St. Monica

Their story

Monica was born around 331 in Thagaste, in North Africa, in what is now Algeria. Her parents were Christian. As a young girl she was sent to fetch wine from the cellar and began taking sips, until the habit grew to a cupful at a time. When a servant mocked her as a drunkard, Monica was stung by the truth of it and gave the habit up for good. Her son St. Augustine later told this story in his Confessions, which is one reason she is invoked by people struggling with alcohol. Monica was married young to Patricius, a pagan with a violent temper, and lived in a household with a difficult mother-in-law. She answered harshness with patience and constant prayer, and before his death Patricius was baptized. Her greatest heartache was her eldest son, Augustine. Brilliant and restless, he lived a self-indulgent life, joined a sect and turned away from the faith. For years Monica wept and prayed for him. A bishop she begged for help told her that the son of so many tears could not be lost. Monica followed Augustine to Rome and then to Milan, where he came under the influence of St. Ambrose. At last, at Easter in 387, Augustine was baptized. Soon afterward, as they prepared to sail home to Africa, Monica fell ill at Ostia, near Rome. She told her sons that it did not matter where she was buried, only that they remember her at the altar of the Lord. She died there in 387. Monica is a patron for mothers, for spouses in hard marriages, for those who struggle with alcohol, and for every family member who keeps praying for someone caught in addiction.