ld her and she replied, Bury your mother here. Augustines brother asked his mother if she would rather be buried in her home country, and at one point she wanted to be buried with her husband, but then changed her mind. When she died, Augustine tried hard to hold back his tears. I closed her eyes and an overwhelming grief welled into my heart and was about to flow forth in floods of tears. But at the same time under a powerful act of mental control my eyes held back the flood and dried it up. The inward struggle put me into great agony. Augustine knew that his mother was not in a state of misery or was suffering, so he felt it was not necessary to imply sorrow at the funeral. After Monicas death, Augustine questioned why he felt so much grief. It must have been the fresh wound caused by the break in the habit formed by our living together, a very affectionate and precious bond suddenly torn apart. I was glad indeed to have her testimony when in that last sickness she lovingly responded to my attentions by calling me a devoted son. With much feeling in their love, she recalled that she had never heard me speak a hard or bitter word to her. When Monica told Augustine that he had never spoken harsh words to her, Monica is saying that she is grateful that Augustine did not take his fathers traits as in the verbal abuse his mother received. Later on Augustine did weep to God, crying openly about Monicas death. While writing the Confessions, it may be viewed that Augustine was very careful describing the deaths of their parents. When Augustine was writing the Confessions, he was no longer a Manichee. If Augustine wrote in detail of his fathers death, as he did with Monicas death, it may have been viewed to the readers that Augustine still had views of dualism, from Manicheism. Augustines father was a pagan and his mother was a total opposite, a Christian, causing an excellent example of a dualism. However, while both parent...
