Chapter 13. Her Praiseworthy Care in Raising Her Son

¹ What more shall I say? Bearing a child is a good thing, and raising a child well is praiseworthy and pleasing to God, sufficient for a mother’s own salvation, if we are to believe Paul, who promises that mothers are saved through their careful raising of children in self-control. And who has guided a child’s uncertain years with such dignity? Who has set over a child so many tutors—some to refine his speech, some to train his mind, some to furnish him with knowledge of history, but all of them, in every case, bringing something to the young man’s formation? You blush at these praises, O dove of the Lord, both beautiful and perfect; and it is for that very reason that you are the more worthy of praise. For the one to be commended is not the one who hunts after praise—that one is a braggart—but rather the one who shrinks from it; for that one is a true philosopher.