Monica, the mother of Saint Augustine, also knew, like her son, some annoying habits. For example, she had developed a certain addiction to alcohol. Providence helping, his conscience and his strength of soul freed him from it.
The eldest daughter of a middle-class couple in Thagaste, Monica , born in 331, was brought up the hard way by an old Christian servant girl who found it useful to mortify the senses of children. For example, by forbidding them to drink a glass of water outside mealtimes. It is hot in summer in Numidia, present-day Algeria, and this deprivation cost the child and her sisters. To justify it, the rough educator said:
"Today, you drink water, for lack of wine, but once married, mistresses of the expenditure and the cellar, the water will seem tasteless to you when the habit of drinking will have settled..."
In other words, she thought she was protecting them against the worldly and solitary alcoholism of badly married women who would be bored at home.
The clef of the cave
It was the opposite that happened. The episode is reported to us by his son Augustine , in the Confessions (IX, 8). Monique was about fifteen years old, the time came when the old servant died and was replaced by a servant of the same age as her young mistress, with whom, jealous, she immediately got on very badly. From disputes to disputes, in which, one being a free girl and the other of a servile condition, Monique always has the last word, the servant's hatred towards her continues to grow. She realized it and was suspicious of her.
Around this time, as a sign of confidence, her parents gave Monique the key to the cellar and asked her to go there every day to get the wine for the family meals. After a few days, curious, Monique couldn't help dipping her lips in the drink she had been so warned against. The irresistible attraction of the forbidden fruit...
Roman wine is much heavier, thicker than ours, much more alcoholic too, to the point that it has to be cut, to drink it, with twice its measure of water, which true drinkers are careful not to do. You don't need large quantities to get drunk quickly and hard.
Red with confusion
The first times, Monique finds the few absorbed drops detestable; they make him nauseous and make his head spin. However, day after day, she dips her lips in it and, as the habit comes, the few drops become small sips, then the small sips are big swigs and, soon, whole cups, which she hisses merrily and which put her in a manifest state of drunkenness, which his parents, perfectly indifferent, do not realize. Only the servant, who accompanies him to the cellar to hold the lamp for him, is aware of this shameful inclination. She does not inform her masters, no doubt with the intention of harming Monique more seriously, when the time comes. Now, one midday, as they are both alone in the cellar, and Monique already a little tipsy, they get into a quarrel and the slave,
Her shame was such that she found the strength, and she had to, not to drink a drop of wine.
The insult suddenly sobers her. It is unlikely that a slave would allow herself to speak in this tone to her mistress but, red with confusion, Monique realizes that she has deserved it. She is indeed a little drunkard who hides herself in hiding, rightly exposing herself to the contempt of an insolent servant. Her shame was such that she found the strength, and she had to, not to drink a drop of wine. Thus, with the grace of God, she definitively corrected her vice.