Monica 			August 27
Mother of Augustine of Hippo
Monica deserves to be remembered as much for her own sake as for being the mother of Augustine. She was born in North Africa about 331, probably in Thagaste, where she lived all but the last few years of her life. We know her almost exclusively through the eyes of Augustine, mainly in his Confessions. She had been brought up as a Christian and married Patricius, a provincial with a taste for things Roman and Latin.
Monica inherited the moral rigour of North African Christianity, with its emphasis on the dread of God and the development of the cult of the dead. In her relations with Patricius, she showed remarkable skill. He was given to outbreaks of violent temper and was unfaithful to Monica on occasions, but she eventually persuaded him to accept Christianity before his death in 372.
Monica’s relations with Augustine were much more complex. She and Patricius were both very ambitious for their brilliant son, and scrimped and saved to secure the best education possible for him. Monica was almost obsessively concerned for Augustine. When he became a Manichee for a while, she shut him out of the house, but accepted the wisdom of a bishop she consulted about her wayward son, who assured her that Augustine was too perceptive to be deceived for long by Manichaeism, and in God’s good time would turn to the truth. So she never ceased to pray for him.
Augustine however still felt the need to trick his mother when he left North Africa for Italy in 383, leaving her behind. She pursued him to Rome and then Milan, where she came under the influence of Bishop Ambrose. She became deeply involved in the worship and prayer of the church. She continued to try and manage Augustine’s life, persuading him to abandon his common law “wife” in order to make a marriage suitable for an up-and-coming man of great potential.
Before that marriage could take place, Augustine accepted a commitment to an ascetic and disciplined Christian life-style that would preclude marriage. Monica was delighted; her prayers had been answered. Augustine was baptised, and shortly afterwards headed back to North Africa to work out the consequences of his new-found commitment. Monica, having shared fully in some of Augustine’s new thinking, died at Ostia on the way home in 387.
For Liturgical Use
Monica was born in North Africa about 331, and is principally remembered as the mother of Augustine. She was a devout Christian, who exercised considerable influence not only on her son, but also on her husband, who required tactful handling, but whom she eventually brought into the church. As a widow, Monica pursued Augustine to Italy and shared deeply in the worship of the church in Milan under Bishop Ambrose and in her son’s conversion and baptism. Monica and Augustine returned to North Africa in 387, but Monica died en route at Ostia.
Sentence
I waited patiently for you O Lord, and you bent down to me and heard my cry.	Psalm 40:1
Collects
Gracious and loving God,
you rewarded Monica’s continuing love
and persevering prayers
with the conversion of her son Augustine;
grant that we may learn to love without faltering
and pray without ceasing,
so that we may attain the vision of your glory;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
God of the widow
who would not take “No” for an answer,
as we honour Monica
who prayed for her son, year in, year out,
help us to pray earnestly
and leave the result to you.
Psalms	119:145-152	121
Readings
1 Samuel 1:9-18		Hannah’s prayer
1 Timothy 5:3-5		Prayers night and day
Luke 18:1-8		Perseverance in prayer
Post Communion Sentence
Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.”		Matthew 7:7