Orthodox Icon of Santa Monica

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May 17th
Troparion
In your mercy, Lord, you received the tears of Holy Monica as she wept for her son. Through the intercessions of both mother and son, give us grace to weep for sin and obtain your forgiveness.

St. Monica was born in 332 in a small North African town by the name of Tagaste. Her parents were devout Christians. She became a virtuous young woman with a strong prayer life. She desired to devote her life to the service of God through monasticism, but with obedience to her parents, she married the man they chose for her. Patricius, her husband, was an ill-tempered pagan twenty-two years older than she. Patricius became annoyed with her constant prayer, fasting, and caring for the poor and slaves. He was guilty of infidelity, which plagued St. Monica and helped create a sense of loneliness in her newlywed household. These hurdles only served to strengthen her life in prayer. She bore two sons and one daughter, which she took great pains to raise with Christian diligence and with great success. One of her sons is St. Augustine. Patricius would not allow the baptism of their children. Instead of arguing with Patricius, St. Monica used meekness and devotion to draw her husband closer to God. She believed that when Patricius became angry, the best thing to do would be to obey whatever he asked. Someone said of her that “she had learnt not to resist an angry husband, not in deed only, but not even in word” In so doing, she felt she would be obeying God. “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife” (I Cor. 7:14). With this devotion to her husband, she received no blows during his fits of anger, whereas she knew many other wives of the same time suffered cruel beatings. She eventually won her husband over to God through constant prayer and meek devotion. After sixteen years of marriage, Patricius was finally baptized. One year later Patricius died. St. Monica took comfort that he died a believer in the True Faith. Meanwhile, her son, Augustine, had been caught up in the passions and in the Manichean heresy. She once again devoted herself to persistant prayer to guide her son back to the Faith. It took fourteen years before St. Augustine was brought back to the Faith and baptized. With her family once again and finally brought to the True Faith, St. Monica was content and desired of nothing of this world. After a brief illness in 387, St. Monica died in Ostia on her way back to Africa after the baptism of her son at the hands of St. Ambrose in Milan, Italy. She is revered for her patience and strength in prayer. Many ask for her intercessions concerning wayward children and ungodly husbands.

This icon is by the hand of Nicholas Papas. It is from St. Philip Antiochian Orthodox Church, Souderton, Pennsylvania. Inscription is in Spanish.

Order #phn-203