Monica (331–387)

Biography

I ask you only one thing: that you remember me before the altar of the Lord wherever you are." This is what the woman who was St. Monica, a model for wives, mothers, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, said shortly before she died to her children and other relatives. He was born in Tagaste at the end of the Roman Empire, to rich but impoverished parents. They were Christians and educated her in the faith of Jesus Christ, but the person who most influenced her education was a maid who had already educated her own father and who had great influence in that family. At the age of twenty she married Patricio, who was also from a noble family, but had fallen into disrepair. He was pagan and had a very violent temperament. Passions boiled in his heart and in his body. Monica was the opposite: modest, soft, modest... At the age of twenty she had her first child, Agustín, and two more would follow later. Problems soon began in their marriage. But Monica's prudence and kindness keeps everything at home and nothing unpleasant is aired out there like so many women who recount their marital martyrdoms do. Mónica dedicates herself to raising her children with all her soul. The two little ones do not cause him problems: they are docile, simple and do not enjoy the extraordinary qualities of his older brother, who since childhood enjoyed a strong personality. Her husband's mother was similar to him: angry, very bad-tempered, authoritarian. But little by little Monica won her over with her sweetness and good manners, trying to please her with everything she wanted. He earned it "with attention and by persevering in suffering it with meekness." Good model for daughters-in-law. Despite her husband's character and infidelities, she never answered him, neither with deeds nor with words. He had enormous patience with him. She herself says: "Because I hoped, Lord, that your mercy would come upon him, so that by believing in you, he would become chaste," as it happened. Monica's thick and frequent tears were for and for her son Agustín. She saw him richly adorned by the Lord, but walking along dangerous detours. I followed him everywhere. She put before him all the means she could to bring about her conversion... One day, Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, to whom she had gone repeatedly, said goodbye to her with these words: "Go in peace, woman! For it is impossible for the son of so many tears to be lost." And finally, one day she jumped for joy: "That night when I left secretly and she stayed praying and crying, says Augustine, her tears bore fruit." St. Monica's example was so impressed on Saint Augustine's mind that years later, perhaps remembering his mother, he exhorted: "Take great care to save those in your household." When he was 56 years old and Augustine was 33, he had the immense consolation of seeing him become a Christian and on the path to sainthood. He wasn't wrong. I could die peacefully now. She died accompanied by her children in the year 387.