The vision that St. Augustine and St. Monica share in the port city of Ostia is represented by another window in the St. Thomas of Villanova Church.  Augustine and his mother Monica are depicted holding each other’s hands.  Monica is sitting reading what is presumed to be a Bible, while Augustine is standing by her side.  Augustine’s head is bowed, while Monica’s hand is raised to the heavens as if each were praying to God.  The holiness of their vision is represented by the halos around their heads and the triangle their two figures and the window above them make, evoking the trinity. They share this vision while looking out of a window, over a garden, into Ostia.  In a sense, Augustine and his mother look outside of themselves and into a different world, the divine.  
The vision in Confessions

Augustine's account of the vision that he and Monica experience at Ostia demonstrates the important role that Monica played in his conversion and in his life.  While in Ostia, he and his mother discussed what the life of a saint would be like, together looked inward for the answer, and ultimately “arrived at the summit of [their] own minds; and this too [they] transcended” (9. 10 .24).  After the vision ended, Monica said to Augustine, “For my part, my son, I find pleasure no longer in anything this life hold.  What I am doing here still, or why I tarry, I do not know, for all worldly hope has withered away from me” (9. 10 .26).  She had made it her sole purpose to guide Augustine and help him to accept Christ.  For her, things on this earth were no longer important to her; God is all that she loves.  She continued by saying, “One thing only there was for which I desired to linger awhile in this life: to see you a Catholic Christian before I died” (9. 10 .26).  Augustine, baptized and able to see, has fulfilled her final desire.  Together they had made this journey to God, though they had taken slightly different routes.  Augustine needed his mother throughout, and this image in the window signifies the strength and importance of their relationship
The significance to our lives as students

The image of Augustine and Monica in Ostia closely correlates with Villanova students, especially during their transition into college.  The window in the St. Thomas of Villanova Church invites Villanova students to analyze their lives throuhh it, as Augustine viewed his through the window in the picture.  Father Joe Farrell, O.S.A., explained: “It is a window to the soul, going outside of oneself…leaving the senses behind.   You feel it in the air, everything is left behind, you’re on the edge of perfection, then come back to reality.”  He related this experience to education, which should involve learning about life and self reflection.  The image is conducive to developing a personal style of prayer and to searching oneself.   It is maturity, like Augustine’s, that allows someone to transcend above what is perceived, and see the deeper vision of the serene, aesthetic garden. Christine Quisenberry, Assistant to the President for Events at Villanova University, also elaborated on the vision from a different perspective, pertaining to the college experience and the learning process of independence. She explains that as students leave their parents, they leave behind their early dependency and form a more mature “emotional dependency.”  This is illustrated in Augustine's account of his own life.  When Augustine leaves Monica and then reunites, it is with an “emotional dependency, rather than physical dependency.”  Augustine's vision at Ostia embodies the college experience and the changes in dependency and the relationship with parents that occur, while emphasizing unconditional love.  The image represents the bond between students and their parents, as well as a source for self reflection and development, which defines its importance to Villanova students.