You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints.

This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an Apostolate helping Catholics understand, live, and share their faith.

I'm Tim Gray, President of the Augustine Institute, and joining me is one of our professors, Dr. John Seahorn.

And this is St. Monica, who is the mother of St. Augustine.

And she's an amazing, amazing saint in the life of the church.

And she's also an inspiration to many of us.

You know, if you're a parent, especially all the moms out there, if you're worried about your child, well, you know, Monica is your patroness. She had a worry about,

she was a devout Catholic, and she had a troublesome husband and a troublesome son. And she

praised them both into heaven. And it's really quite amazing. Her story, her example, her model,

and I've just moved by St. Monica.

And we have a special devotion to her here at the Augustine Institute, not only because she's the mother of St. Augustine, but we also have a relic that was given to the Institute early on

of St. Monica. And that was a really, I felt, a sign of Augustine's favor and care for us to send us this relic of his mother,

and that we can go to her. I was just down at Mass and praying to St. Monica and to the relic.

We have a relic of St. Augustine. We have them right next to each other in the chapel.

And then we have a beautiful picture of a scene from the confessions where Augustine and book 9 relates this conversation right before his mother passes away. She was pretty strong and hearty and her health declined suddenly. And before that happened, just days before that happened,

he had a conversation with his mother about what would heaven be like?

And that the good things of this earth,

as beautiful and good as they are,

are nothing compared to the good things of heaven

and to be with God and to enjoy the beatific vision.

So they had this incredibly long conversation as they were looking out a window over these gardens.

And so here they are in Ostia, John, you know, as Augustine depicts it, in this beautiful port city.

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