St. Monica

Born in the year 332 in the city of Tagaste, within the Roman province of North Africa, Monica was raised in a devout Christian household where the seeds of her legendary patience were first sown. As a young woman, she was given in marriage to Patricius, a pagan official of high temper and questionable fidelity. This domestic environment became her first great mission field. For years, Monica endured not only the outbursts of her husband but also the initial hostility of his mother, who lived with them. Yet, Monica never met anger with anger. She practiced a discipline of silence and charity, famously advising other wives that their tongues were the source of much domestic strife. Her quiet virtue eventually triumphed; not only did she win the respect of her mother-in-law, but she also had the profound joy of seeing Patricius convert to the Christian faith shortly before his death. However, her greatest trial was yet to come in the person of her eldest son, Augustine. While he was brilliant and promising, Augustine abandoned the faith of his childhood for a life of hedonism and the dark errors of Manichaeism. Monica’s grief was so profound that she initially refused to eat at the same table as her son, until a celestial vision comforted her, showing her that where she stood, her son would one day stand also. For nearly two decades, she followed Augustine with her prayers and her presence. When he attempted to flee to Rome to escape her influence, she followed him across the Mediterranean. In Milan, she encountered the holy Bishop Ambrose, who became a spiritual father to her and a guide to her son. It was Ambrose who famously consoled her with the words, 'It is impossible that the son of these tears should perish.' Her perseverance was finally rewarded in the garden at Milan when Augustine, moved by grace, surrendered to Christ. Monica stood by him as he was baptized during the Easter Vigil of 387. Her life’s work complete, she shared a final, sublime spiritual conversation with Augustine at a window in Ostia, looking out over the sea, where they both touched the edge of eternal wisdom in a moment of shared ecstasy. She died shortly thereafter, requesting only that she be remembered at the altar of the Lord.