A Mother Through Her Son's Eyes

The following is lifted from Augustine’s Confessions as presented in a Logos Software acknowledged at the end of the page.  I have annotated it so that it would be easier to read.  The subject of this page is Monica herself, Augustine’s mom.  We know her generally as the mother who suffered on account of her son.  But that is only a part of the picture.  She also had to bear being the wife of a husband who was both unfaithful and violent.  Augustine praises her for having lived with his father Patricius without having her face bashed in like the battered wives in their neighborhood who dared question their husbands’ virtues.  But I wouldn’t expect the woman of our times to accept Monica’s strategy.  Submissiveness, specially to husbands, is not considered a virtue nowadays.  Augustine also writes about his mother’s ways towards her mother-in-law and her attitude towards the neighborhood gossips.  In the end, Monica won her husband to the Church and her own wayward son.