“... The biography of Monnica in the second half of book 9 is also a fitting recapitulation in the sense that the story of her life is treated in the same way as the story of Augustine’s life in the first part of the Confessions, namely as a paradigm of God’s action in the life of man. For example, like Augustine’s childhood sins, Monnica’s love of wine as a child becomes a paradigm for sin in general, expressed by generalizations in 9.8.18: Qui modica spernit, paulatim decidit [‘He who despises small things gradually comes to a fall’ (Ecclus 19:1)]; and Numquid valebat aliquid adversus latentem morbum, nisi tua medicina, domine, vigilaret super nos? absente patre et matre et nutritoribus tu praesens, qui creasti, qui vocas, qui etiam per praepositos homines boni aliquid agis ad animarum salutem. Quid tunc egisti, deus meus? unde curasti? Unde sanasti? Nonne protulisti [...] durum et acutum ex altera anima convicium tamquam medicinale ferrum ex occultis provisionibus tuis et uno ictu putredinem illam praecidisti? [She could have had no strength against the secret malady unless your healing care, Lord were watching over us. When father and mother and nurses are not there, you are present. You have created us, you call us, you use human authorities set over us to do something for the health of our souls. How did you cure her? How did you restore her health? You brought from another soul a harsh and sharp rebuke, like a surgeon’s knife, from your secret stores, and with one blow you cut away the rottenness]. ...”