St. Augustine's Prayer for His Mother, St. Monica: A Prayer for All Souls' Day
Today is All Souls' Day, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, and it opens November, the month the Church devotes to praying for the holy souls. One of the oldest and most moving Christian prayers for the dead was written by St. Augustine for his own mother. St. Monica died at Ostia in the year 387, shortly after his conversion, and asked only one thing of her sons: "Lay this body anywhere... this only I request, that you would remember me at the Lord's altar."
Some years later, in Book IX of his Confessions, Augustine kept that promise. Although he believed his mother had lived a holy life, he still prayed for the forgiveness of any sins she carried, and he asked his readers to remember her at Mass. His words, given below in excerpt, are a model for praying for our own parents and loved ones: grateful, honest, and full of trust in the mercy of Christ.
The Prayer
I therefore, O my Praise and my Life, God of my heart, laying aside for a while her good deeds, for which I give thanks to Thee with joy, do now beseech Thee for the sins of my mother. Hearken unto me, I entreat Thee, by the Medicine of our wounds, Who hung upon the tree, and now sitting at Thy right hand maketh intercession to Thee for us. I know that she dealt mercifully, and from her heart forgave her debtors their debts; do Thou also forgive her debts, whatever she may have contracted in so many years, since the water of salvation. Forgive her, Lord, forgive, I beseech Thee; enter not into judgment with her. Let Thy mercy be exalted above Thy justice, since Thy words are true, and Thou hast promised mercy unto the merciful. May she rest then in peace with the husband before and after whom she had never any... And inspire, O Lord my God, inspire Thy servants my brethren, Thy sons my masters, whom with voice, and heart, and pen I serve, that so many as shall read these Confessions, may at Thy Altar remember Monnica Thy handmaid, with Patricius, her sometimes husband, by whose bodies Thou broughtest me into this life, how I know not.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
See also: Prayers for the Dead: All Souls' Day and the Month of November, Prayer for All Souls Day, and The De Profundis.
Source: The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book IX, chapter 13, translated by E. B. Pusey (Oxford, 1838), excerpt. Public domain. Ellipses mark omitted words.
For November, pray with the Prayers for the Holy Souls booklet, a printable PDF of prayers for the dead, $4.99.
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