Catholic Radio Dramas

Let Us Gain Eternal Wisdom (On the Death of St. Monica)

The Death of Monica – From the Confessions of Saint Augustine, Bishop (c. 331-387)

Let Us Gain Eternal Wisdom

Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California

The day was now approaching when my mother Monica would depart from this life; you knew that day, Lord, though we did not. She and I happened to be standing by ourselves at a window that overlooked the garden in the courtyard of the house. At the time we were in Ostia on the Tiber. We had gone there after a long and wearisome journey to be away from the noisy crowd, and to rest and prepare for our sea voyage. I believe that you, Lord, caused all this to happen in your own mysterious ways. And so the two of us, all alone, were enjoying a very pleasant conversation, forgetting the past and pushing on to what is ahead. We were asking one another in the presence of the Truth – for you are the Truth – what it would be like to share the eternal life enjoyed by the saints, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, which has not even entered into the heart of man. We desired with all our hearts to drink from the streams of your heavenly fountain, the fountain of life.

That was the substance of our talk, though not the exact words. But you know, O Lord, that in the course of our conversation that day, the world and its pleasures lost all their attraction for us. My mother said: “Son, as far as I am concerned, nothing in this life now gives me any pleasure. I do not know why I am still here, since I have no further hopes in this world. I did have one reason for wanting to live a little longer: to see you become a Catholic Christian before I died. God has lavished his gifts on me in that respect, for I know that you have even renounced earthly happiness to be his servant. So what am I doing here?”

I do not really remember how I answered her. Shortly, within five days or thereabouts, she fell sick with a fever. Then one day during the course of her illness she became unconscious and for a while she was unaware of her surroundings. My brother and I rushed to her side but she regained consciousness quickly. She looked at us as we stood there and asked in a puzzled voice: “Where was I?”

We were overwhelmed with grief, but she held her gaze steadily upon us and spoke further: “Here you shall bury your mother.” I remained silent as I held back my tears. However, my brother haltingly expressed his hope that she might not die in a strange country but in her own land, since her end would be happier there. When she heard this, her face was filled with anxiety, and she reproached him with a glance because he had entertained such earthly thoughts. Then she looked at me and spoke: “Look what he is saying.” Thereupon she said to both of us: “Bury my body wherever you will; let not care of it cause you any concern. One thing only I ask you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.” Once our mother had expressed this desire as best she could, she fell silent as the pain of her illness increased.

Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings

Saint Monica was born of a Christian family at Tagaste in Africa in 331. While still a young maiden she was married to Patricius, a pagan Roman official of Tagaste whose temper was said to be violent. Consequently Monica’s married life was far from being a happy one. They had three children among whom was St. Augustine, but there was a gulf between husband and wife. Her works of charity through almsgiving and prayer annoyed him, but it is said that he always held her in a sort of reverence. Monica was not the only matron of Tagaste whose married life was unhappy, but, by her sweetness and patience, she was able to form an apostolate among the wives and mothers of her native town. They knew that she suffered as they did, and her words and example were an inspiration to them.

Patricius refused Monica’s pleas to have the children baptized and for many years she offered her prayers and tears for his conversion. Ultimately her husband converted to the Christian faith, but died shortly after his baptism. Meanwhile, Augustine was studying law, philosophy and rhetoric at the university at Carthage, leading a licentious life and became a “Manichean” embracing many heresies.

There is perhaps no more pathetic story in the annals of the saints than that of Monica pursuing her wayward son to Rome, where he had gone in 383. When she arrived in 384 he had already gone to Milan, but she followed him. In Milan she found St. Ambrose and through him she at last had the joy of seeing Augustine yield, after seventeen years of unrelenting prayers for his conversion. Augustine was baptized by St. Ambrose on Easter Eve in 387. He became the Bishop of Hippo and proved to be one of the greatest theologians and philosophers in Church history and is recognized as a Doctor of the Church. Augustine’s ideas dominated the thinking of the Western world for a thousand yeas after his death. Monica died at Ostia in 387 at the age of 56. The above is St. Augustine’s emotional account of her death, representing one to the finest works taken from the pages of his “Confessions.”