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Church history might seem to suffer from "dead white male syndrome," but mothers have been central figures in the Christian tradition ever since Mary told Gabriel, "May it be to me as you have said." Some of the most notable Christian mothers have been celebrated for praying fervently for their children, modeling faith, and training their children up in the way they should go.

Probably the best known Christian mother from antiquity is Monica (331-387), a monumental figure in her son Augustine's autobiography, Confessions. Mother of three children, wife of a difficult man, she longed to secure every good thing for Augustine. Early in his life, this meant sending him to the best schools, advancing his career, and protecting him from a socially disadvantageous marriage. Later, she devoted herself to a different goal: drawing her son into the kingdom of God by whatever means necessary.

Monica had much to worry about regarding her son's spiritual health. He stole pears from a neighbor's tree, delighting in the evil of the act. He pursued his lusts heartily. He valued erudition over holiness. He fell under the sway of Manichaeism, a dualistic philosophy opposed to Christianity. More than once he ran off, largely to escape his mother's pious pressures.

When Augustine would not listen to her, Monica could only pray and weep for her wayward boy. In Confessions, Augustine recalled a mother who "wept to [God] for me, shedding more tears for my spiritual death than other mothers shed for the bodily death of a son." Eventually Monica brought her concerns to a Christian bishop, Ambrose, who assured her, "It cannot be that the son of these tears should be lost."

After years of supplication, Monica's prayers were answered. Augustine embraced Christianity and came to appreciate fully his mother's spiritual labors on his behalf. She lived to see him become a priest and died in peace, having told him, "There was one reason, and one alone, why I wished to remain a little longer in this life, and that was to see you a Catholic Christian before I died. God has granted my wish and more besides."

Monica's example inspired many Christian mothers in the Middle Ages. Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373), married at age 13 to a pious nobleman, bore eight children before she was widowed. One of those children, a son named Bengt, fell ill in his youth. Fearing that her sins had caused her son's condition, she cried out to God. She received reassurance that the illness had natural causes, and she was confident upon Bengt's death that he had gone to heaven. His brother Karl, however, posed a bigger challenge.

Karl, the black sheep of the family, caused his mother no end of anxiety. As she wept and prayed for him, she had a vision of her son standing before Christ, with Mary and an angel representing his defense and the Devil representing the prosecution. The Devil tried to damn Karl with a sack full of his sins, but the sack disappeared, then the Devil forgot what the sins were, and finally he forgot the sinner's name. The angel, vaguely echoing Ambrose, explained that Karl, who was known in heaven as "the son of tears," was already forgiven.

Perpetua (182-203), a well-born young wife in Carthage, had recently given birth to her first child when she was swept up in a severe persecution of Christians. Her father pleaded with her to renounce her faith, for the sake of her own life and that of her child, but she refused. Eventually Perpetua was brought into the arena to be mauled to death by wild beasts. According to the famous account of her martyrdom, just before her death she admonished the believers in the crowd, "Stand fast in the faith." It is not known what became of her child or the rest of her family, but her legend inspired countless other suffering Christians.

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