What is perseverance?
If we look up this term in the dictionary, we find that it is constancy and firmness in pursuing one's goals or in keeping faith with one's purposes; it is the strength to continue on the path taken or in the chosen conduct.
In Catholic moral theology, perseverance is seen as a virtue that commits man to fight for the achievement of good, without succumbing to obstacles and without being overcome by fatigue and despair. These are precisely the virtues of Saint Monica, celebrated on August 27 and considered today not only the Holy Patroness of mothers, married women and widows, but also the Patron Saint of all those women who, with strength, will and perseverance want to lead their family to God.
Find out who Santa Monica was and dedicate to her the beautiful prayer at the bottom of the article.
Painting representing St. Monica. Source: catholic.org
Who was Saint Monica?
Everything about the life of Santa Monica is reported, for the most part, in the Confessions of St. Augustine, her son, with whom she often exchanged considerations on Christianity. Saint Augustine, of course, owed everything to his mother Monica: not only his life, but also his own conversion to Christianity.
Monica was born into a Christian family and, unlike many of her peers, she had the opportunity to study. The Holy Bible, in fact, soon became one of his favorite books.
Very young, she married a certain Patrick, authoritarian, unfaithful and not at all Christian as she was.
She spent her life, therefore, between tears of pain for her condition and incessant prayers, for the conversion of her husband and children. The first fruits of her devotion came when her husband Patrick decided to get baptized and convert, but the following year he died, leaving Monica, only 39, to manage the wealth of the family.
Precisely because of her condition first as a bride, then a mother, then a widow, she is considered the patron saint of these three conditions, typically feminine.
Patron Saint of Perseverance
Her son Augustine, although he said he drank the Name of Jesus with his mother's milk, was giving her a really hard time.
Although educated in Christianity by his mother, he decided to abandon God, for another doctrine, and to take his brother with him, choosing worldly pleasures.
Monica was forced to tell him not to come back home and, when she decided to embark for Italy, she tried to follow him, suffering yet another affront from her son: Augustine left her alone in Carthage. With a lot of patience and perseverance that have always characterized her character, the Saint did not give up and continued to pray, pray and pray so that her children would find the right path. Some time later, Monica joined Augustine in Milan.
Here she found him, disappointed about the previously chosen doctrine, and began attending the school of St. Ambrose.
From there began the conversion of the son and of all the rest of the family: apparently, Monica's prayers had achieved their purpose!
It is precisely for this reason, for her innate patience and perseverance that Saint Monica is the saint to whom Christians refer who find themselves having to fight a hard battle and feel the strength to abandon them.
Prayer to St. Monica
If you too would like to dedicate a prayer to Santa Monica to give you strength and perseverance, say this beautiful prayer to the one who can understand you more than anyone else.
dear Santa Monica,
and I ask for your assistance and intercession with God.
for the sake of my son (mention his/her name), who has strayed from the faith and everything we have tried to teach him.
but to God, and that God often allows this to err as part of the path leading to him.
Eventually, he found faith and believed, becoming a true teacher.
for my son's sake.
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