Saint of the Day, August 27

Saint Monica (331–387), a Berber Christian of Tagaste in Roman North Africa, married the pagan Patricius and bore him three children, the most famous of whom was Augustine. She prayed and wept for her brilliant, dissipated son for seventeen years until he was baptized by Ambrose at Milan in 387 — the most consoled mother in Christian memory. Soon afterwards, on the journey home to Africa, she fell ill at Ostia and died there, having said to Augustine, 'Bury this body anywhere; do not let care for it disturb you. Only this I ask: remember me at the altar of the Lord.' She is patroness of mothers, of married women in difficult marriages, and of every parent praying for a wayward child.