that their feasts are celebrated close together.
Now, this gold nugget! O Lord, through spiritual discipline you strengthened your servant Monica to persevere in offering her love and prayers and tears, for the conversion of her husband and of Augustine their son: Deepen our devotion, we pray, and use us in accordance with your will to bring others, even our own kindred, to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord; Who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.