Dutch 
English 
Chinese 
Arabic 
Spanish 
Portuguese 
Russian 
French 
Italian 
German 
Japanese 
Continue reading with a subscription
Get unlimited access to all our premium content and exclusive features.
Enjoy unlimited access, cancel anytime.
Samenvatting
- Monica is not in the Bible and its origin is genuinely uncertain — North African, possibly Berber, with later guesses at Latin monere en Griekse monos.
- Almost everything known about Monica of Hippo comes from her son’s Belijdenissen, which describes her frankly rather than piously.
- She prayed for Augustine for something like seventeen years, during most of which nothing happened and she had no way of knowing anything would.
- Her most specific prayer was refused: she asked that he not go to Rome, and going to Rome led him to Milan and to Ambrose. Augustine says the denial was how the larger request was granted.
- The biblical pattern is not that persistence extracts a yes. Hannah was accused of drunkenness while praying, and Paul asked three times and was told no.
Bibliografie (Klik om te tonen)
Sources: Augustine, Confessions, Books III and IX, for Monica’s life, the bishop’s reply and Augustine’s own comment on the refused prayer about Rome. The origin of the name Monica is unresolved; the Latin monere and Greek monos derivations are later proposals and are presented as such. Scripture quotations from the NIV via BibleGateway (Luke 18:1; 1 Samuel 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 12:8-9).
