St. Monica

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine. She and her husband Patricius lived in Thagaste, Northern Africa. Although she was a devout Christian woman, Patricius husband was pagan. Unfortunately, their marriage was not particularly a happy one due to Patricus' unfaithfulness and volatile character. Thanks to her example, imitation of Christ in his patience, and prayer, Patricius was converted before he died.

Monica was a woman of great inner resources buoyed up by a profound faith, but it did not go untested. She never abandoned the desire to see her talented but wayward son a Christian. For almost eighteen years this preoccupied much of her thinking and action. Monica's whole life, as well as her sanctification, "was inextricably bound up with Augustine's, her faith, hope, and love were heroically tested and proved pure in the crucible of suffering." One bishop told her that she should be consoled because the son of so many tears could not be lost to Christ. Such occasional consolations gave her new courage to press on. Augustine was strong-willed, stubborn, and not infrequently deceitful with his mother, Monica. It is understandable that Augustine at the age of twenty-nine did not relish having his mother accompany him to Rome, where he was to teach rhetoric. But one cannot excuse the deceitful way in which he escaped. He intimated that she should go back to the inn, because he wanted to say goodbye to a friend. Instead, he sailed away. When this became known to Monica, she wept; she continued to pray for Augustine's conversion. Later, she followed him and joined him in Milan, and it was here in 386, due in great part to Saint Ambrose's preaching, that Augustine finally converted and was baptized in the spring of 387.

Monica knew here a double and unexpected joy. Not only did Augustine become a Christian but also he decided to devote his life to the service of God. The latter did not happen immediately, but the little group of Augustine and his friends, gathered at Cassiciacum in the fall of 386 with Monica as housemother, was a type of community that held an immense attraction for Augustine. At any rate, there Monica manifested a new and surprising facet of character.

Augstine and his friends were one day discussing what made for happiness in life (the dialogue is recorded in Augustine's book The Happy Life). Monica happened to come in during the discussion and gave it focus, at the same time showing her own depths. The group had resolved that to be happy a person must have the things he desires. Monica made an important distinction: "If he wishes to possess good things, his is happy; if he desires evil things, no matter if he possesses them, he is wretched." Augustine rightly told her that she was a masterful philosopher and compared her to Cicero himself.

Monica did not live long after Augustine's baptism. They had already decided to return to Africa. After a time in Ostia, near Rome, while waiting for passage to Africa, Augustine tells of the moving spiritual experience they shared as they sat at the window overlooking the garden. It was here that Monica expressed the profound peace she enjoyed and her conviction that her life's task had been completed. Very shortly afterward, she fell ill with a fever. She died two days later and was buried at Ostia. Friends told Augustine that she would not grieve over dying and being buried in a foreign land, and she had added, with a touch of humor, that she was sure God would remember where she was buried and raise her up. She had previously told Augustine and his brother Navigius: "Lay this body anywhere, and take no trouble over it. One thing only do I ask of you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be." Such consummate trust in God's providence was a characteristic virtue of this great fourth century lady. St. Monica's remains are venerated in the church of St. Augustine, Rome, Italy.

Taken from http://www.osa-west.org/saintmonica.html

Posted by Carlos J. Medina