Saint Monica Converted Saint Augustine by Bringing Him to Saint Ambrose, Whom She Had Found!

We are all well aware of the persistent prayers of Saint Monica for her worldly son's conversion. What is much less known, however, is that Saint Monica won her son's conversion also with an active apostolate with her son, hounding him through Italy and finally converting him in Milan through the preaching of Saint Ambrose.

Here is the relevant passage from today's Matins of the Roman Breviary (1962), which last night tipped me off to this important matter of family evangelization! 

"Later he went to Rome and was sent from there to Milan to teach rhetoric. At Milan, he was persuaded by Monica, his most devout mother, to become a frequent listener to the Bishop Ambrose. Ambrose brought it about that Augustine was fired with a desire for the Catholic faith, and baptized him when he was thirty-three years old."

The Latin text says ...suadente Monica! Saint Monica succeeded in persuading Augustine to go listen to Ambrose: that was the victory that sparked the conversion. The active apostolate of the mother (she did not stay home and pray, she prayed and persuaded and orchestrated the greatest opportunities for the final enlightenment of her son). Can we say that it was the rhetoric of the pious mother that first won over the great rhetorician!

Below is the Catholic Encyclopedia's rendition of the same maternal intervention.

"There is no more pathetic story in the annals of the Saints than that of Monica pursuing her wayward son to Rome, wither he had gone by stealth; when she arrived he had already gone to Milan, but she followed him. Here she found St. Ambrose and through him she ultimately had the joy of seeing Augustine yield, after seventeen years of resistance. Mother and son spent six months of true peace at Cassiacum, after which time Augustine was baptized in the church of St. John the Baptist at Milan. Africa claimed them however, and they set out on their journey, stopping at Cività Vecchia and at Ostia. Here death overtook Monica and the finest pages of his "Confessions" were penned as the result of the emotion Augustine then experienced."

Do not neglect to persuade wayward family members to come and meet and hear great Catholic figures, for their conversion! That is how Augustine was converted by his holy mother Monica. Invite people to God! Introduce people to people who will introduce them to God!

You do not have to be a great teacher to convert people. "Here you must distinguish between the instructing of converts and the seeking of them. The former demands knowledge; the latter only zeal." (Frank Duff, Maria Legionis May Jun Jul 2014)