Monica: An Ordinary Saint

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Gillian Clark (Professor Emerita of Ancient History and Senior Research Fellow, Professor Emerita of Ancient History and Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol, Bristol)

Monica

An Ordinary Saint

Gillian Clark (Professor Emerita of Ancient History and Senior Research Fellow, Professor Emerita of Ancient History and Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol, Bristol)

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English

Oxford University Press
12 November 2015

Classical history & classical civilisation; Medieval history; Religion & beliefs; The Early Church; Christian theology; Gender studies: women

Series: Women in Antiquity

Rarely did ancient authors write about the lives of women; even more rarely did they write about the lives of ordinary women: not queens or heroines who influenced war or politics, not sensational examples of virtue or vice, not Christian martyrs or ascetics, but women of moderate status, who experienced everyday joys and sorrows and had everyday merits and failings.

Such a woman was Monica-now Saint Monica because of her relationship with her son Augustine, who wrote about her in the Confessions and elsewhere. Despite her rather unremarkable life, Saint Monica has inspired a robust controversy in academia, the Church, and the Augustine-reading public alike: some agree with Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who knew Monica, that Augustine was exceptionally blessed in having such a mother, while others think that Monica is a classic example of the manipulative mother who lives through her son, using religion to repress his sexual life and to control him even when he seems to escape.

In Monica: An Ordinary Saint, Gillian Clark reconciles these competing images of Monica's life and legacy, arriving at a woman who was shrewd and enterprising, but also meek and gentle. Weighing Augustine's discussion of his mother against other evidence of women's lives in late antiquity, Clark achieves portraits both of Monica individually, and of the many women like her. Augustine did not claim that his mother was a saint, but he did think that the challenges of everyday life required courage and commitment to Christian principle. Monica's ordinary life, as both he and Clark tell it, showed both.

Monica: An Ordinary Saint illuminates Monica, wife and mother, in the context of the societal expectations and burdens that shaped her and all ordinary women.

By: Gillian Clark (Professor Emerita of Ancient History and Senior Research Fellow Professor Emerita of Ancient History and Senior Research Fellow University of Bristol Bristol)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 155mm, Width: 234mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 284g
ISBN: 9780199988396
ISBN 10: 0199988390
Series: Women in Antiquity
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 12 November 2015
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Figures ; Chapter 1: Introduction ; Chapter 2: Monica's House ; Chapter 3: Monica's Service ; Chapter 4: Monica's Education ; Chapter 5: Monica's Religion ; Chapter 6: Saint Monica ; References and Resources ; Bibliography ; Index

Gillian Clark is Professor Emerita of Ancient History and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol.

Reviews for Monica: An Ordinary Saint

St. Augustine's mother, Monica, emerges from these humane pages as 'an ordinary woman', who mothered Augustine, his brother and his friends and was a gentle and curious interlocutor in their discussions. But Gillian Clark is also interested in questions like how Monica dressed, and what she did all day. This short and elegant book is also a real tour de force. --Averil Cameron, University of Oxford Gillian Clark is a pioneer who has worked long and sympathetically among the women of late antiquity and what we know of them. Now in this richly-packed and vivid study, she has brought to life Monica of Tagaste. --James J. O'Donnell, Arizona State University