Monica, a.k.a. Augustine's Mother

Character Analysis

Monica's job in the Confessions is mostly to cry and beseech God for Augustine's soul. But hey, she does a darned good job at it and it eventually gets her sainthood. In the book, she is the epitome of piety and charity. It's also a wonder that she's not the patron saint of perseverance: one of her more shining moments is when a bishop gets so annoyed with her entreaties to help Augustine, he tells her that "It cannot be that the son of these tears should be lost" (III.12.3).