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Beloved Saint Monica, Mother of the great saint, Augustine of Hippo — Father and Doctor of the Church — had her hands full with her son who was both a brilliant student and something of a youthful hedonist, fathering a child out of wedlock at the age of 19. A Christian woman married to a Pagan, Monica watched her son's journey and prayed faithfully for his conversion to Christ. For many years, she prayed that Augustine's heart and mind would finally become open — that he might have an authentic encounter with Christ and thus be re-formed, and re-oriented toward the will of God.
Her faithfulness was gratified, and in one of the most moving portions of Augustine's Confessions, he related how clearly Monica identified her life's mission as delivering her children into the life of faith. In Ostia, she said to him in wonder, “Son, as far as I am concerned, nothing in this life now gives me any pleasure. I do not know why I am still here, since I have no further hopes in this world. I did have one reason for wanting to live a little longer: to see you become a Catholic Christian before I died. God has lavished his gifts on me in that respect, for I know that you have even renounced earthly happiness to be his servant. So what am I doing here?” Days later, she fell ill with a fever and told Augustine and his brother to bury her there — to take no concern over her earthly remains, but asking for one favor: “...That you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.”
Saint Monica is the patron saint of people in difficult marriages, difficult children, and the conversion of relatives, particularly one's own children. She is the consoling friend in heaven who wholly understands the despair of parents who feel helpless and confused as they watch their children drift away from the church. As Monica prayed and fasted for her children to come to know Christ Jesus, she is our powerful companion and intercessor to all who feel confounded by the “journeys” of their sons and daughters.
