Never downplay your role as a mother who pours herself into raising up children in Christ. I have noticed a very common theme in many of our beloved church fathers of the past who grew up to profoundly love the Lord—many attributed their faith to their mother’s selfless and loving devotion to them when they were children. 

While the Lord can undoubtedly save any person whether they had devout mothers or not, it is encouragingly notable that many of the most influential figures in Christian history directly credited their mother’s deep and persistent faith and nurture as the bedrock of their own faith.

Here are a few of my favorites of these accounts…

1 Saint Augustine (354-420 AD)—one of the most notable early church fathers—credits his mother on several occasions to his coming to faith. In his Confessions, Augustine writes of his rebellious heart of his younger days. He reflects on his mother, Monica, who committed her attention solely to her children. She often responded to Augustine’s rebellious heart with prayer and fasting, pleading with the Lord to transform her son’s heart and draw him to Christ. 

By the Lord’s grace He allowed Monica to witness her answered prayers when Augustine repented of his sins, was baptized, and committed himself to Christ just months before she died. After her death, Augustine wrote of his mother reading the Psalms to him as a child and how precious those memories were to him:

“She was walking readily in the path in which I was yet feeling my way. She is now gone from my sight, who for years had wept over me, that I might live in God’s sight.”

2 John Chrysostom (?-407 AD)—our dearly beloved early church father and one of the greatest preachers of the 4th century—attributed much of his love for the Lord to his dedicated mother, Anthusa. Anthusa was widowed at the age of 20, and rather than remarrying, she chose instead to devote herself to raising and teaching her two children, John and his sister. John wrote that his mother “not only taught her children to know and love the teachings of Scripture, but also her very life was a model of biblical teaching.”

While not much else is known about Anthusa, it is known that she had great positive influence on her son’s spiritual life, through whom would have remarkable influence on the church for all history.

3 Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)— early devout and highly influential church father—was deeply influenced by his mother, Aleth. He would write of her guidance and loving devotion throughout his formative years being a significant factor in shaping his life. He was deeply affected by her death, marking it as the moment his spiritual transformation began.

4 Philip Doddridge (1702-1751), an English minister and hymn writer, was the twentieth child born to his mother, Monica. His nineteen prior siblings had died in infancy. When Philip arrived, he appeared stillborn. Monica pleaded for God to give life to her son, and when she heard her baby Philip cry out during her prayer, she dedicated herself to raising him up in the Lord. 

As a young child he would sit on his mother’s lap at the fireplace which was lined with tiles illustrating the history of the Bible. Philip would forever remember his mother using these tiles to teach him the story of Scripture. 

Philip was later orphaned as a child, but his mother’s devotion to him was a foundation he clung to. After his mother’s death, he wrote in his diary, “God is an immortal Father, my soul rejoices in Him. He hath hitherto helped me and provided for me. May it be my study to approve myself a more affectionate, grateful, and dutiful child.”

Philip would grow up to be head of a seminary in Northampton, England. His chapel sermons and powerful prayer life impacted students for 22 years and beyond. Throughout his adulthood he often reflected on his childhood and the loving impact his mother had on him.

5 John Wesley (1703-1791)—hymn writer and evangelist, along with his brother, Charles Wesley—once said of his mother, “I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England.” His mother, Susanna, had 19 children (9 died in infancy), and she devoted herself to educating her children and raising them up in the Lord. She emphasized to them the importance of prayer and studying Scripture. Her husband, Sam, would often leave her with the children for long periods of time—often weeks. With so many children and very little quiet around her, Susanna was known for pulling her apron up over her head to pray. Her children knew this as her signal that she was praying to God and for them not to interrupt. They grew up to always remember this of their mother, admiring how she withdrew to God under her apron for renewed strength, and would return to pour into her children once more.

6 John Newton’s (1725-1807) mother, though physically weak and chronically bedridden, was spiritually strong and devoted herself to teaching John catechisms, hymns, and Scripture from the time he was just a toddler. Though Newton fell away from the faith as a young man, his mother’s teachings would turn him back to Christ. Newton became a slave ship captain, and one day during a life-threatening storm at sea, he recalled his mother’s teachings of Scripture and he cried out to God to save him. God delivered him from the storm, and Newton repented and dedicated the rest of his life to serving Christ, writing some of our most beloved hymns such as Amazing Grace (which lyrics contributed to Parliament banning the slave trade). 

7 William Cowper (1731-1800)— the blessed hymn writer (There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood) had deep affections for his loving mother as a child. He was the fourth child to be born to his parents. His three siblings died, then his mother died while giving birth to their fifth, when William was 6 years old. The loss of his dear mother was a sorrow to him from which he’d never recover. When as a teenager someone sent a picture to him of his mother, William wrote a deeply heartfelt poem in tribute to her. The entirety of it is long, but here are a few lines…

“Oh that those lips had language! Life has pass’d.

