Where would the Church and the West be without him? Or, better yet, where would the Church and West be without his mother, St. Monica?
Behind Augustine’s spiritual homecoming was his mother’s persistent, tireless prayer for his return to the faith. He admits as much in Confessions, writing, “In the flesh she brought me to birth in this world: in her heart she brought me to birth in [God’s] eternal light.”
For 17 years, St. Monica dutifully prayed for her son’s conversion. She succumbed to “daily tears,” as Augustine recounts, yet trusted in God’s providence after receiving a vision that she would live to see the miracle.
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