Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless otherwise stated.
Saint Monica.
Widow.
Feast Day 4 May.
Double.
White Vestments.
English: The Angel appears to Saint Monica.
Italiano: Apparizione dell'angelo a Santa Monica (madre di Sant'Agostino) [1714]. Dipinto nella "Cappella di sant'Agostino" nel transetto destro della chiesa di san Marco a Milano.
Artist: Pietro Maggi,
Date: 1714.
Current location: Saint Augustine Chapel, San Marco Church, Milan, Italy.
Source: Own work.
Author: G.dallorto.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Born in Africa, Saint Monica married a pagan, whom she converted by her virtues. Having become a Widow, she devoted herself to her son, Augustine, whose mind was corrupted by the errors of Manicheism and his Soul by the dissolute manners of Rome.
"Night and day she Prayed" (Epistle) and "she shed for him more tears than other mothers shed over a coffin."
For, above all else, she was penetrated by The Fear of God (Introit), and she knew that, in order to obtain the resurrection of the Soul of her son, she had to sacrifice herself (Gospel). She atoned for the sins of Augustine.
"Could you, O Lord", so writes Augustine, "despise the contrite and humble heart of a chaste and mortified Widow ? Could you reject the tears of one who asked not for money, nor for any temporal thing, but only the Salvation of her son's Soul ?"
"God, in His Mercy, accepted the tears of Charity of Blessed Monica" (Collect), and these two Souls now share in the Joy (Communion) of Jesus, Risen Again.
Saint Monica died at Ostia in 387 A.D.
Mass: Cognovi.
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