With me but roughly since I heard thee last.

Those lips are thine—thy own sweet smile I see,

The same that oft in childhood solaced me.

…

The meek intelligence of those dear eyes

(Blest be the art that can immortalize,

The art that baffles time’s tyrannic claim to quench it) here shines on me still the same.

…

My mother! When I learn’d that thou wast dead, say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed?

Hove’d thy spirit over thy sorrowing son,

Wretch even then, life’s journey just begun?

Perhaps thou gav’st me, though unseen, a kiss;

Perhaps a tear, if souls can weep in bliss—

Ah that maternal smile! it answers—yes.

…

Short lived possession! but the record fair,

My memory keeps of all thy kindness there,

Still outlives many a storm that had effac’d

A thousand other themes less deeply trac’d.

Thy nightly visits to my chamber made,

That thou might’st know me safe and warmly laid;

The fragrant waters on my cheeks bestow’d

By thy own hand, till fresh they shone and glow’d.

All this, and more endearing still than all,

Thy constant flow of love, that knew no fall,

All this still legible in mem’ry’s page,

And still to be so, to my latest age,

Adds joy to duty, makes me glad to pay,

Such honours to thee as my numbers may.

8 Hudson Taylor (1832-1905)— a missionary to China who Christ used to lead thousands to Himself—was once a rebel and scoffer of the faith. Hudson’s mother, Amelia, during a visit to her sister, once locked herself in her room for hours, pleading to God that He would save her son. Her intense prayer grew to such a degree that she determined not to leave her room until she was assured God would answer her prayer. Soon enough, her pleading turned to praise as she thanked God for unhardening her son’s heart. 

Back at home out of boredom Hudson skimmed through his father’s library and came across a gospel tract with the title “The Finished Work of Christ.” Through this and his mother’s prayers, Hudson came to understand Christ’s sufficient work on the cross and fell to his knees praising God, at the very time his mother was doing the same thing in her room, miles away.

9 Charles Spurgeon’s (1834-1892) mother spent hours on her knees pleading with God to save her rebellious son. Spurgeon would grow up to be known as the “Prince of Preachers.” He said of his mother, “I am sure that, in my early youth, no teaching ever made such an impression upon my mind as the instruction of my mother; neither can I conceive that, to any child, there can be one who will have such influence over the heart as the mother who had so tenderly cared for her offspring.”

10 W.P. Mackay (1839-1885)—beloved Scottish doctor, Presbyterian minister, and hymn writer—was poured into by his Christian mother as a child, but went astray as an adult. Her tender devotion to him, however, would one day prove invaluable.

His mother had given him a Bible when he was young, but he sold it as a teen. Years later when Mackay was a doctor, a dying patient was brought to him. His patient’s only request was for his landlord to bring him “the Book.” Mackay regularly visited this patient before he died, and noted the man’s “quiet, almost happy expression constantly on his face.” When the man died, the nurse asked Mackay what they were to do with his book. In Mackay’s testimony he writes, “I asked, ‘What kind of book is it?’ The nurse answered, ‘It is the Bible of the poor man…As long as he was able to read it, he did so, and when he was unable to do so anymore, he kept it under his bed cover.’ I took the Bible and—could I trust my eyes? It was my own Bible! The Bible which my mother had given me when I left my parents’ home, and which later, when short of money, I sold for a small amount. My name was still on it, written in my mother’s hand…

With a deep sense of shame I looked upon the precious Book. It had given comfort and refreshing to the unfortunate man in his last hours. It had been a guide to him into eternal life, so that he had been enabled to die in peace and happiness. And this Book, the last gift of my mother, I had actually sold for a ridiculous price.

Be it sufficient to say that the regained possession of my Bible was the cause of my conversion.”

Mackay would later write, “My dear mother had been a godly pious woman, quite often telling me of the Savior, and many times I had been a witness to her wrestling in prayer for my soul’s salvation.”

–

In a society that says a woman’s value is in what she does outside the home, may these precious accounts be a reminder that a woman’s work in the home is invaluable. May these accounts (which is not an exhaustive list) be an encouragement to mothers of whom the world claims aren’t doing anything with their lives.

Our work may not be seen. Our names may not be remembered. But the eternal value of our work—of tenderly and intentionally giving our time and energy and ourselves to teaching and raising our children in the way of the Lord—is immeasurable.

Who knows the next Augustine or Cowper or Spurgeon (or one who will remain humbly unrenowned) we are raising who will rise up and exalt the name of Christ and remember their mother whom in their childhood daily showed them His love and truth and worth. There is no greater reward than this.

“I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in truth.”

-3 John 1:4