St. Monica (c. 332-387) is the patroness of mothers — particularly mothers praying for adult children who have left the faith, fallen into serious sin, or made marriages and life choices that grieve them. Born in Tagaste in Roman North Africa (present-day Souk Ahras, Algeria) to a Christian Berber family, she was given in marriage to a pagan Roman official named Patricius. The marriage was difficult: Patricius was violent-tempered and unfaithful, his mother lived with them and was hostile to Monica, and Monica's gentle perseverance in faith eventually won her husband to baptism shortly before his death. Her elder son Augustine was a brilliant student who left the Catholic faith of his childhood for Manichaeism, then for skeptical philosophy. He took a concubine in Carthage, fathered a son out of wedlock, and pursued an academic career across North Africa, Rome, and Milan. Monica followed him — physically and prayerfully — across continents. Her tears, her decades of intercessory prayer, her conversations with St. Ambrose of Milan (who reportedly told her, 'It is not possible that the son of these tears should perish'), and her sustained faith eventually bore fruit: Augustine was baptized at the Easter Vigil 387 in Milan at age thirty-three. Monica was present. Mother and son traveled toward home together; Monica died at Ostia, the Roman port, before they reached Africa. Augustine recorded the entire arc in Book IX of his Confessions — one of the most-read passages in Christian literature on the meaning of a mother's prayer. She was canonized in 1430 and her feast (August 27) is observed the day before Augustine's (August 28). The novena to St. Monica is appropriate for: any mother whose adult child has left the faith, made marriages or relationships that grieve the family, struggled with addiction or moral disorder, become estranged, or wandered in any sustained way. It is the patron novena for what hagiographers call 'the long arc' — Monica prayed for Augustine for seventeen years.
12 min
Tagal
9 araw
Pangako
Para sa mga nagsisimula
Antas
St. Monica
Patron na santo
Pray once daily for nine consecutive days. The novena is traditionally prayed in the nine days leading up to the Feast of St. Monica (August 27) or the Feast of St. Augustine the day after (August 28). The structure: (1) Sign of the Cross; (2) The novena prayer; (3) Reading of a brief passage from Book IX of Augustine's Confessions (the scene of Monica's death at Ostia, or her conversation with Augustine on the eternal life of those who pray); (4) Three Hail Marys (Monica is paired with the Blessed Virgin as a model of motherly intercession); (5) Name the specific person being prayed for. Many Catholic mothers pray this novena annually around the August feast days or whenever a particular wave of concern over a child arises. The novena is especially appropriate for: a parent whose adult child has left Catholic practice; a parent of a child in addiction or in a relationship the parent grieves; a parent of an estranged adult child; a grandparent praying for grandchildren whose parents have moved them away from the Church; and as the spiritual companion to any 'long arc' — Monica's seventeen years are not a literal mandate but a witness that decades of perseverance is itself the Catholic way. Many Catholic devotional groups (the 'St. Monica Sodality' / 'Monicans') exist for parents praying for fallen-away children; joining one provides community for the long obedience this novena models.
St. Monica, faithful and patient mother whose tears and prayers won your son Augustine from the long wandering of his youth and from the false doctrines that captured him, intercede for me now in my own sustained motherly prayer. As you followed Augustine across continents and decades — never abandoning him, never giving him over to despair, never ceasing to pray — give me the courage to keep praying for (mention the person's name) in the spirit of your perseverance. Plead my cause before the throne of God, who heard your tears for Augustine and answered them in His own time. Through your son's pastoral testimony in the Confessions, through Ambrose's prophetic word to you, and through the witness of every mother who has prayed alone for a wandering child, obtain for me the grace I now ask. St. Monica, mother of the wandering, pray for us. Amen.
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