Remembering Monnica

On Monday of this week, May 4, the church remembered Monnica, mother of St. Augustine. Monnica, born in AD 331, was a native of North Africa, and although she herself was a Christian, she married a Roman pagan, Patricius, who was both abusive and unfaithful. Patricius and Monnica had three children that survived into childhood, of whom Augustine was the oldest. Monnica desired to have Augustine baptized but Patricius wouldn’t allow it, so she began to pray for Augustine.

Toward the end of Patricius’ life, however, after years of Monnica’s prayer and suffering, he came to faith in Christ. After Patricius’ death, Monnica began to be worried about Augustine’s hedonistic lifestyle, and when he left for Italy to study rhetoric, Monnica followed him there. While in Milan she sought out Bishop Ambrose, a brilliant and godly man who would become Augustine’s primary spiritual influence. After several years exploring alternative philosophies and living for his own pleasure, Augustine heard God’s voice speak clearly: “Take and read.” He picked up Paul’s letter to the Romans and read these verses from chapter 13:12-14: “Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

Augustine was baptized shortly thereafter and began his life as a Christian.
Eventually Augustine and Monnica set out from Italy in order to return to North Africa. Along the way Monnica got sick and, eventually, died. According to Augustine, just before she died, she said, “There was indeed one thing for which I wished to tarry a little in this life, and that was that I might see you a Catholic Christian before I died. My God hath answered this more than abundantly, so that I see you now made his servant and spurning all earthly happiness.”

As we prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, I’m inspired by Monnica’s faithful prayer and witness, first for her husband and then for her son. Please join me in thanking God for Monnica, and also join me in prayer for the mothers in our midst who are laboring in prayer for a husband or a child who seems far from God. I hope and pray that, as a North African bishop is reported to have said to Monnica as she followed Augustine to Africa, “the child of those tears shall never perish.”