Thoughts to live by: St. Monica and St. Augustine

1. August 27 - Feast of St. Monica (c. 332- 387). St. Monica was born in Thagaste, present-day Souk Ahras, Algeria, of Berber parents. Like other Berbers, the family spoke Latin at home. Monica was married early in life to Patricius Aurelius, a Roman civil servant and a pagan. He was irascible and unfaithful. He was annoyed by Monica's almsgiving, deeds, and prayers, but he always held her in respect. She bore three children: Augustine, Navigius, and Perpetua, but Patricius refused to have them baptized. This greatly saddened Monica and she redoubled her prayers. Patricius was finally converted and baptized before he died in 371. Augustine was 17.

2. Augustine became a Manichaean, believing in a dualist spiritual world of light and a material world of darkness. Mani, the founder of Manichaeism, claimed to be the spirit of truth that Jesus promised. Augustine's Manichaeism grieved St. Monica and she drove him out of her home. But she later experienced a vision in 377, that convinced her to accept him back to her home. A Christian bishop consoled her that "the child of those tears shall never perish."

3. She was totally heartbroken by her son's dissolute sexual life but kept praying in tears for him. She followed him to Rome and Milan where Augustus taught Rhetoric. In Milan, Monica sought the help of St. Ambrose. Augustine and, through him, she finally saw Augustine renounce Manichaeism. Three years later, in 387, Augustine was converted and baptized by St. Ambrose.

4. On their return to Africa, Monica and Augustine stopped in Ostia, where they shared a mystical experience. She told Augustine, "Son, now that my hopes in this world are satisfied, I do not know what more I want here or why I am here." She died at Ostia in 387 at the age of 56. In the 16th century, her remains were transferred from Ostia to a crypt in the church of Santa Aurea, and again later to the Basilica of Sant'Agostino, Rome. A fragment of her epitaph was rediscovered in the church of Santa Aurea in 1945. It reads partly: "Here the most virtuous mother of a young man set her ashes, a second light to your merits, Augustine." As St. Augustine himself said, his mother gave birth to him twice; the 2nd time required a lengthy spiritual travail of prayers and tears. St. Monica is the Patron Saint of Mothers.

5. August 28, Feast of St. Augustine (354- 430). Augustine studied Latin literature in Thagaste, and went on to study Rhetoric in Carthage, where he read Cicero's dialogue with Hortensius. This enkindled in his heart the love of wisdom and a great thirst for truth.

6. Much to his mother's grief, he became a Manichaean, and also lived a hedonistic lifestyle with his friends. He took a mistress, despite his mother's teachings. He had a son by her, Adeodatus ("gift from God"). In 385, he ended his relationship of more than 14 years with the woman in order to marry a teenage heiress. But before the marriage, he also got another concubine. It was during this period, that he uttered his famous words, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet." He never got married.

7. After teaching Rhetoric in Carthage, he moved on to Rome and Milan as a well-known professor of Rhetoric. He remained a Manichaean for 10 years. His mother's tearful prayers and his Neoplatonic studies urged him towards Christianity. In Milan, he admired the sermons of St. Ambrose, the holy and eloquent Archbishop of Milan, who became his friend. In his Confessions, he said, "That man of God received me as a father would, and welcomed my coming as a good bishop should."

8. In 386, at the age of 31, he heard a child's voice saying, "Tolle, lege" (Take up and read). He opened St. Paul's writing and, at random, chose and read Rom. 13:13-14, "Not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh."

9. He later wrote of his conversion, "Late have I loved you, O Beauty, ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things that you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you.... You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness.... you dispelled my blindness..... and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace."

10. St. Ambrose baptized Augustine and Adeodatus in Milan on Easter Vigil, 24-25 April 387. Then St. Monica, Augustine, and Adeodatus returned to Africa, but on the way, St. Monica died in Ostia. Soon after, Adeodatus also died. Augustine sold his family's property and gave the money to the poor. He converted the family house into a monastic foundation for himself and a group of friends. He devoted his time to preaching. He was finally ordained a priest in Hippo Regius (now Annaba), Algeria. As a noted preacher, he combatted Manichaeism.

11. In 395, he was made coadjutor Bishop of Hippo, and became full Bishop shortly thereafter. He continued to live a monastic life in his episcopal residence. Shortly before he died, the Vandals, who had been converted to Arianism, invaded Roman Africa and besieged Hippo, while Augustine entered his final illness. He had the 7 Penitential Psalms hung on his walls so that he could read them. He wept "freely and constantly" as he read them. On August 28, 430, Augustine died. He was canonized by popular acclaim. Pope Boniface VIII declared him Doctor of the Church. His tomb is in San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia.

12. Scholars say that St. Augustine was perhaps the most significant Christian thinker after St. Paul. His written works, the most important of which are Confessions (c. 400) and the City of God (c. 413-426), shaped the practice of biblical exegesis and helped lay the foundation of medieval and modern Christian thought.

Prayer -- O Lord, renew in your Church that spirit with which you endowed St. Augustine. Grant, we pray, that we may deeply thirst for you, the sole fount of true wisdom, and seek you, the author of heavenly love. This we ask, through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Prayers, best wishes, God bless!