Monica was born into a Catholic family in 332. She was born in the North African city of Tagaste located in present-day Algeria. She was looked after by a maidservant who taught her the virtues of obedience and temperance. While still relatively young, she married Patricius, at a younger age. He was a Roman civil servant with a bad temper and a disdain for his wife’s religion.
Monica dealt with Patricius patiently regarding his distressing behavior, which included infidelity to their marriage vows. But she experienced a greater grief when he would not allow their three children – Augustine, Nagivius, and Perpetua – to receive Baptism. When Augustine, the oldest, became sick and was in danger of death, Patricius gave consent for his Baptism, but withdrew it when he recovered.
Monica’s long-suffering patience and prayers made a conversion in Patricius and finally, he was baptized into the Church one year before his death in 371. Her oldest son, Augustine became a reason for another sorrow for Monica. He fathered a child out of wedlock in 372. One year later, he began to practice the occult religion of Manichaeism.
In her distress and grief, Monica shunned her oldest son. But later, she experienced a mysterious dream that strengthened her hope for Augustine’s soul. In the dream, a messenger assured her: “Your son is with you.” After this experience, which took place around 377, she allowed him back into her home, and continued to beg God for his conversion.
She tried a lot to get him rid of the heresy. While she was praying in a chapel at night, Augustine, at age 29, without saying goodbye to his mother, boarded a ship bound for Rome. Even though it was painful for her God had another plan for him. He becomes a teacher in the place where he was destined to become a Catholic.
Under the influence of the bishop St. Ambrose of Milan, Augustine renounced the teaching of the Manichees around 384. Monica followed her son to Milan and drew encouragement from her son’s growing interest in the saintly bishop’s preaching. After three years of struggle against his own desires and perplexities, Augustine succumbed to God’s grace and was baptized in 387.
Just before her death, Monica said to her children, “The only thing I ask of you both,” she told Augustine and his brother Nagivius, “is that you make remembrance of me at the altar of the Lord wherever you are.”
St. Monica died at age 56, in the year 387. In modern times, she has become the inspiration for the St. Monica Sodality, which encourages prayer and penance among Catholics whose children have left the faith.