Monica

Saint Monica

Monica was a woman born in northern Africa around 332 AD, still in the days of the Roman Empire.  A Christian woman, she was married at a young age to a non-believing Roman official named Patricius.

Monica determined to set a Christian example for her husband.  Despite his raging temper and propensity to cheat, she prayed for him and for her three children: two sons and a daughter.  Patricius mocked her piety, but allowed her some freedom to attend church and give alms.  Over time, he grew to admire her virtues and became deeply affected by her genuine love for him.  When he grew ill at a relatively early age, Patricius came to faith just prior to his death in the year 370.  Patricius’ mother and two of Monica’s children came to faith shortly after.

Praying fervently for her remaining son, Augustine, Monica was known to weep over his soul.  She later recounted the counsel of one church leader who told her, “the child of those tears shall never perish.”  Augustine chased the trappings of the world and traveled to Carthage to study Rhetoric – the art of public speaking and persuasion.  Enmeshed in Greek Philosophy and captivated by the ‘rock star’ status of a successful Rhetorician, Augustine met a woman with whom he lived and even had a child by that woman, despite Monica’s warnings against fornication.

Taking a teaching post in Rome Augustine moved there, and eventually moved from there to Milan.  He couldn’t outrun Monica though, either her prayers or her physical presence.  In Milan, Monica met the great church father Bishop Ambrose who joined Monica in praying for her son.  Monica’s persistence wore her son down, and he agreed to go with her to church to hear Ambrose – hoping that the famed Bishop could teach him a trick or two of oratory.

Augustine was unimpressed with Ambrose’s skills in rhetoric, but in talking to him was stricken by the deep convictions of Ambrose.  Around the year 387, at the age of 33, Augustine came to faith and was personally baptized by Ambrose.

The two made the decision to travel back to Carthage.  En route, Monica fell ill passed away outside of Rome.  Augustine’s grief over the loss of his mother prompted him to write his autobiography ‘Confessions.’  In that book, he records some of Monica’s last words to him: “Son, for my own part I have no further delight in any thing in this life.  What I do here any longer, and why I am here, I know not, now that my hopes in this world are accomplished.  There was one thing for which I desired to linger for a while in this life, that I might see you as a Christian before I died.  My God has done this for me more abundantly, that I should now see you…become His servant.”

The Catholic Church holds Monica in high esteem, considering her the Patron Saint of homemakers, married women, mothers, abuse victims, alcoholics, and widows.  We hold her in high esteem as a diligent Christian woman, a warrior in prayer, and the mother of one of the great theologians of the early church.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Monica

https://mycatholic.life/saints/saints-of-the-liturgical-year/st-monica-mother-of-st-augustine-august-27/

Katharina Von Bora (Luther)

Katharina Von Bora (Luther)

Around the year 1523 and friend of Martin Luther’s named Leonhard Koppe came to him with a problem.  He had, years ago, committed his daughter to a Benedictine convent at age 3.  Her father missed her greatly and had received some secret communication from her, but had no options to get her back.  Helping a nun to escape, in this part of the world, was a capital offense.

Martin used some contacts to get his friend a job delivering fish to the convent.  There, Leonhard was able to facilitate communication with his daughter, who mentioned there might be some friends who would join her in her escape.  One day, Leonhard drove his wagon into the convent with twelve barrels of herring and drove out with a fugitive nun hidden inside each empty barrel, back to Wittenberg and Martin Luther.  One man in Wittenberg wrote, “A wagon load of vestal virgins has just come to town, all more eager for marriage that for life [itself].”

Leonhard claimed his daughter, and Martin felt a sense of responsibility toward the young women and set about, first to find their families, then finding them eligible husbands.  He married them all off but one, Miss Katharina Von Bora, a feisty redhead who, at age 22, was well beyond the usual age of marriage.  Martin widened and widened the net until two years later he found an elderly widower who would be willing to marry Katharina and give her the security she would need.  Martin took her to meet him and made the formal introduction.  Katarina told Martin, “Sir, this gentleman is not acceptable!”   Still looking at her patron, she continued, “but if YOU were to ask me, I’d say ‘Yes’!”

While Martin had encouraged marriage for ministers, he shunned it for himself, thinking the constant threat of a heretic’s death to be an unfair burden to any woman.  Nevertheless, in the summer of 1525, the 42-year-old former monk married the 24-year-old former nun and the Luther household was born.  Initially, it was a marriage of convenience, Luther writing this his marriage would, “please his father, rile the Pope, cause the angels to laugh, and the devils to weep.”  Martin’s Catholic critics turned their venom on his new bride, one pamphlet calling her a “poor, fallen woman” who had passed “from the cloistered holy religion into a damnable, shameful life.”  Katharina did not seem at all affected by the harsh criticism, and kept her focus on the success of her husband.  Over a short time, the marriage of convenience became one of a deep love and respect for each other.

