The Catholic Church has blessed the world with strong and faithful women who not only guide us on our path to heaven but who champion our efforts as we navigate this path. These women come from diverse backgrounds, offering an array of experiences that help us on our own journey. Many were strong mothers who understood the blessings of motherhood and the dignity of all children.
St. Monica was one such woman. She is a fourth-century saint and mother of St. Augustine, who is a Doctor of the Church and one of the Church’s most brilliant minds. Born in 331 in the northern African town of Thagaste, Monica was given in an arranged marriage to a pagan, who not only had an irascible temper but was also unfaithful to her. However, he was tolerant of her faith, and this allowed her to raise their children Catholic. Monica longed for her husband to convert and see the beauty of the faith she so loved, and she prayed daily for his conversion. Shortly before his death, Monica’s prayers were answered, and he converted. But his death left her raising their three children alone.
Augustine, who had always been a difficult child, soon left home, renounced the faith she had taught him, and began living an immoral lifestyle. As any Catholic mother understands, this broke Monica’s heart.
But Monica trusted in God, and she knew she had a role to still play in Augustine’s life. Her faith had taught her that God can move mountains, and her tenacity, her love, and her mental fortitude helped her through many dark days. She loved her son, and she continued to talk with him and teach him when she could. But most importantly, she participated in God’s work by spending countless hours tearfully praying for her son. One biography explains, “On one occasion when she was discussing the matter with a priest, he urged her to remain steadfast in her prayers, stating that it was ‘not possible that the son of so many tears should perish.’”
For 17 years, Monica prayed that her son’s heart would be moved to love Christ and His Church. In 387, Augustine converted, was baptized, and later became a priest.
As Pope Benedict XVI said on Monica’s feast day in 2006, “Augustine himself was to say, his mother gave birth to him twice; the second time required a lengthy spiritual travail of prayers and tears, but it was crowned at last with the joy of seeing him not only embrace the faith and receive baptism, but also dedicate himself without reserve to the service of Christ.”
The transformative power of motherhood
Motherhood is a tremendous gift that women should neither take lightly nor reject. Yet we live in a time when both happen regularly. If we are to change minds and hearts about the beauty of motherhood and children, then we must look to the holy mothers in our lives and to saints such as Monica.
In his Letter to Women, St. John Paul II wrote that “humanity owes its very survival” to the gift of motherhood. And he thanked women who are mothers, saying, “You have sheltered human beings within yourselves in a unique experience of joy and travail. This experience makes you become God’s own smile upon the newborn child, the one who guides your child’s first steps, who helps it to grow, and who is the anchor as the child makes its way along the journey of life.”
St. Monica was undoubtedly the anchor for Augustine, even as he drifted waywardly through life. She knew she had to be strong when he was not; she trusted in God and persevered in prayer, confident that God was working to change her son’s heart. St. Monica is a beautiful example of motherly love and support even through difficult times, as she did not allow her sorrow in his lack of faith to eclipse her devotion as his mother.
The reality, both then and now, is that motherhood is far from easy. While it’s one of the greatest callings a woman can embrace, it’s also one of the most difficult, and it evokes a wide range of emotions that begin when the baby begins to grow in her mother’s body. This intimate knowledge of mother and baby forms a lifelong bond. And when that child is ripped away by the world, by another person, by an ideology, or by something else, it hurts both emotionally and physically. Monica understood this truth all too well.
But despite the varied emotions that mothers feel, they have an unconditional love for their children. Or rather, they should. In our broken world, we know that isn’t always the case. There are absent mothers, abusive mothers, mothers who kill their born or their preborn children, and mothers who advocate for the deaths of preborn children. As Catholics, we are called to combat this culture of death, to follow St. Monica’s example, and to encourage more women to embrace motherhood.
How do we do this? We persevere, just as Monica did. We pray unceasingly, and we teach our own children, our friends, and our acquaintances about the gift of motherhood. We model the virtues of motherhood exhibited by Monica and other saints, and we speak with truth and charity about the sanctity of life, authentic womanhood, and the beauty of the female body.
We do so because we know that, when a society embraces motherhood, it will become a society that also embraces children and that nurtures and protects the vulnerable. In short, it will be a world where more love, less selfishness, and a greater understanding of the dignity of life abound.
Our world today desperately needs the example of St. Monica, for when we look at her life and the lives of other holy women, we cannot help but see the light of Christ. The love she felt for Augustine proves that a mother’s love comes from something infinitely profound and from the source of love itself.
Indeed, a mother’s love gives us a foretaste of the love our Heavenly Father has for His children. And that love is one of the most beautiful gifts we can ever experience.
