St. Augustine was not saint material to begin with. Though gifted with a brilliant mind, he was a womanizer, a rowdy drunk, an occasional thief, and an unbeliever.
Yet, his mother, St. Monica, prayed continually for his conversion. For many years, her prayers seemed to be unanswered. From Carthage to Rome to Milan, St. Augustine pursued only fleeting pleasures, engaged in entangling affairs, practiced the anti-Christian polytheistic religion Manichaeism, and distanced himself from his mother and her devout faith.
As her son risked his eternal soul and dismissed his inheritance of faith, St. Monica could only watch, deeply pained, and continue to pray for her beloved son.
These years of constant prayer were rewarded when one night, St. Augustine heard the soft voice of a child call out to him from the darkness. The voice urged him to “take up and read.”
When he did so, he read a passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, which said:
“Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” (Romans 13:13-14)
The words of St. Paul spoke through the centuries and cut directly to St. Augustine’s heart. Moved by the power of Scripture, St. Augustine began to yearn for truth.
The Conversion of St. Augustine by Fra Angelico
After decades of loss, pain, and disappointment, St. Monica’s prayers were answered. On the Easter Vigil in 387 A.D., St. Augustine was baptized. He became a priest, then a bishop, preached over 6,000 sermons, fought heresies, explained doctrine, became one of the greatest Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and continues to inspire souls through his writings and intercession.
Few express the longing for God and the nature of prayer more beautifully than St. Augustine. You might think his writings are “too deep” for you—but we have a solution! In the book St. Augustine Answers 101 Questions On Prayer, Fr. Cliff Ermatinger gathers Augustine’s teachings on prayer and presents them in a helpful question-and-answer format. What emerges is nothing less than a rich and easy-to-read “catechism on prayer” by one of the Church’s greatest saints! Get your copy today at The Catholic Company!
