Regular visitors to this blog know that, early in life, St. Monica was fond of visiting the graves of the saints and celebrating their feast days there. Since today’s her memorial, isn’t it the least we can do for her? She’s entombed at the church named for her more famous son, St. Augustine, not far from Piazza Navona in Rome.
Listen, if we can’t make it to Rome by midnight, let’s at least meet at Fr. Z’s place, where he’s posted wonderful photos and information about this great and holy lady. When I’m in Rome, her church is the place where I habitually go to pray. I probably picked up the habit just because I was staying next door. But there are no accidents, and it’s a habit I’ve made no effort to shake. I have six kids. If I could learn parenting from anyone, it would be St. Monica.
Though she was probably only minimally literate, Monica appears in Augustine’s autobiographical works (Confessions and Dialogues) as a teacher of theologians. The lady prayed. Over the course of decades, she prayed her wayward son back into the Church. She went to Mass daily, and she attended funeral Masses of strangers, again almost daily, just so she could hear the Word of God proclaimed once more. No one better exemplifies the maxim of Evagrius: A theologian is one who prays, and one who prays is a theologian. I count her farewell to Augustine in the Confessions among the most beautiful passages in world literature. At the trinket shop in the back of Sant’Agostino, I bought my wife a sturdy image of the scene, as it reminded me of my own lovely lady and our son, our firstborn. (The painting’s titled “Ecstasy at Ostia.” I don’t remember the artist. Amy Welborn has it up at her blog today.)
Another place to visit on St. Monica’s feast: St. Monica Institute for Patristic Studies.
Michael:
Didn’t the Spanish colonizer name the Califorian city after her? The stream they found made a lot of noise like when she cried over St Augustine less than Christian life?
xavier
Here’s the explanation given at Wikipedia: “Santa Monica is named for Saint Monica of Hippo because the area on which the city is now located was first visited by Spaniards on her feast day.”
Here’s the missing detail, from a real-estate site (though the author gave Monica’s son a sex-change): “One of the padres noted in his diary that he was going to name the spring the Spring of Saint Monica to commemorate the tears Saint Monica cried for her wayward son Augusta. The city of Santa Monica take its name from this spring, even though the spring isn’t located in Santa Monica.”
Mike:
Thanks. Interesting stuff eh? :)
xavier