Saint Augustin | Page 9

she was a girl very reserved and cold to all
appearances (in reality, she was very passionate), precise in attending
to her religious duties, even a little strict, with her exaggeration of the
Christian austerity in her hate of all the brutalities and all the careless
morals that paganism condoned. Nevertheless, this rigid soul knew how
to bend when it was necessary. Monnica had tact, suppleness, and,
when it was needed, a very acute and very reasonable practical sense of
which she gave many a proof in the bringing up and management of her
son Augustin. This soul, hard for herself, veiled her uncompromising
religion under an unchangeable sweetness which was in her rather the
work of grace than a natural gift.
There can be little doubt that her behaviour and character greatly
disturbed Patricius at the beginning of their married life. Perhaps he
regretted the marriage. What use had he for this nun alongside of him!
Both of them must have suffered the usual annoyances which always
appeared before long in unions of this kind between pagan and
Christian. True, it was no longer the time of Tertullian, the heroic
century of persecutions, when the Christian women glided into the
prisons to kiss the shackles of the martyrs. (What a revenge did woman
take then for her long and enforced confinement to the women's
apartments! And how outrageous such conduct must have seemed to a
husband brought up in the Roman way!) But the practices of the

Christian life established a kind of intermittent divorce between
husbands and wives of different religion. Monnica often went out,
either alone, or accompanied by a faithful bondwoman. She had to
attend the services of the Church, to go about the town visiting the poor
and giving alms. And there were the fast-days which occurred two or
three times a week, and especially the long fast of Lent--a grievous
nuisance when the husband wanted to give a dinner-party just on those
particular days! On the vigil of festivals, Monnica would spend a good
part of the night in the Basilica. Regularly, doubtless on Sundays, she
betook herself to the cemetery, or to some chapel raised to the memory
of a martyr who was often buried there--in fact, they called these
chapels "Memorials" (_memoriæ_).
There were many of these chapels--even too many in the opinion of
austere Christians. Monnica went from one to another carrying in a
large basket made of willow branches some pieces of minced meat,
bread, and wine mixed with water. She met her friends in these places.
They would sit down around the tombs, of which some were shaped
like tables, unpack the provisions, and eat and drink piously in honour
of the martyr. This was a residue of pagan superstition among the
Christians. These pious _agapæ_, or love-feasts, often turned into
disgusting orgies. When Augustin became Bishop of Hippo he had
considerable trouble to get his people out of the habit of them.
Notwithstanding his efforts, the tradition still lasts. Every Friday the
Muslem women keep up the custom of visiting the cemeteries and the
marabouts. Just as in the time of St. Monnica, they sit around the tombs,
so cool with their casing of painted tiles, in the shade of the cypress and
eucalyptus. They gobble sweetmeats, they gossip, they laugh, they
enjoy themselves--the husbands are not there.
Monnica made these visits in a really pious state of mind, and was far
from trying to find in them opportunities for lewdness or carouse. She
was content to drink a little wine very carefully--she always bore in
mind her youthful sin. Besides, this wine weakened with water that she
brought from the house, was tepid by the time she reached the cemetery;
it would be a drink of very moderate relish, little likely to stimulate the
senses. She distributed what was left of it among the needy, together
with the contents of her basket, and came back modestly to her house.
But however staid and reserved she might be, still these outings gave

rise to scandalous talk. They annoyed a suspicious husband. All the
Africans are that. Marital jealousy was not invented by Islam.
Moreover, in Monnica's time men and women took part in these funeral
love-feasts and mingled together disturbingly. Patricius got cross about
it, and about a good many other things too. His old mother chafed his
suspicions by carrying to him the ugly gossip and even the lies of the
servants about his wife. By dint of patience and mildness and attentions,
Monnica ended by disarming her mother-in-law and making it clear
that her conduct was perfect. The old woman flew into a rage with the
servants who had lied to her, and denounced them to her son. Patricius,
like a good head of a household, had them