Katharina, or “my Lord Katie”, as he often called her, stormed into his life, setting his domestic affairs in order: bring order to the finances, seeing to his health, and making certain Martin’s habit of giving money away thoughtlessly didn’t damage the family coffers too badly.  Owing to Martin’s bouts of gout, insomnia, constipation, stones, dizziness, and ringing of the ears, Katharina became very proficient at herbal medicines and massage.  She also had an incredible intellect, respectfully challenging her husband in the areas of theology he was studying.  At such times, he referred to her as “Doctora Lutherin.”  She was a bundle of energy, who harnessed that energy into being a blessing to her husband.

The Augustinian monastery where Martin once stayed was purchased by a nobleman and gifted to the Luthers.  Katharina arranged for boarding of their frequent guests in the rooms, at times being hospitable to 30 guests at a time, supervised planting of the fields, managed an orchard, harvested a fish pond, directed the barnyard, and even slaughtered the livestock.  Martin wrote, “In domestic affairs, I defer to Katie.  In everything else, I am led by the Holy Spirit.”

Katharina found time in all this activity to bear six children, three boys and three girls, born in a span of seven years.  The Luthers also adopted four children.  Their hearts were broken when their daughter Elizabeth died at age 8 months, and again when another daughter, Magdalena, died at age 13.  Martin seemed to take great joy in performing some of the ‘womanly’ tasks for his wife.  He reserved for himself, as often as he was home, the chore of washing diapers.

Katharina also made certain Martin’s personal priorities were in order.  Martin had, while single, seen the marriage covenant as somewhat of a broken institution and preached often on the responsibilities of husbands to take more of an active role in their marriage and domestic life.  ‘Lord Katie’ held him to this standard.  One story is related about Martin locking himself in his study, so enmeshed in his studies that he ignored his family for five days.  After five days, she removed the hinges from the door so the children could storm in.

They were married for 21 years before Martin Luther passed away in 1546.  His wife wrote, “For who would not be sad and afflicted at the loss of such a precious man as my dear lord was?  He did great things not just for a city or a single land, but for the whole world.  Therefore I am truly so deeply grieved that I cannot…eat or drink, nor can I sleep.  And if I had a principality or an empire and lost it, it would not have been as painful as it is now that the dear Lord God has taken from me this precious and beloved man, and not from me alone, but from the whole world.”

Christian History Magazine – two editions on the life of Martin Luther

https://www.visit-luther.com/reformation-heroes/katharina-von-bora/

https://lutheranreformation.org/history/katharina-von-bora-luther/

Mothers

Mothers

The mother of Nero was a murderer. The English Poet, Lord Byron, had a club foot. His memory of his mother was a single instance of her screaming at him, ‘Get out of my way, you lame brat!’ No wonder he turned out the way he did.

In sharp contrast, Paul wrote to Timothy, “For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.” (2 Timothy 1:4). Believing mothers are a blessing! Timothy had that. Samuel had that in Hannah. John the Baptist had that in Elizabeth. Moses had that in Jochebed. Issac had that in Sarah.

In the later years of the fourth century, a believing woman named Monica had three sons and an unbelieving Roman husband, a product of an arranged marriage. She earnestly prayed for these four men. Her husband was converted on his deathbed and two of her sons shortly after. She pursued her third son, literally to the other end of the Roman Empire, praying for him. It was largely through her influence that Augustine came to faith.

Susanna Wesley had nineteen children, and a husband who was largely absent from his family. She made it a rule to attend to her personal devotions daily and devoted an hour per week one-on-one with each child. Two of those children were John and Charles Wesley, who turned the Christian world in England and America on its head.

George Washington was the oldest of five children when, at age 11, his mother was widowed. She committed her life to raising and educating her children. She restrained him as a young man from entering the British Royal Navy, sensing he had some greater purpose. At a reception after the Revolutionary War, in her advanced age, she was introduced to the visiting French dignitaries. At first they were shocked by her simple dress at such an occasion. After getting to know her, though, one French General remarked, “It is not surprising that America should produce great men, since she can produce such great mothers.”

Benjamin Franklin wrote to his mother often, and always referred to her tenderly. In one surviving letter to her, he sent her a gold piece ‘that you may ride warm to (church) meetings during the winter.’

A gray-haired, crippled mother in England prayed earnestly for years for her runaway, wayward son. As a sailor on a slave-trading ship, her son, John Newton, the author of the hymn Amazing Grace, came to faith. John touched many lives, including many who became missionaries and William Wilberforce, largely responsible for the abolition of the slave trade in England.

James Madison was orphaned as a small boy, his mother raised him alone. Alexander Hamilton never know his father. Andrew Jackson once said, “The memory of my mother and her teachings were the only capital I had to start life with; and on that capital I have made my way.”

