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Hey there, Sprouts.

Today is Friday, August 27th, 2021.

It is also the feast day of St. Monica.

And tomorrow is the feast day of her son, St. Augustine of Hippo.

Now, this week, we have concluded our study of the beatitudes by looking at the eighth and final beatitude, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness

sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We have explored the life of St. Rose of Lima,

St. Louis, King of France,

looked at the gift of suffering and how the Christian life is a battlefield and also examined whether we are chasing honor in this world or God's honor. Now today we're going to wrap

things up by looking at two incredible saints in their biography,

the saints that we are celebrating today and tomorrow, Saints Monica and her son, Augustine.

Now, St. Monica was a mother. She was a devoted mother. She lived in the 300s, and she lived in the very

top of Africa, very northern part of

Africa, which at the time was part of the Roman Empire. In fact, she married a well-known Roman

official who happened to be pagan. He was not Christian. And this was just at the very beginning

of the time when the Christian faith was accepted

in the Roman Empire.

So even though she was married to this man and he respected her, he did not treat her very

well.

In fact, he was not true to his marriage vows, and he was probably even a little bit abusive to St. Monica,

but they had children, and one of those children was St. Augustine.

However, his early life was not very saint-like.

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