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The saints

St. Monica

A mother who prayed for her son through years of tears, and followed him across the sea.

Feast: 27 August · 333 to 387 · The early Church · Thagaste, North Africa, and Ostia, Italy

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The chapel of St. Monica in the church of Sant’Agostino, Rome: a marble altar beneath a painting, with her tomb below.

Quodvultdeus, 2014. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Home / The saints / St. Monica

Thagaste, North Africa, about 370

A mother goes to a bishop in tears about her son, who has abandoned the faith.1

“the child of those tears shall never perish.”

A bishop, consoling Monica1

She would need those words. Her son was Augustine, and he was not coming home any time soon.

Patron of Christian mothers (an association of Christian mothers was placed under her patronage in 1850)1

01St. Monica

Following him to Rome

When Augustine left for Rome in secret, Monica followed him, only to find he had moved on to Milan; she followed him there too.1

In Milan, through St. Ambrose, she saw Augustine yield at last after seventeen years of resistance, and he was baptized there.1

02St. Monica

A window at Ostia

They set out for Africa together, and at Ostia, the port of Rome, Monica died in 387.1

In 1430 Pope Martin V had her relics brought to Rome.1

The chapel of St. Monica in the church of Sant’Agostino, Rome: a marble altar beneath a painting, with her tomb below.
The tomb of St. Monica in the church of Sant’Agostino, Rome. Quodvultdeus, 2014. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

If you are praying for someone who has walked away, she is the saint who knows exactly how long it can take.

Live it this week

Pray by name, daily

Monica prayed for Augustine for years before anything changed. Choose one person who has drifted from God. Pray for them by name every day this week, and resist the urge to lecture them even once.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Saint Monica”. New Advent edition. newadvent.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.