The Feast of St. Monica

St. Monica
Mother of St. Augustine
Feast Day - August 27

Saint Monica was born at Tagaste, located in modern-day Algeria. Her parents brought her up as Christian and married her to an older, pagan man named Patricius. He was a man with a great deal of energy, but also a man given to violent tempers and adultery.

St. Monica attended church daily and cultivated the virtue of patience. She would say to other women who had bad marriages, "If you can master your tongue, not only do you run less risk of your husband’s wrath, but perhaps you may even, one day, make your husband better." She won the favor of her mother-in-law in a short time. Eventually, she converted Patricius to Christianity and calmed his violent nature.

St. Monica bore three children, among them Saint Augustine. Augustine made her very happy with his successes as a scholar and teacher, but he also made her very ashamed with his debauchery. For ten years, Augustine lived with his mistress and subscribed to Manichaeism, which proposes that there is no omnipotent good power and denies the infinite perfection of God in an effort to explain the problem of evil in the world. St Monica sent Augustine to a bishop to be convinced of his errors. The bishop, however, was unable to prevail, and he advised St. Monica simply to continue to pray for her son. He told her, "It is impossible that the son of so many tears should perish."

When her spouse Patricius died, St. Monica joined Augustine in Italy. There, some time later, she had the pleasure of seeing her son, at the age of 33, converted, and baptized by Saint Ambrose. Not long after, as she was preparing to return to Africa, she died at the age of 56 at the port of Ostia.

Prayers to Saint Monica
Patron of Mothers

Blessed Monica, mother of St. Augustine, we give thanks to our Father in heaven Who looked with mercy upon your tears over your wayward son. With your prayers you helped achieve his conversion and heroic sanctification.

Dear St. Monica, we now ask you to pray with us for all those sons and daughters that have wandered away from God. Add your prayers to those of all mothers who are worried over their children or who find themselves in unloving relationships. Pray also for us that, following your example, we may, be better parents to our children. Help us to have patience with them and give us the strength to guide them gently to the right path. Let us become beacons of goodness for them as they grow to adulthood and to be good examples to them in all that we say and do. Amen.

Source: The Saint Monica Sodality of Michigan

St. Monica Led Son to God, Says Pope

During a reflection on St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, Benedict XVI praised Christian parents and the role they play in helping their children in discovering God's will for them in their lives.

The Pope said this today to the crowds gathered at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo to pray the midday Angelus. He noted that on Thursday the Church observed the feast day St. Monica, the model and patroness of Christian mothers.

Young Augustine learned of Christ from his mother, "whose principles would remain with him even in the years when he had hit bottom spiritually and morally."

"Monica never ceased to pray for him and for his conversion, and had the consolation of seeing him return to the faith and receive baptism," the Pontiff continued. "God heard the prayers of this saintly mother, to whom the Bishop of Tagaste had said: 'It is impossible that the son of so many tears will be lost.'"

Benedict XVI noted that Augustine not only converted, but that he "decided to embrace the monastic life and, returning to Africa, found a community of monks."Augustine, who often said his mother "gave birth to him twice," found Christ through his mother, the Pope affirmed.

Families

"The history of Christianity is spangled with the countless examples of saints and authentic Christian families, who accompanied the life of generous priests and pastors of the Church," the Holy Father continued. "One thinks of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, both from families of saints.

"We think -- much closer to us -- of Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi and Maria Corsini, a married couple, who lived between the end of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th, and who were beatified by my venerable predecessor John Paul II in October of 2001, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio."

Benedict XVI explained: "When the husband and wife generously dedicate themselves to the education of their children, guiding and orienting them in the discovery of God's design of life, they are preparing that fertile spiritual soil from which vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life grow and mature."

The Pope then drew a connection between matrimony and virginity, noting that they are "intimately connected and mutually illuminate each other" because of their "common rootedness in Christ's spousal love."

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy - August 30, 2009