Monica (Monnica)

(c. 331–87)

   Saint.

   Monica was the mother of St Augustine of hippo. According to the Confessions, she was a woman of strong character who pursued her son in his unregenerate days to Carthage and Milan. She was born into a Christian family, but she married the somewhat dissolute Patricius of Tagaste, Numidia. She had at least two other children besides Augustine – Navigius, who was also converted to Christianity, and Perpetua, who became Abbess of a convent in Hippo. In Milan, she was influenced by St ambrose and she appears in the Augustinian dialogues De Ordine and De Beata Vita. She died in Ostia accompanying Augustine home to North Africa.

   St Augustine, Confessions, Book 9 [many editions];

   P.L.R. Brown, St Augustine of Hippo (1965).