St. Monica

Posted on September 2, 2019 by admin No comments

Born: 332 Thagaste, Numidia, Roman Empire (present day Souk Ahras, Algeria)

Died: 387 Ostia, Italy, Roman Empire

Venerated: in Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church Anglican Communion, Oriental Orthodox Church, and Lutheranism

Canonized: Pre-Congregation

Major shrine: Basilica of Sant’Agostino, Rome, Italy

Feast: 27 August (Roman Catholic Church, Church of England, Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod) 4 May (pre-1969 General Roman Calendar, Eastern Orthodox Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Episcopal Church in the United States of America)

Patronage: Married women; Difficult marriages; disappointing children; victims of adultery or unfaithfulness; victims of (verbal) abuse; and conversion of relatives; Manaoag, Pangasinan; Philippines; Don Galo, Parañaque, Philippines; Santa Monica, California, United States; Saint Monica University, Buea, Cameroon; Pinamungajan, Cebu, Philippines; St. Monique Valais, Binangonan, Rizal; Santa Monica Parish Church (Angat), Bulacan; Mexico, Pampanga; Minalin, Pampanga; Sta. Monica Parish Church, Pavia, Iloilo; Sta. Monica Parish Church, Hamtic, Antique; Sta. Monica Parish Church, Panay, Capiz

Saint Monica (c.331/2−387) (AD 322–387), also known as Monica of Hippo, was an early Christian saint and the mother of St. Augustine of Hippo. She is remembered and honored in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, albeit on different feast days, for her outstanding Christian virtues, particularly the suffering caused by her husband’s adultery, and her prayerful life dedicated to the reformation of her son, who wrote extensively of her pious acts and life with her in his Confessions. Popular Christian legends recall Saint Monica weeping every night for her son Augustine.

Life

Because of her name and place of birth, Monica is assumed to have been born in Thagaste (present-day Souk Ahras, Algeria). She is believed to have been a Berber on the basis of her name.^[4] She was married early in life to Patricius, a Roman pagan, who held an official position in Thagaste. Patricius had a violent temper and appears to have been of dissolute habits; apparently his mother was the same way. Monica’s alms, deeds and prayer habits annoyed Patricius, but it is said that he always held her in respect.

Monica had three children who survived infancy: sons Augustine and Navigius and daughter Perpetua. Unable to secure baptism for them, she grieved heavily when Augustine fell ill. In her distress she asked Patricius to allow Augustine to be baptized; he agreed, then withdrew this consent when the boy recovered.

But Monica’s joy and relief at Augustine’s recovery turned to anxiety as he misspent his renewed life being wayward and, as he himself tells us, lazy. He was finally sent to school at Madauros. He was 17 and studying rhetoric in Carthage when Patricius died.

Augustine had become a Manichaean at Carthage; when upon his return home he shared his views regarding Manichaeism, Monica drove him away from her table. However, she is said to have experienced a vision that convinced her to reconcile with him.

At this time she visited a certain (unnamed) holy bishop who consoled her with the now famous words, “the child of those tears shall never perish.” Monica followed her wayward son to Rome, where he had gone secretly; when she arrived he had already gone to Milan, but she followed him. Here she found Ambrose and through him she ultimately had the joy of seeing Augustine convert to Christianity after 17 years of resistance.

In his book Confessions, Augustine wrote of a peculiar practice of his mother in which she “brought to certain oratories, erected in the memory of the saints, offerings of porridge, bread, water and wine.” When she moved to Milan, the bishop Ambrose forbade her to use the offering of wine, since “it might be an occasion of gluttony for those who were already given to drink”. So, Augustine wrote of her:

In place of a basket filled with fruits of the earth, she had learned to bring to the oratories of the martyrs a heart full of purer petitions, and to give all that she could to the poor—so that the communion of the Lord’s body might be rightly celebrated in those places where, after the example of his passion, the martyrs had been sacrificed and crowned.

