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Monica and Augustine at Ostia · Part 2 · ROME, 28 August 2013 AD

Pope Francis, over St. Monica's relics, preaches St. Augustine's three restlessnesses

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Saint Monica
A fresco panel of St. Monica, an older woman in a dark habit and white veil, standing with hands folded in prayer against a gold-toned background.
St. Monica, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli on a pillar of the apsidal chapel of Sant'Agostino in San Gimignano, Italy, 1464-1465 AD.

ROME, 28 August 2013 AD — Pope Francis celebrated the Mass opening the General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine on Wednesday evening in the Basilica of Sant’Agostino in Campo Marzio, where St. Monica’s relics have rested since 1430 AD. Eighty-three capitulars had gathered, on St. Augustine’s feast.

He preached on one word from the first page of the Confessions, naming three: “the restlessness of spiritual seeking, the restlessness of the encounter with God, the restlessness of love.” Under the third he turned to St. Monica.

“How many tears did that holy woman shed for her son’s conversion! And today too how many mothers shed tears so that their children will return to Christ!” He quoted the bishop’s answer — “it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish” — and St. Monica’s words at Ostia, “cumulatius hoc mihi Deus praestitit,” in the Vatican rendering, “my God has exceeded my expectations abundantly.”

He ended: “And Augustine was Monica’s heir, from her he received the seed of restlessness.”

About this story

Catholic Saints News tells the lives of the saints as news from their own time and place. This story was written with AI from the historical record, and we read and approved it before it ran.

The Saints' words. This newspaper will never make a saint say something the historical record does not preserve.

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Image. St Monica (on the pillar), Benozzo Gozzoli, 1464-1465 AD, Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano, Italy — see the original.

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A painted still life of a wooden desk holding a large open handwritten codex, a reed pen in a small inkpot, hinged wax tablets and a lit clay oil lamp, with a bare hand resting on the open page and a wicker basket of books beneath.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of a buon fresco on lime plaster, from the paper's reference portrait based on Sant'Agostino nello studio (Saint Augustine in his Study) (Sandro Botticelli, c. 1480; photograph by Sailko, CC BY 3.0, Church of Ognissanti, Florence) View source artwork.

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