Monica was an early North African Christian saint and the mother of Augustine of Hippo. She is remembered and honored in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, albeit on different feast days, for her outstanding Christian virtues, particularly the suffering caused by her husband's adultery, and her prayerful life dedicated to the reformation of her son, who wrote extensively of her pious acts and life with her in his Confessions. Popular Christian legends recall Monica weeping every night for her son Augustine.
Saint Monica by Benozzo Gozzoli, 1464–65
Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica, by Ary Scheffer (painting from 1846)
Saint Monica's tomb, Basilica di Sant'Agostino, Rome
Statue of Saint Monica in Santa Monica, California
Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include The City of God, On Christian Doctrine, and Confessions.
Saint Augustin by Philippe de Champaigne, c. 1645
Saint Augustine Taken to School by Saint Monica, by Niccolò di Pietro, 1413–15
The earliest known portrait of Augustine in a 6th-century fresco, Lateran, Rome
Saint Augustine and his mother, Saint Monica (1846) by Ary Scheffer
