Monica Mother and Saint: A Historical Biography

With empathic perception and psychological finesse Bernet retraces the destiny of a fervent mother and an audacious woman of the first centuries of the Church. Monica was the mother of Augustine, doctor of the church, whose genius has engaged history for centuries. She was born into a middle-class family of Thagaste, a modest town in Numidia, North Africa, in 331. Her story would have sunk into the oblivion of anonymity like those of her contemporaries. But for her third child, her son Augustine, Monica’s story is still vividly intriguing today.

For Augustine has attributed his spectacular conversion to the prayers, sacrifices and tears of his mother. If, in reading Augustine’s work The Confessions , Monica does not always appear exemplary, the fact remains that having given the Church one of her greatest figures has in turn raised her to holiness.