The adventure of the translation of the relics of St Monica

By Josef Sciberras
Secretary of the Historical Institute of the Order of St Augustine

In the year 387, Saint Monica, an extraordinary figure of early Christianity and mother of Saint Augustine, passed away in Ostia Tiberina. For centuries, her tomb remained in Ostia. The most valuable archaeological evidence from that period is the metrical eulogy (a eulogy in verse) composed by the consul Anicius Auchenio Basso. A fragment was discovered on a tombstone in 1945, in the courtyard adjacent to the present-day church of Sant’Aurea in Ostia, where it had possibly been reused in a medieval burial. This discovery confirmed the actual original location of the saint’s tomb in that very cemetery area.

The discovery of the relics

Unlike St Monica’s tomb, her relics have an entirely different history. With the location of the tomb having been forgotten, and a dubious translation of the relics in the 12th century by a canon from Arrouaise – who is said to have stolen the body and taken it to France – having been ruled out, the real historical turning point came in April 1430. The monks of the Order of the Hermits of St Augustine, backed by the humanist Andrea Biglia and thanks to the support of the papal sacristan Pietro Assalhit, an Augustinian, obtained permission from Pope Martin V of Genazzano to search for and recover the saint’s remains.

Thus, a group of friars travelled to Ostia, where, thanks to a local resident’s guidance, they located the remains beneath the altar of the church of Sant’Aurea, and the Order requested their transfer to Rome. On Palm Sunday 1430, Monica’s remains arrived in Rome amidst miracles and expressions of great devotion. Initially, they were placed in the church of San Trifone, the original Augustinian settlement in the Campo Marzio area. There they remained for twenty years, watched over by the light of silver lamps donated by the devotion of the first Augustinian Tertiaries, pious women who drew inspiration from Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine.

The translation to the Roman Basilica of St Augustine

Their final resting place was established in 1455, under Pope Callixtus III, when the relics were solemnly transferred to the Basilica of St Augustine. Maffeo Vegio spearheaded the project, financing the chapel and the funerary monument sculpted by Isaia da Pisa. The original monument consisted of a marble sarcophagus with gilded bas-reliefs depicting the translation of the relics, surmounted by the splendid recumbent statue of the saint, which can still be seen today on the left-hand wall of the chapel.

A deep devotion flourished around this altar, fuelled in particular by the “cinturate” of the Confraternity of the Belt – that is, lay men and women who united themselves spiritually with the Order of the Hermits, wearing, as a sign of this union, the long leather belt that forms part of the habit of the Augustinian friars and nuns – who donated a splendid silver reliquary head adorned with precious stones, which was unfortunately lost during the Napoleonic confiscations.

The recognition of the mortal remains

Another significant milestone occurred between 1758 and 1760, when the interior of the Basilica of St Augustine underwent major restoration work directed by Luigi Vanvitelli. This work required the dismantling of the fifteenth-century sarcophagus and the relocation of Monica’s body beneath a new altar.

On this occasion, on 1 August 1760, a solemn and documented notarial inspection of the relics was carried out, in the presence of Cardinal Vicar Antonio Maria Erba Odescalchi and Don Agostino Onorante, custodian of the sacred relics. The report drawn up describes the operations carried out in minute detail. Once the ancient walnut coffin had been unsealed, those present noted that there were two distinct layers inside. In the first layer, the bones of several holy bodies were found; however, upon reaching the bottom of the coffin, beneath a precious fabric covered with ashes and decorated with bands of turquoise, the second layer emerged. Here, laid to rest alongside a quadrangular plate and a lead medallion bearing the name ‘Monica’ engraved in Roman and Gothic script, lay the remains of the Saint.

The Chapel of Saint Monica

The precious relics were reassembled, wrapped in cloth and placed in a new lead casket lined with brass, bearing a commemorative inscription soldered onto it and sealed with sealing wax by Cardinal Odescalchi. The friars and the cardinal vicar, singing the liturgical hymns for the saint’s feast day, carried the urn to the new altar of the Chapel of Saint Monica.

The casket was placed in a peperino urn inlaid with green patina, surmounted by a marble lid bearing the inscription: Hic iacet corpus s. matris Monicae – “Here lies the body of the holy mother Monica”. Above the altar was hung the new painting by the Faenza artist Giovanni Gottardi, depicting the Madonna della Cintura or della Consolazione – the heavenly patroness of the Hermit Order – as she hands the sacred belt to Augustine and Monica, depicted to the right and left of the Madonna enthroned with the Child.

‘Mother’ of the Order of St Augustine

The translation of the relics to Rome was not merely a tribute of filial piety on the part of the Augustinians. By taking the remains of the mother of their spiritual father into their care, the Order was able to proclaim itself before the whole world as the legitimate heir and ‘son’ of the man from Hippo; and Monica, elevated to ‘holy mother’ of the Order, became the focal point of intense pastoral and devotional activity, embodying the ideal model of feminine holiness, especially for those who kept her veneration alive. As Father Robert Prevost, then Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine, recalled in a homily in Košice on 27 August 2005, “Saint Monica gave her heart to her son Augustine and, through her example and her prayer, played an essential part in Augustine’s own conversion to the Catholic faith”.

Standing today before her tomb in the Roman basilica, the faithful—who are also invited to offer their own hearts as a gift—venerate not only a Mother of the Early Church, but the beating heart of a spiritual family which, for centuries, has recognised in her a root of its identity and, through her, a source of grace in the person of the great Father Augustine, who was himself converted by her prayers and tears.

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