Having finished his studies, Augustine returned to Thagaste.
There he began to teach grammar, living in the house of Romanianus, a prominent citizen who helped since the death of his father and whom Augustine had converted to Manicheanism. (In the year 390 at the time of his own ordination to Catholic priesthood, Augustine wrote for Romanianus his work, De vera religione ("About the true religion") in his desire to draw Romanianus back from Manicheanism to Christianity.)
Monica deeply grieved the heresy of Augustine, who was the subject of so many of her continual prayers.
For a time after he returned from his studies in Carthage, she refused him, his de facto partner and their son a place in her home. Only a vivid dream altered her decision.
In this dream, she saw a radiant being approach her as she was bewailing the spiritual ruin of Augustine, her son.
This angel told her be consoled, because where she was her son also would be.
Augustine suggested to Monica that this might be predicting a loss of faith by his mother.
But she instantly rejoined that the words were not "Where he is, there thou shall be." This was nine years before his conversion.
About the same time she received the consolation from a bishop (probably the bishop of Thagaste).
He was wearied by her entreaties that he would reason with Augustine on her behalf.
Finally he told her: "Go, I beg you. The son of so many tears cannot perish." By the time these words proved true, Monica had been praying for the baptism of Augustine for seventeen years
The Manicheanism of Augustine upset Monica, and she would never accept it. She was confident that he would become a baptised Christian, and prayed unceasingly for that to occur.
She was actually to witness it happen in Milan only months before her death in Ostia in the year 387.
(Continued on the next page.)
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