With empathic perception and psychological finesse Bernet retraces the destiny of a fervent mother and an audacious woman of the first centuries of the Church. Monica was the mother of Augustine, doctor of the church, whose genius has engaged history for centuries. She was born into a middle-class family of Thagaste, a modest town in Numidia, North Africa, in 331. Her story would have sunk into the oblivion of anonymity like those of her contemporaries...