Saint Monica

From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:

August 25, 2025

Since the reform of the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church in 1969, the feast day of Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine, is now celebrated on August 27, the vigil of her son's feast day, which is observed on August 28. Previous to this reform, her feast day was celebrated on May 4. It is the opinion of some that perhaps this day was chosen since May 5 was observed by the Augustinians (the religious order to which Pope Leo XIV belonged) as the feast of the Conversion of St. Augustine, commemorating his baptism in Milan by St. Ambrose.

Monica was born about 332 A.D. at Thagaste, in the territory of present-day Algeria. She was a Christian, married to Patricius, a local civic leader and a pagan. He is reported to have been a violent man and unfaithful to her. And though he refused to allow any of their three surviving children to be baptized, and was annoyed by her continual prayer and alms-giving, he appears to have ultimately had respect for her and for her beliefs and had himself baptized before he died.

Augustine was 17 years old, studying rhetoric in Carthage, when his father died. During those years away from home, Augustine lived a morally dissolute life and joined a heretical sect known as the Manichaeans. Monica spent the next 17 years appealing to her son and praying for him to convert to the Catholic Faith and to receive the Sacraments. Near the end of those many years, Monica traveled to Rome, where Augustine had settled, only to arrive and find that her son was in Milan. There, Augustine, finally convinced of the truth of the Catholic Faith, and to the joy of his mother, was baptized by the great bishop of that city, Ambrose. After the Easter baptism, in 387, they set out together for Africa. But en route, in the port city of Rome, Ostia, Monica died. Much of what we know of Monica is from her loving son, Augustine especially in his Confessions.

Monica was initially buried in Ostia, but on the orders of Pope Martin V, her remains were transferred to Rome, in 1430. Many miracles were reported during this procession, and the veneration of St. Monica has grown ever since. She is a special patroness of widows, those in difficult marriages, and those praying for the conversion (or “reversion”) of their children to the Faith. Santa Monica, California, was named in her honor, in 1769, as was the former Raleigh parish and school of St. Monica, which was dedicated to the pastoral care of African-Americans in Wake County, NC (1930-1968).