Saint Who?
Saints Who Lost Loved Ones
Saint Augustine
Bishop and Doctor († 430) Feast: August 28
“I closed her eyes; and there flowed a great sadness into my heart…. I was left destitute of so great comfort in her, my soul was stricken.” Augustine of Hippo spent his youth pursuing worldly success and pleasure. His mother, Saint Monica, prayed fervently for him, and was overjoyed when Augustine turned from sin and confusion to the fullness of Christian truth. Augustine was baptized and started a small religious community.
Monica joined him, and they lived together happily for a few years after his conversion. During this time, he observed, she loved him and his companions as though she were the mother of all, and served them as though she were the child of all.
Monica died when she was fifty-six and Augustine was thirty-three. Augustine was devastated, but struggled to restrain his tears in testimony of his confidence in God. At last, he gave them vent, pouring out his tears to the Lord. “Little by little did I bring back my former thoughts of your handmaid, her devout conversation towards you, her holy tenderness and attentiveness towards us, which was suddenly taken away from me; and it was pleasant to me to weep in your sight, for her and for me, concerning her and concerning myself…for your ears were near me.” Augustine died in 430.
Compassionate Father, through the intercession
of Saint Augustine, help us to weep
with those who weep.
