August 27
Saints of the Day
 

Saint Monica, 331-387
Mother of St. Augustine and spouse of a pagan also converted after too many prayers and tears

    The prayers and tears of a mother go directly to the Heart of God. Those of St. Monica for 17 years exploited in the greatest theologian of Christianity, her son St. Augustine... and those for a lifetime got the conversion of his pagan husband who converted on his death bed, receiving Baptism, Eucharist and the Viaticum... and for her mother in law who also converted!

    St. Monica was married by arrangement to a pagan, Patricius, official in North Africa, who was much older than she, and although generous, was also violent tempered.
    His mother lived with them and was equally difficult, which proved a constant challenge to St. Monica.
    She had three children; Augustine, Navigius, and Perpetua.
    Perpetua and Navigius entered the religious Life.
    St. Augustine was much more difficult, Monica was distressed to learn that her son had accepted the Manichean heresy and was living an immoral life having a child without mariage, and she had to pray for him for 17 years, begging the prayers of priests who, for a while, tried to avoid her because of her persistence at this seemingly hopeless endeavor. One priest did console her by saying, "it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish." This thought, coupled with a vision that she had received strengthened her. St. Augustine was baptized by Saint Ambrose of Milan in 387 and was his spiritual student. St. Monica died later that same year, on the way back to Africa from Rome in the Italian town of Ostia.
    Through her patience and prayers, she was able to convert her husband, Patricius, and his mother in law to the Catholic faith... the husband was converted on his death bed, receiving Baptism, Eucharist and the Viaticum.

    Born at Tagaste or Carthage, Algeria, North Africa, in 331; died at Ostia, Italy, in 387.
    Almost all we know about St. Monica is in the writings of St. Augustine, especially his Confessions.

http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=1
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintm04.htm
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0827.htm
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1120

Saints of August 27:

http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0827.htm