St. Monica

Feast Day August 27th

Patron Saint of married women, abuse victims, alcoholics, difficult marriages, widows

Our knowledge of Monica comes almost entirely from the writings of her much-loved son, the great Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine of Hippo.

St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine, was a Christian, but her parents gave her in marriage to a pagan, Patricius, who lived in her hometown of Tagaste in North Africa. Patricius had some redeeming features, but he had a violent temper and was licentious. Patricius criticized his wife because of her charity and piety, but always respected her. Monica’s prayers and example finally won her husband and mother-in-law to Christianity.

Monica had at least three children who survived infancy. The oldest, Augustine, is the most famous. At the time of his father’s death, Augustine was 17 and a rhetoric student in Carthage. Monica was distressed to learn that her son had accepted the Manichean heresy (all flesh is evil) and was living an immoral life. One night she had a vision that assured her Augustine would return to the faith. From that time on, she stayed close to her son, praying and fasting for him.

In Milan, Augustine came under the influence of the bishop, Saint Ambrose, who also became Monica’s spiritual director. She accepted his advice in everything and had the humility to give up some practices that had become second nature to her. Monica became a leader of the devout women in Milan as she had been in Tagaste.

She continued her prayers for Augustine during his years of instruction. At Easter, 387, Saint Ambrose baptized Augustine and several of his friends. Although no one else was aware of it, Monica knew her life was near the end. She told 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.”

It is the prayers of Monica herself that have been invoked by generations of the faithful who honor her as a special patroness of married women and as an example for Christian motherhood. Her emblems are a girdle and tears.

Sources:

_{https://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/MONICA.htm
https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-monica/
http://www.catholicdoors.com/prayers/english2/p00570.htm
http://www.ewtn.com/v/experts/showmessage.asp?number=336822}