Wednesday, August 27
St. Monica. Icon by Lu Bro.
Mothers Know Best
A blessed St. Monica's Day to all and sundry, especially Andy on his birthday and confirmation name day (well, in pectore, at least). St. Monica of Tagaste is living proof that a persistent mother is always heard, by both God and her son: her prayers and supplications after seventeen years of sadness and struggle finally led her son, St. Augustine, to become a Catholic after a long stretch as a Manichee (a long stretch in which he even fathered an illegitimate child, Adeodatus, who later was himself canonized). She also secured the conversion of her pagan husband, Patricius, who died shortly after being baptized in much happiness. St. Monica herself overcame many problems of her own, including what seems to have been a youthful addiction to alcohol, as well as the insults of her servants and finally perservered to attain the crown of heaven as the prize of all her sufferings. She is, among other things, patroness of alcoholics, victims of verbal abuse and disappointing children.
Rather interestingly, yesterday (not today as I thought) in the Carmelite calendar, was the Feast of the Transverberation of the Heart of St. Teresa of Avila. I feel bad I missed the bus. Today is also the feast of the Persian St. Anthusa, who was sewn into a sack and thrown into a well. Also today we remember St. David Lewis, a priest-martyr of the Titus Oates plot in England; as well as the Welsh hermit St. Decuman; St. Margaret the Barefoot, another patient mother and husband; St. Ebbo of Sens; Bl. Ebbo of Hamburg; Bl. Dominic of the Mother of God, a Passionist apostle to ninteenth-century England; and St. Gebhard of Konstanze, who has the singular attribute in art of a skull wearing a papal tiara. Today was also recalled in some calendars the spurious "Little Saint Hugh" of Lincoln, the less said of whose legend, probably the better. He is not to be confused of his full-size counterpart, St. Hugh of Lincoln, who was a bishop who had a pet goose who liked to eat from the sleeve of his robe.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
