Monica's Thirty-Year Prayer

For thirty years, Monica of Tagaste wept and prayed for her wayward son. Augustine was brilliant, restless, and determined to live on his own terms. He took a mistress at seventeen, fathered a child outside marriage, and dove headlong into Manichaeism — a philosophy his mother considered spiritual poison. Monica never stopped knocking. She sought out Bishop Ambrose in Milan, begging him to reason with Augustine.…