— Confessions 6.2.2

Mother and son spent six months of true peace at Rus Cassiciacum (present-day Cassago Brianza) after which Augustine was baptized in the church of St. John the Baptist at Milan. Africa claimed them, however, and they set out on their journey, stopping at Civitavecchia and at Ostia. Here death overtook Monica, and Augustine’s grief inspired the finest pages of his Confessions.

Veneration

Saint Monica was buried at Ostia, and at first seems to have been almost forgotten, though her body was removed during the 6th century to a hidden crypt in the church of Santa Aurea in Ostia. Monica was buried near the tomb of St. Aurea of Ostia. It was later transferred to the Basilica of Sant’Agostino, Rome.

Anicius Auchenius Bassus wrote Monica’s funerary epitaph, which survived in ancient manuscripts. The actual stone on which it was written was rediscovered in the summer of 1945 in the church of Santa Aurea. The fragment was discovered after two boys were digging a hole to plant a football post in the courtyard beside Santa Aurea.

A translation from the Latin, by Douglas Boin, reads: Here the most virtuous mother of a young man set her ashes, a second light to your merits, Augustine. As a priest, serving the heavenly laws of peace, you taught [or, you teach] the people entrusted to you with your character. A glory greater than the praise of your accomplishments crowns you both – Mother of the Virtues, more fortunate because of her offspring.

About the 13th century, however, the cult of St. Monica began to spread and a feast in her honour was kept on 4 May. In 1430 Pope Martin V ordered the relics to be brought to Rome. Many miracles are said to have occurred on the way, and the cultus of St. Monica was definitely established. Later the archbishop of Rouen, Guillaume d’Estouteville, built a church at Rome in honour of St. Augustine, the Basilica di Sant’Agostino, and deposited the relics of St. Monica in a chapel to the left of the high altar. The Office of St. Monica, however, does not seem to have found a place in the Roman Breviary before the 19th century.

The city of Santa Monica, California, is named after Monica. A legend states that in the 18th century Father Juan Crespí named a local dripping spring Las Lagrimas de Santa Monica (“Saint Monica’s Tears”) (today known as the Serra Springs) that was reminiscent of the tears that Saint Monica shed over her son’s early impiety. As recorded in his diary, however, Crespí actually named the place San Gregorio. What is known for certain is that by the 1820s, the name Santa Monica was in use and its first official mention occurred in 1827 in the form of a grazing permit. There is a statue of this saint in Santa Monica’s Palisades Park by sculptor Eugene Morahan; it was completed in 1934.

Prayer to St. Monica for Wayward Children

Exemplary Mother of the Great Augustine, you perseveringly pursued your wayward son, not with wild threats but with prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all mothers in our day so that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray. Amen.

Prayer to St. Monica: Help my child turn to Christ!

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, under the weight of my heartful burden, I turn to you, dear Saint Monica and request your assistance and intercession.

From your place in heaven, I beg that you will plead before the Throne of the Holy One, for the sake of my child, [Name], who has wandered from from the faith, and all that we have tried to teach.

I know, dear Monica, that our children belong not to us, but to God, and that God often permits this wandering as part of one’s journey toward Him. Your son, Augustine, wandered, too; eventually he found the faith, and came to believe, and in that belief became a true teacher.

Help me, therefore, to have patience, and to believe that all things even this disappointing movement away from the faith work ultimately to His own good purposes.

For the sake of my child’s soul, I pray to understand and trust in this. St. Monica, please teach me to persist in faithful prayer as you did for your son’s sake.

Inspire me to behave in ways that will not further distance my child from Christ, but only draw [Name] gently towards his marvelous light. Please teach me what you know about this painful mystery of separation, and how it is reconciled in the re-orientation of our children toward heaven.

O Saint Monica, lover of Christ and His Church, pray for me, and for my child [Name], that we may acquire heaven, joining with you, there, in offering constant and thankful praise to God, Amen.