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What a wonderful mother Saint Monica was! I really enjoyed reading this article and learning more about her! Happy Feast of St. Monica’s Day! 😇🙏😊
It’s not a culture that fears motherhood so much as a culture that has perfected the art of acting exclusively in one’s own interest and for oneself to the exclusion of all others. I have mine; go fend for yourself. In a word: hedonism is of prime importnce. I wonder whether God has allowed the jihadist invasion so that man will have to suffer and struggle in order to foster a mutual dependency in society. I need you and you need me. It’s like the angel driving Adam and Eve out of the Garden and Man being required to work for his bounty, face mortality and struggle. Man keeps trying to ee-enter Eden but that effort is doomed to failure.
Saint Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine – a source of inspiration to mothers across cultures and continents. Saint Monica – Pray for us.
While it’s one of the greatest callings a woman can embrace, it’s also one of the most difficult, and it evokes a wide range of emotions that begin when the baby begins to grow in her mother’s body. This intimate knowledge of mother and baby forms a lifelong bond.”
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I’ve read that some of a child’s DNA remains with its mother for years & years. Possibly for life. And I think some of the mother’s DNA remains with her child. There are some very deep bonds between mothers & children.
I’ve read the same research, mrscracker.
This is a wonderful write up of a beautiful Saint but your premise “the world fears motherhood” is not supported. It seems to function only as click bait. Sad.
It certainly seems evident in the U.S. and the West. For example, a recent news piece states: “Nearly 40% of women in their 20s who do not already have children say they don’t expect to ever have any, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” A 2024 Pew Research Study delves into the numbers, saying that “the share of U.S. adults younger than 50 without children who say they are unlikely to ever have kids rose 10 percentage points between 2018 and 2023 (from 37% to 47%)…” And while the numbers are a bit better in western Europe, they appear to be headed in the same direction.
With respect, while that may be an accurate statistic it does not answer the “why” question, much less support the proposition that “fear of motherhood” is the reason motivating those choosing not to have children.
I just finished praying at our local abortion mill, so the truth that “the world fears motherhood” seems obvious. It’s definitely not click bait. In fact, it deserves another article.
So praying in front of a clinic did not give you insight into the patients’ minds?
I agree”fears motherhood” is a gross generalization which would be hard to support, but the very number of abortions is enough to make one wonder. On the positive side, however, we can give thanks for the many women who are exemplary mothers and who are sacrificing careers and everything for their children. And praise God for the many young men who are beginning to seek God and the church. Things may seem to be black, but the Son is shining above the clouds and we may well see more Church marriages one baby carriages.
When the vocation of womanhood is properly understood through the icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the impulse to seek clerical roles or measure women’s dignity by worldly standards naturally dissolves. Our Holy Mother demonstrates that a woman’s ultimate dignity lies not in adopting the structural roles of men, but in fulfilling her irreplaceable maternal calling, whether physical or spiritual, to nurture humanity.
In traditional theology, a vocation is a specific state of life—such as marriage, single life, or holy orders—chosen to serve God. Womanhood is the underlying reality of who a person is, which is then expressed through whatever specific path she chooses. Ergo, not all women will express their identity through child bearing.
“Ergo, not all women will express their identity through child bearing.”
For some, it’s not a choice. I’m sure you understand.
Womanhood is an identity not a vocation. Not all women will have a vocation to motherhood.
I’ve read the same research, mrscracker. I’m a firm believer that women who abort know they are carrying a human person in their wombs. I also believe that women who abort grieve the loss of their child(ren) for their entire lives. Some of this might be due to the biology of pregnancy and some due to how God created the female human person.
I believe they grieve for the rest of their lives, too Deacon Edward.
This essay misses on one point. Motherhood isn’t feared, it is contemned and that contempt is worsening. It used to be that natality was to be delayed and limited to accommodate one’s “career”; but increasingly it is avoided altogether. Of course, while Chelsea Clinton inanely tells us abortion adds to the GDP (what was that Neil Kinnock quote that doomed Biden’s 1988 Presidential bid?), she of course made sure her DNA was in the gene pool.
One of my coworkers, who became a mother in her thirties commented on the various sophistries she formerly subscribed to-including “quality time”, noting that when the little tyke decides to take that first step, you are either there or you are not-and if you aren’t there all the time, you have no idea whether the first step you see is the true first step.
Of course, since work isn’t a end in itself, but a means to an end, it never truly satisfies the innate human longings -I always laugh when I hear about “glass ceilings”, knowing my grandfather’s ceilings were a mile of coal, dirt and rock that often dropped on their fellows and they must be laughing from their graves at people complaining about the indignities of comfy, climate controlled offices.
You don’t seem to have any basis for your theory that mother hood is treated with contempt. Your co-worker sounds like she is not anti-mother hood. Your coal miner father story, while charming in a “I had to walk uphill both ways in the snow to school” way, has nothing to say about the topic.