<pre><strong>The Life of Saint Monica</strong>
CHAPTER I
HOW ST. MONICA WAS BROUGHT UP BY CHRIS
TIAN PARENTS IN THE CITY OF TAGASTE
ON the sunny northern coast of Africa in the
country which we now call Algeria stood, in
the early days of Christianity, a city called
Tagaste. Not far distant lay the field of
Zama, where the glory of Hannibal had
perished for ever. But Rome had long since
avenged the sufferings of 1 cr bitter struggle
with Carthage. It was the ambition of
Roman Africa, as the new colony had been
called by its conquerors, to be, if possible,
more Roman than Rome. Every town had
its baths, its theatie, its circus, its temples,
its aqueducts. It was forbidden even to
exiles as a place of refuge too much like
home, said the authorities.
It was about the middle of the fourth cen
tury. The Church was coining forth from her
13
I 4 ST. MONICA
long imprisonment into the light of day.
The successor of Constantine, in name a
Christian, sat on the Imperial throne. The
old struggle with paganism, which had lasted
for four hundred years, was nearly at an end,
but new dangers assailed the Christian world.
Men had found that it was easier to twist the
truth than to deny it, and heresy and schism
were abroad.
In the atrium or outer court of a villa on
the outskirts of Tagaste an old woman and
a young girl sat together looking out into the
dark shadows of the evening, for the hot
African sun had sunk not long since behind
the Numidian Mountains, and the day had
gone out like a lamp.
" And the holy Bishop Cyprian ?" asked
the girl.
" They sent him into exile," said the old
woman, " for his father had been a Senator,
and his family was well known and powerful.
At that time they dared not put him to death,
though later he, too, shed his blood for Christ.
It was God s will that he should remain for
many years to strengthen his flock in the trial."
THE MARTYRS OF AFRICA 15
" Did you ever see him, grandmother ?"
asked the girl.
