By Charles Igwe
On Tuesday, Pope Francis made an unexpected visit to the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome to pray at the tomb of St. Monica, whose feast day is celebrated on August 27.
The Pope quietly visited the basilica, located near Piazza Navona in the heart of Rome, and spent time in the side chapel where St. Monica’s tomb is enshrined. St. Monica is venerated in the Church for her devout prayers and unwavering dedication to the spiritual well-being of her son, St. Augustine, prior to his conversion. Today, Catholics around the world look to St. Monica as an intercessor for family members who are distant from the Church. She is the patron saint of mothers, wives, widows, difficult marriages, and victims of abuse.
Born in 332 to a Christian family in North Africa, Monica was married to Patricius, a pagan who was initially dismissive of her faith. Despite his volatile temper and infidelity, Monica remained patient and faithful, and her perseverance was rewarded when Patricius converted to Christianity a year before his death.
Monica’s eldest son, Augustine, caused her great anguish when he embraced the Manichean heresy. In her distress, Monica sought the counsel of a bishop, who comforted her with the famous words: “The child of those tears shall never perish.” Seventeen years later, Monica witnessed Augustine’s conversion and baptism by St. Ambrose, a momentous event that led Augustine to become a bishop and one of the Church’s most influential doctors.
Augustine later chronicled his journey of faith and his mother’s crucial role in his conversion in his autobiography, “Confessions.” Reflecting on her prayers for him, he wrote, “My mother, your faithful one, wept before you on my behalf more than mothers are wont to weep the bodily death of their children.”
St. Monica passed away shortly after Augustine’s baptism in 387, in Ostia, near Rome. Her relics were later moved to the Basilica of St. Augustine in Rome in 1424.
During his visit, Pope Francis also paused to pray before Caravaggio’s renowned painting, “Madonna of Loreto,” also known as “Our Lady of the Pilgrims,” which is housed within the basilica. The church is also home to a 16th-century statue of the Virgin Mary, the Madonna del Parto, or the Madonna of Safe Delivery, where many women have prayed for a safe childbirth.
This visit was not Pope Francis’s first to the Basilica of St. Augustine; he previously visited St. Monica’s tomb on her feast day in 2020 and celebrated Mass there on St. Augustine’s feast day on August 28, 2013. In his homily on that occasion, the Pope quoted the opening line of Augustine’s “Confessions”: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Pope Francis reflected on Augustine’s journey, noting, “It was this very restlessness in his heart that led him to a personal encounter with Christ and to the realization that the distant God he sought was the God who is close to every human being, closer to our hearts than we are to ourselves.”
Reflecting on Monica’s perseverance, the Pope added, “How many tears did that holy woman shed for her son’s conversion! And today, too, how many mothers shed tears so that their children will return to Christ! Do not lose hope in God’s grace.”
