In the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church, we commemorate two remarkable women this week. On Monday, St. Monica, the mother of Augustine of Hippo. On Friday, May 8, Julian of Norwich. I will post on Julian later, but tonight, a word about Monica. Scholars suspect that she was of North African ethnicity, perhaps Berber, because of her name. She married a Roman citizen Patricius, and among their children was the greatest theologian in the history of Western Christianity. In his Confessions, Augustine says a great deal about his mother. She was a Christian and devoted to the piety of North Africa. A remarkable woman, she clearly did everything in her power, both to promote her son, and to try to make him a Christian. Their relationship was difficult at times–he reports that when he left Carthage, he did so secretly to avoid a dramatic scene. After his conversion, the dialogues he wrote based on the time he spent in Cassiacum, depict her as full of wisdom and insight. One of the most deeply moving passages in Confessions is his accound of their last conversation. A version of it is available here.

This passage is interesting because it may be the only time in all of Augustine’s voluminous writings where he seems to describe mystical experience. That aside, it is the only example I know in the history of Christianity where an author describes a mystical experience shared by two people.