Was St Monica an 'Irish mother'?
St Monica , Luis Tristán de Escamilla 1616 [ Web Gallery of Art ] I posted the following four years ago on Bangor to Bobbio and two years ago here. I thought it might be of interest to the newer contributors to and readers of Catholic Women Bloggers and so I'm posting it again here on the feast of St Monica: The second reading in the Office of Readings for the feast of St Monica (332-387) always brings a smile to my face and leads me to ask, ‘Was St Monica an “Irish mother”?’ St Augustine’s brother had said to their mother when she was dying that it might be better if she died in her homeland in north Africa, rather than in Italy. The extract from St Augustine’s Confessions goes on: But as she heard this she looked at me and said: ‘See the way he talks’. And then she said to us both: ‘Lay this body where it may be. Let no care of it disturb you: this only I ask of you that you should remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be’. ...
