St Monica

Mothers of Priests
by Rev Fr Robert Quardt, SCJ

This book praises mothers responsible for their sons' priestly vocation: the mothers of Saint Bernard and Saint John Bosco; Alice Rolls, mother of ten religious; the mother of Pope Saint Pius X; the mothers of Lu, that town of 4,000, who gave 500 sons to the priesthood in 50 years. What are the dispositions which characterize mothers of priests? Includes indulgence prayers for vocations.

Booklet, size 8.5" x 5.3", 57 pages

Heroes of God's Church
by Rev P. Henry Matimore

The purpose of this beautiful book is to acquaint our children with biographies that will have some particular influence on the development of their characters. Each story has been planned as a real character training project, not merely as a reading lesson, to inspire admiration for faith and religious heroism.

"To accomplish this purpose, we have endeavored to stimulate interest in each saint by presenting him or her as a real human being who lived in a real world among real people and not as a super-being surrounded by miraculous wonders. We have tried to make the saints human, admirable, and lovable, and therefore imitate-able." (from the Foreword). Questions and Things to Do are found at the end of each story.

St Cecilia	St Sebastian of Rome	St Agnes of Rome	St Monica	St Patrick
St Columba	St Boniface	St Thomas of Canterbury	St Francis of Assisi	St Hedwig
St Hyacinth	St Louis IX	St Gertrude	St John Nepomucene	St Joan of Arc
St Thomas More	St Franis Xavier	St Aloysius	St Vincent de Paul	St Issac Jogues
St Gerard Majella	The Cure of Ars	St Theophane Venard	St Damien of Molokai	St Therese of Lisieux

Ages: 9 - 12

Paperback, size 5.8" x 8.2", 302 pages

Saint Monica (C. 332-387)
Model of Christian Mothers
by F. A. Forbes

No one can love quite like a mother, as the Virgin Mary attests. And no one quite imitated the Mother of God's sorrowful love of her sinful children as much as St. Monica, whose daily tears for her son Augustine bore the fruit of a magnificent Doctor of the entire Church and a pillar of the Latin tradition. Truly, St. Monica was a suffering mother, even a martyr for the cause of her son's salvation; and as the Blessed Mother Mary is the cause of our salvation by giving birth to God the Word, so is Monica the mother of many souls in Christ by giving birth to the great Father Augustine, whose teachings have saved many.

Born in 333 to Berber Christian parents in North Africa, St. Monica married a pagan Roman official of the town of Tagaste. He seems to have been a cruel husband, but St. Monica bore her suffering with patience and ministered to other unhappy wives in the city. She had three children, the oldest of whom was Augustine. For a long time, Monica's pagan husband held out against their baptism. While Augustine was away studying at Carthage, however, the first fruits of Monica's tears blossomed: her husband became a Christian. He soon died, and St. Monica vowed to be a celibate widow and not remarry. However, her son Augustine was to cause her more pain than her husband ever had.

When he returned from Carthage, Augustine was a Manichean heretic, which sent Monica into tears of woe that persisted for seventeen years while he languished, moving between lustful living and heretical teachings. She followed him to Rome and then to Milan, a beleaguered and mournful mother crucified by the impious infidelity of her son. At last, under the auspices of St. Ambrose of Milan, she saw her son converted and even baptized after almost two decades of his waywardness. Soon after, she died in Ostia on the return trip to North Africa, exhausted by her years of supplication finally fulfilled. Her cult took a long time to become popular, but her relics eventually found their way to the Basilica of Saint Augustine in Rome.

In this short biography of an illustrious saint, find the moving and inspiring story of a mother so dedicated to her Faith and to her son that she spent her life in tears for both. Those tears were not in vain, and they produced bountiful fruit in due season.

Paperback, size 7" x 4.25", 115 pages, 4 Illus

1" Oval Medal - Die-cast Italian Silver Oxidized