The Healing Journey

July 2, 2023

“Tears water our growth.”
– William Shakespeare

Most of us have never heard of St. Monegundis. She’s not as familiar as St. Patrick, St. Joseph and St. Ann. Her name means “one who loves the battle,” and she has been venerated almost 1500 years, and the Church observes her feast day on July 2.

A native of Chartres, she married at a young age and gave birth to two daughters, who died in childhood. Her grief was so overwhelming, Monegundis thought her life would end. Because of her deep depression, she asked her husband to let her become a recluse, and she began to fill the emptiness with God’s grace.

She lived alone in a private room in Northern France and later moved to a place close to the tomb of St. Martin of Tours, where she built a hermitage so that others might join her. Tradition says she slept on a mat and only ate bread and water.

This holy woman who tried to assuage her grief in solitude eventually became a true source of spiritual growth for other women who came to visit her, seeking her advice and talking with her through the window of her cell. She served as their spiritual director.

Even though she lost her daughters, she became the spiritual mother of other women, who followed her path to sainthood. In 570, she died of natural causes and over the centuries, miracles were reported at her tomb.

A prayer to her in “Magnificat” says, “Heavenly Father, free those who are trapped by grief. Help them turn to you to find comfort and become vessels of consolation for others.”

St. Monegundis, pray for those who are mourning.

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Have trust that God will fill the emptiness that your grief causes.