Novena to St. Monica

Introduction Prayer (to be said each day)

Exemplary Mother of the Great Augustine, you perserveringly pursued your wayward son not with wild threats but with prayerful cries to heaven.

Intercede for all mothers in our day so that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray.

Daily Novena Prayers

Day 1: Today we pray for all God’s people who have left the Church. May the Holy Spirit open their ears and hearts so they may hear this invitation to come home.

Day 2: Today we pray for those who were baptized Catholic, but were not blessed with families to guide them to spiritual maturity. May the Holy Spirit guide them back to the Catholic Church.

Day 3: Today we pray for those who have been hurt by someone in the Church. May those of us in the Church today be a source of healing.

Day 4: Today we pray for those who reject the Church’s God-given teachings. May the Holy Spirit open their hearts and minds to the truth and wisdom of those teachings.

Day 5: Today we pray for those whose sins make them feel unworthy to come to God. May they repent with hope and feel the warm embrace of Our Father’s loving forgiveness.

Day 6: Today we pray for all those children who have grown up and, like St. Augustine as a young man, rejected Christ and His Church. May the grace of God and our prayers draw them back to the Church.

Day 7: Today we pray for those who are resisting Your call due to pressures from friends and family members. May the Holy Spirit give them strength in their convictions and may the Holy Spirit fill the hearts of their friends and family with love and support.

Day 8: Today we pray for those who feel abandoned by God. May they come to see God working in their lives, restore their faith in Him, and come home to His Church.

Day 9: Today we pray for those who are ready to come home and just need to be invited. May the Holy Spirit open our hearts and eyes to them that we may be the inviting and welcoming presence they seek.

Concluding Prayer (to be said each day)

Dear St Monica, troubled wife and mother, many sorrows pierced your heart during your lifetime. Yet you never despaired or lost faith. With confidence, persistence and profound faith, you prayed daily for the conversion of your beloved husband, Patricius and your beloved son, Augustine.

Grant me that same fortitude, patience and trust in the Lord. Intercede for me, dear St. Monica, that God may favorably hear my plea for (mention your petition here).

And grant me the grace to accept his will in all things, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

Litany of Saint Monica

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.

God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.

God, the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.

God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.

Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, conceived without stain of original sin, pray for us and for our children.

Holy Mary, glorious Mother of Jesus Christ, pray for us and for our children.

St. Monica, pray for us and for our children.

Model of wives, pray for us and for our children.

You who converted your unbelieving husband, Mother of St. Augustine, pray for us and for our children.

Strict and prudent teacher, guardian of your son in all his ways, pray for us and for our children.

You who carefully watched over his conduct, pray for us and for our children.

You who were sorely distressed at his erring from the right, pray for us and for our children.

You who were untiring in your petitions for his soul’s safety, pray for us and for our children.

You who still hoped on amid the bitterness of your heart and your floods of tears, pray for us and for our children.

You who were filled with consolation upon his return to God, pray for us and for our children.

You who died calmly after faithfully fulfilling your duties, pray for us and for our children.

You who are the prayerful intercessor of all mothers who pray and weep as you did, pray for us and for our children.

Preserve the innocence of our children, we beseech you, St. Monica.

Protect them against the deceits of evil men, we beseech you, St. Monica.

Protect them from the dangers of bad example, we beseech you, St. Monica.

Watch over the movements of grace in their hearts. Let the Christian virtues strike deep root in their hearts and bear much fruit.

Redouble your intercession for youth approaching manhood.

Obtain for all in mortal sin true contrition and perfect conversion.

Obtain for all mothers to fulfill their duties steadily and perseveringly.

Commend all mothers to the protection of the ever-blessed Virgin Mother of Our Lord.

Favorably incline the heart of your beloved son Augustine to the salvation of our children.

St. Augustine, holy son of a saintly mother, pray for us and for our children.

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord!

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord!

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, O Lord!

Pray for us, O holy St. Monica, That we may be worthy of the promises of Christ.