Patience, Endurance, Charity, Prayer and Conversion

These five words where so much the life of St. Monica.







Patience - The waiting must have been terrible for St. Monica who watched her son, St. Augustine drift into paganism and eventually come back to the Catholic faith.

Endurance - Having to marry a cruel, pagan man whom she didn't know or love. Knowing that she must obey her parents and there choice for her suitor.

Charity - She had been taught to love the poor and the suffering, and to serve them at her own expense and inconvenience, and the service of others makes one unselfish. She showed this charity to her servants and to her aging mother-in-law who was a very controlling woman.

Prayer - The unceasing prayers of St. Monica helped many including her husband, Patricius; his mother, her children - Navigius, Perpetua and her eldest son, Augustine. Never underestimate the power of prayer.

Conversion - Her constant prayers and intercessions brought about the conversions of her mother-in-law, her husband and finally her son, Augustine; who came back to the faith and was baptized at the age of 33 by St. Ambrose.