Monnica
Monnica religiosissima, ut scis, femina
Interea post paululum dies sese aperuit; surrexerunt illi [Licentius et Trygetius], et ego illacrimans multa oravi, cum audio Licentium succinentem illud propheticum laete atque garrule: Deus virtutum, converte nos; et ostende faciem tuam, et salvi erimus (Psal. 79.8). Quod pridie post cenam cum ad requisita naturae foras exisset, paulo clarius cecinit quam ut mater nostra ferre posset, quod illo loco talia continuo repetita canerentur. Nihil enim aliud dicebat, quoniam ipsum cantilenae modum nuper hauserat, et amabat, ut fit, melos inusitatum. Obiurgavit eum religiosissima, ut scis, femina, ob hoc ipsum quod inconveniens locus cantico esset. Tunc ille dixerat, iocans: Quasi vero si quis hic me inimicus includeret, non erat Deus exauditurus vocem meam. De Ordine I.viii.22.
FOR THE CURIOUS
Licentius was with Augustine at Cassiciacum outside Milan in the fall of 386 and winter of 387. Together with others, he studied liberal arts under Augustine’s guidance and participated in philosophical dialogues there. We get a glimpse of Licentius’ sense of humor here and of Augustine’s affection for him.
It’s Monnica’s day in the Catholic Church. Instead of putting something from the Confessiones, I wanted to share this amusing passage of Monnica getting upset at Licentius for singing in the bathroom. It is not easy to know how to hear this religiosissima, ut scis, femina, for religiosus, in previous centuries, had a negative connotation and the superlative would not have been a compliment: “she’s quite a superstitious woman, you know” or “she’s a woman with a lot of religious scruples, you know.” In Augustine, superlatives are not always superlatives, but here there is an emphasis on excess, but he’s sharing with his friend Zenobius the knowledge of her, so I am inclined to see it as affectionate: “you know what a stickler she can be.” (Reminds me of one of my grandmother’s – in an affectionate way).
Augustine wrote the De Ordine to a certain Zenobius, of whom we know very little. He might have been the brother of poor Dioscorus whom Augustine scolded for his vainglory in learning (see the end of Ep. 117 for the mention of Zenobius becoming Magister Memoriae; Ep. 118 for the scolding). If Dioscorus’ brother is the same Zenobius as the addressee of de Ordine, we can go by the date of his letter to Augustine to date his appointment as Magister Memoriae – one of the three secretaries in the imperial administration – to at least a decade after Augustine wrote the de Ordine. The best-known Magister Memoriae today is Eutropius, whose summary of Roman history, the Breviarium Historiae Romanae, he dedicated to the emperor Valens.
I know of no writer before Augustine who wrote of his mother like Augustine did of his. Her name is well known now, but “Monnica” appears only once throughout his works. It is in his Confessiones where he asks that God inspire his fellow Christians to remember her “at your altar.”
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