.. she would disclose nothing about the one unto the other, save what might avail to their reconcilement." (Confessions, Book IX, 21)

It is certainly true that Monica was patient and long-suffering with her arbitrary son. The pitiful story depicted in Confessions describes how she pursued her rebellious son to Rome, to find he had already left for Milan. She continued to follow him (a model of bravery in itself) and found St. Ambrose, who helped her with the conversion of her son, Augustine, to Christianity.

After six months in Cassiacum,

Augustine was baptized in the church of St. John the Baptist at Milan. Then he and his mother started out on a trip to Africa, stopping at Civita Vecchia and at Ostia, where death claimed Monica. Mourning for his mother, Augustine penned the finest pages of his Confessions. Monica was a good mother, but Augustine regretted that, as a...
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