John Quincy Adams said of his mother Abigail, “My mother was a minister of blessing to all human beings within her sphere of action. Her heart was the abode of heavenly purity. She had no feeling but of kindness and beneficence, yet her mind was as firm as her temper was mild and gentle.”

Sir Walter Scott, inventor of the historical novel and author of Ivanhoe, was influenced strongly by the artistic and literary bent of his mother.

Nancy Lincoln, mother of Abraham Lincoln, set him every Sunday on her knee and read to him from the Bible. She focused often on the Ten Commandments. She died when Abe was nine years old. Her last words to him were, ‘Abe, I’m going to leave you now, and I shall not return. I want you to be kind to your father and live as I have taught you. Love your Heavenly Father and keep his commandments.’ Much later in his life, when asked why he was so honest, he said he could still clearly hear his mother’s voice as she read to him from Exodus 20. He remembered not only that she prayed for him, but the words of her prayers and even the inflection of her voice when she prayed. He said another time, “All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.”

When Ulysses Grant, as President, attended his mother’s funeral, he instructed the preacher, “Make no reference to me: she gained nothing by any position I have filled or honors that may have been paid me. I owe all this and all I am to her earnest, modest, and sincere piety.”

Presidents Rutherford B. Hayes, Grover Cleveland, John Tyler, and James Garfield all lost their fathers in the early years of their lives and depended on their widowed mothers for their life training. When President Garfield was sworn in as President, he broke tradition in that the first thing he did after being sworn in was to walk over and kiss his mother saying, “Mother, you have brought me to this.”

Charles Spurgeon said this about his mother, “I cannot tell how much I owe to the solemn words and prayers of my Christian mother…Some of the words of our mother’s prayers we shall never forget, even when our heads are gray.”

Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt were both very affectionate with their mothers. Wilson had a mind to become a clergyman – until his mother’s discernment prompted him to become a teacher.

Edith Roosevelt, wife of Theodore, greatly expanded the role of First Lady. She entertained dignitaries, answered much of his mail, and advised her husband daily while he was president – all while raising five young children. Late in their lives, during World War I, their youngest son, Quentin, as an aviator was shot down and killed over Germany. The Germans, hoping to put a damper on American morale, photographed the wreck with Quentin’s body and made it into a postcard. Edith honored her son by acquiring one of the postcards, mounting it in a frame, and had it placed it above her fireplace mantle.

President Calvin Coolidge only ever kept one picture on his desk, that of his mother. It was the last item removed from the White House at the conclusion of his term, and was found in his pocket watch, next to his heart, after he died. Winston Churchill’s biographer compiled a list of people who had taught him over the course of his life. When the list was given to him, Churchill instructed the biographer to place his mother’s name at the top of the list. General Douglas MacArthur said this, “It was my sainted mother who taught me a devotion to God and a love of country which have ever sustained me in many lonely and bitter moments of decision in distant lands. To her I yield anew a son’s reverent thanks for her guidance on a path of duty as God gave me light to see that duty.”

Over the course of his life, as lawyer, Congressman, Governor of Ohio, and as President of the United States, on days when William McKinley did not see his mother, he either wrote or telegraphed her – every single day. In October, 1897, the President slipped out of the White House and took a train to Canton, Ohio, for the sole purpose of walking his 87-year-old mother to church. When she became ill later that winter, he had a telegraph hotline set up between her home and the White House. He kept a special train standing by. One night, the telegraph came for him to come. He telegraphed back, “Tell Mother I’ll be there.” That December 12th, she died in his arms. For a full hour after she died, he did not move from her bedside. Less that four years later, when he was dying from an assassin’s bullet, he forgave his assassin as his mother would have expected. He than asked those present to sing his mother’s favorite hymn, “Nearer, my God to Thee.” His body was laid to rest beside his mother’s in Ohio.

Businessman Henry John Heinz, founder of the great food business empire, was greatly influenced by his mother.  At the end of his life, reminiscing on what shaped the person he became, he said, “This legacy was left by my consecrated mother, who was a woman of strong faith and to it I attribute any success I may have attained during my life.” The main source of her teachings centered around the Bible where she tried to make it clear to young Henry, “to not make your religion so narrow that it will be unattractive to others and don’t make it so broad that you leave yourself no foundation on which to stand.”

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, in giving the eulogy for his mother, former First Lady Barbara Bush, said this, “Barbara Bush filled our lives with laughter and joy and in the case of her family, she was our teacher and role model on how to live a life of purpose and meaning…You see, our mom was our first and most important teacher…Finally, the last time I was with her, I asked her about dying. Was she ready to go? Was she sad? Without missing a beat, she said, ‘Jeb, I believe in Jesus and he is my savior. I don’t want to leave your dad, but I know I will be in a beautiful place.’”

The influence of godly mothers is incredible and should not be underestimated.


Great Preaching on Mothers, Hudson, Curtis, Sword of the Lord, 1988.