Monika von Tagaste
The holy Saint Monica (* around 332 in Tagaste in Numidia ; † October 387 in Ostia ) was the mother of St. Augustine . She is buried in the church of Sant'Agostino in Rome .
Life
Monika was raised piously by her Christian parents. However, Monika's mother had largely left the upbringing of her daughters to an old servant who raised the children with strict care. For example, people were only allowed to eat and drink at meal times, even when the children were very thirsty. By keeping this short, the old woman wanted to prevent the children from getting used to drinking regularly, because she feared that they would later switch from water to wine. In her youth, Monika became addicted to alcohol when her parents kept sending her to the cellar to fetch wine. But she managed to get rid of this addiction. She married the pagan Roman official Patricius, a good-natured and irascible person whom she forgave for his infidelity in the hope of converting him to Christianity . In fact, in 371 Patricius died a Christian. She also succeeded in soothing her irritable mother-in-law through gentle endurance and love. In addition to Augustine, Monika and her husband had given birth to two other children, Navigius and Perpetua.
Monika's son Augustine went to study in Carthage around 370/71, shortly before the death of her husband Patricius, where he met a woman with whom he fathered a son who was born in 372 and was given the name Adeodatus . In the following year Augustine turned to Manicheanism . After graduating, he first opened a rhetoric school in Tagaste, and later in Carthage. In 383 Augustine went to Rome, probably also to get some distance from his mother. The following year he was appointed professor of rhetoric in Milan .
After Augustine broke away somewhat from the Manicheans in 384, Monika traveled to him in Milan in the late spring of 385 and initially brought some maternal order into her son's living environment, which consisted of friends and students. She also supported him in studying the teachings of the Milanese Bishop Ambrosius . As early as the summer of 386 Monika managed to get her son to send his partner back to Africa. He should never see her again.
As a replacement, Monika arranged a Christian marriage, which initially failed because the chosen bride was two years too young to marry. The marriage never materialized because in late summer Monika's son had decided to completely change his life. Central points were the task of the professorship in Milan in autumn of that year and the baptism in the following spring. He and his mother spent the next six months on a friend's estate in Cassiciacum, leading up to their baptism .
In April of 387 Monika and her son returned to Milan . Augustine and his son Adeodatus were baptized there by Ambrosius . In the meantime it had been decided to return to North Africa together to lead a more godly lifestyle. On the journey home in the same year, Monika von Tagaste died at the age of 56 in the port city of Ostia. She was buried near the tomb of Saint Aurea of Ostia . Her bones were transferred to the church of Sant'Agostino in Campo Marzio in Rome in the 15th century .
In Christian art, Monika was often depicted with the jug as an attribute. It is meant to symbolize the tears she wept until her son converted to Christianity.
Adoration
The Roman Catholic feast day of Monika was set on August 27 in 1969 , one day before the feast day of her son Augustine. This date can also be found in the Evangelical Name Calendar of the Evangelical Church in Germany and the calendar of the Anglican Church.
From the 13th century until 1969, her feast day was May 4th . The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Düsseldorf-Hamm parish have kept this date.
The Orthodox Church uses both of these dates plus June 15 .
Monika protects the women and mothers and is called on to save the souls of the children.
The Californian city of Santa Monica is named after her and, geographically, forms a couple with St. Augustine in Florida . So one could say that the United States is square between mother and son.
The Church of St. Monika (Afferde) is dedicated to her.
In 1934 the monastery order was founded in Utrecht by the Augustinies van Sint-Monica. The sisters cared for unmarried pregnant women and girls and women who were victims of domestic violence. At the height of the order there were six monasteries (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Hilversum, Sittard, Maastricht, Paris). The sisters also established a number of elementary schools in these places. Since 2014 there is only one monastery in Utrecht as a retirement home for the last sisters and Casella, a hospitable place for young people in search of reflection, in the forest near the old monastery in Hilversum.
literature
- Augustine of Hippo : Finding Real Life. Confessiones X / Confessions 10. Latin-German. Introduced, translated and annotated by Norbert Fischer. Philosophical Library, Vol. 584. Meiner, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 978-3-7873-1808-7
- Günter E. Th. Bezzenberger: Monika (Monica). In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 6, Bautz, Herzberg 1993, ISBN 3-88309-044-1 , Sp. 61-62.
- Hugh Pope: St. Monica . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 10, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1911.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Cf. Chapter 8 in IX. Book of the Confessions of Augustine.
- ↑ In the eighth chapter of the ninth book of his " Confessions " Augustine tells that his mother confided her alcoholic illness to him only. According to him, however, she was cured of her suffering by the decree of God after she was insulted as a "wine drinker " ( meribibula ) by a maid who always accompanied her when she fetched wine .
- ^ Augustine: Confessions Ninth Book - Ninth Chapter , projekt-gutenberg.org
- ^ A b Saint Augustine of Hippo: An Intellectual Biography , by Miles Hollingworth
- ↑ See Chapter 9 in IX. Book of the “Confessions” of Augustine.
- ↑ See Hollingworth, p.xvii
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Monika von Tagaste |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mother of Augustine |
| DATE OF BIRTH | at 332 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tagaste |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 387 |
| Place of death | Ostia |