27 August - Monique, born in 332 in Thagaste in the Roman Empire, now Souk Ahras in Algeria and died in 387 in Ostia, is a Christian of Berber origin. Her son, Augustin, one of the greatest Christian theologians, paid vibrant homage to her, particularly in his Confessions

It is known that Monique was twenty-three years old when she gave birth to Augustin, her first-born, but it is not known at what age she married his father, a pagan named Patricius. He was a good, affectionate and open-minded man: not only did he let his wife raise their son in an intense climate of Christian faith, but he even ended up enrolling in the catechumenate around 370, and was baptised some time before he died. However, throughout his life, he retained a pagan mentality and was inclined to anger and libertine. Monique virtuously endured the shortcomings of this fickle husband, bearing the suspicions of her mother-in-law and the gossip of the servants.

As early as 369, Monique felt that her son was drifting away from her, both spiritually and morally. When he took charge of a concubine. But it was much worse when Augustin began to frequent the Manicheans. In his Confessions, he would later evoke his mother's sadness at that time, and note that two facts, however, encouraged her not to despair: on the one hand, a strange dream, in which a luminous being commanded a weeping Monique to banish all fear; on the other hand, a conversation with a bishop, who would have dismissed her with these still famous words: it is impossible for this son of so many tears to perish. In the meantime, he left for Rome without his mother's knowledge, who joined him a few months later in Milan. There, Monique learned, probably in June 385, that Augustin had renounced Manichaeism. She met Saint Ambrose. The relationship between mother and son having improved, they came, for the first time, to envisage a possible marriage which, in Monique's mind, would decisively push Augustin to be baptised. At the end of a long intellectual journey, leading to a scene that is both simple and supernatural, the young rhetorician feels the last inner obstacles to his conversion fall away and runs to bring the good news to his mother, who finds herself at the height of her joy.

Augustin was baptised in Milan by Ambrose, on the night of 24th to 25th April 387. Once the baptism was celebrated, Augustine resolved, at the end of September, to return to Africa, probably at the prayer of Monique. When they arrived in Ostia, the mother and son could not embark immediately. While they were waiting to leave Lazio, Monique fell ill and died after nine days, on 13th November 387, at the age of fifty-six.