The Little Drunkard

St. Monica’s son, converted in part thanks to her prayers and tears, became St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the four great Western Doctors of the Church. His greatest works are The Confessions, detailing the story of his conversion, and The City of God.

St. Augustine and St. Monica

St. Monica’s body is entombed under the altar of a side chapel in the Church of St. Augustine in Rome, just to the northeast of Piazza Navona.

The tomb of St. Monica. The text reads, “Hic iac. corpus S. M. Monicae. S. Monica ora pro nobis,” meaning, “Here lies the body of (the holy mother) Monica. St. Monica pray for us.”

This is listed as the tomb of St. Monica in some places online, but it’s not. This is a sculpture to the left of the altar where St. Monica is enshrined.

The text on this stonework is interesting, though. The text is

IC XC

Sepulchrum ubi B. Monicae corpus apud Ostia Tiberina annis MXL iacuit ob in eo edita in eius translatione miracula ex obscuro loco in illustriorem transponendum filii pientiss curarunt anno salutis MDLXVI

The IC XC is a Christogram, a symbol that represents Christ (much like the Chiro, the P and X symbol).

The rest of the text reads,

In the year of salvation 1566, her most pious sons had the tomb where Blessed Monica lay at Ostia Tiberina for 1040 years transferred from its obscure location to a more distinguished one on account of the high miracles on it in its transportation.

For the Latin nerds, curarunt is short for curaverunt, pientiss is short for pientissimi, and curare with the gerundive means “have something done” (thanks to Sebastian Koppehel on Latin Stack Exchange for his help here).