About St. Monica

I started thinking about St. Monica because of a novena I have been praying. I used to wonder how anyone could possibly have such an orderly life that they could remember to pray a particular prayer every day for nine days in a row. Then I found these wonderful people at Pray More Novenas (find them here). Now, if it is time for a novena, I get an email early in the morning. I honestly usually say these prayers while I’m getting in my morning 10 minutes on the exercise bike. I’ve decided that God won’t mind if I multi-task! …but I digress. Back to St. Monica.

When I got the email letting me know that the The St. Monica Novena was going to begin in a few days, they included some background about who she was. I didn’t remember much about her from my own Catholic education. I was intrigued right away to hear about her persistence to continue to pray for her son’s conversion, even when it seemed hopeless. Then I got to the part where they mentioned who this son was …only one of the greatest saints in the Catholic Church, maybe the greatest Theologian of our church, St. Augustine! I suppose every Catholic, and maybe every Christian, can thank St. Monica for a lot of our understanding of Christianity because of the work of this son, for whom she prayed and fasted so that he would find the faith.

Monica’s Life

Monica was born in Tagaste (modern-day Algeria) in 331 to a Christian family, but her parents gave her to be married to a pagan man, Patricius, as soon as she reached marrying age. He had a violent temper, as did his mother, who also lived with them. Patricius did not approve of her Christian beliefs, but he did have some respect for her disciplined life. Fortunately, her prayer and example led to her husband’s conversion to Christianity, just one year before he died. His mother also converted.

She had three children with Patricius. Augustine was the eldest. Their other son and their daughter entered religious life, but Augustine, because he was so intelligent, was sent away to the university in Carthage. Monica did not realize that the atmosphere in Carthage was one of loose living and very little faith.

Worrying for Her Son

So it must have been quite a shock when she found out that Augustine adopted an heretic religion, called Manichaean. His new belief explained that the world is made up of light and darkness. When you die, you go back to the light, I suppose implying that we are in the darkness here, on earth. Maybe that is why their lifestyles were quite sinful, by Christian standards. In fact, he was living with a mistress, who bore him a child.

When he came back to Tagaste and Monica discovered the kind of life he was leading, she basically disowned him, refusing to allow him to live with her. Then she had a vision that convinced her to reconnect and work for Augustine’s conversion. I love this little story of her telling Augustine about the vision (which I read about here). She told him that the figure in the vision said, “Your son is with you.” He answered that they would be together if she would just drop Christianity to be like him. He was impressed when she came right back at him with the explanation that the vision didn’t say SHE was with him; it said HE was with her. I love her quick thinking, or he openness to divine guidance in her interaction with Augustine.

From this time forward, Monica was relentlessly focused on her son’s conversion. She stayed very close to him, so close that he was not all together happy about it. When he decided to go to Rome to open a school and teach rhetoric, his specialty, she insisted on going with him. To fool her, he waited until she was spending a full night praying for him at church, and he secretly left for Rome with his mistress and young son.

Her Prayers are Finally Answered

Monica was undaunted. She followed him to Rome, and is said to have been a comforting soul to other passengers on a difficult journey by ship. When she got to Rome, she found that Augustine had already left for Milan, so she followed him there, too.

Augustine and Monica both became acquainted with the Bishop in Milan, St. Ambrose. Even though Augustine was only making a courtesy call on the bishop when they first met, he was initially very impressed, enough that he went back regularly. When Monica met Ambrose, he was quite impressed by her, even telling Augustine about his impressions of her from time to time. Evidently, this amused Augustine a bit, since he assumed Ambrose didn’t really know about how wayward her son had been.

It was Ambrose who finally had that additional influence that finally led to Augustine’s conversion. Bishop St. Ambrose baptized Augustine and several of his friends on Holy Saturday in 387. Shortly after his baptism, they planned to go back to Africa to continue God’s work there. On the way, Monica became ill. When it became clear to her that she was close to death, she said to Augustine, ” Son, nothing in this world now affords me delight. I do not know what there is now left for me to do or why I am still here, all my hopes in this world being now fulfilled” (para 16, cited here)

After Her Death

It sounds like her remains have been moved several times since her death. She was originally buried at Ostia, where she died. In the 6th century, her remains were moved to a hidden crypt in the church of Santa Aurea, near the tomb of St. Aurea. In 1430, Pope Martin V had her relics brought to Rome, and many miracles occurred along the way. Once there, she was placed in a chapel to the left of the high altar in the Basilica di Sant’Agostino, a church built in honor of St. Augustine.

She was a saint in the Catholic Church Pre-Congregation, which roughly means that there was not a formal process for canonization when she was named a saint. She is the patron saint of alcoholics, difficult marriages, those who have been abused, conversion, and wives and mothers, particularly those whose husbands or children have gone astray.

Please join us this week as we meditate on the lessons of St. Monica. We will explore a beautiful reflection shared by Franciscan Media; we will pray for those suffering the troubles of alcoholism and addiction or difficult marriages or abuse; and we will pray for those who have gone astray and the parents who are praying for their conversion.

Note: the picture today is the stained glass window in the Church of Saint James the Greater in Bouxwiller, photo by GFreilhalter, which I found here.