The Confessions

The "Confessions" of Saint Augustine is the first and also the most famous autobiography ever written. In it, Augustine, widely considered to be the greatest of the Church Fathers, traces the evolution of his mind and thought from his infancy to his conversion to Christianity and beyond, including memorable events and persons in his life, such as his mother, St Monica, whose prayers and tears over 30 years helped bring about Augustine's conversion, and St Ambrose, whose sermons greatly influenced him as well. This new English translation, based primarily on E. B. Pusey's translation of 1907 as well as the original Latin, combines the best of Pusey's and other older translations along with a significant number of changes, as well as modernization of language when that has been judged to be helpful for the contemporary reader, all the while seeking to maintain the sublime quality of Augustine's discourse. Here is a sample:-- "You have made us for Yourself [O Lord] and our hearts are restless till they rest in You." -- "But I in my great worthlessness ... had begged You for chastity, saying: 'Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.'"-- "Late have I loved You, O Beauty so ancient and so new; late have I loved You! For behold You were within me, and I outside.... You did call and cry to me and break open my deafness: You did send forth Your beams and shine upon me and chase away my blindness: You did breathe Your fragrance upon me, and I drew in my breath and do now pant for You: I tasted You, and now hunger and thirst for You: You did touch me, and I have burned for Your peace."-- "The days were not long enough as I meditated, and found wonderful delight in meditating, upon the depth of Your design for the salvation of the human race. I wept at the beauty of Your hymns and canticles, and was powerfully moved at the sweet sound of Your Church's singing. Those sounds flowed into my ears, and the truth streamed into my heart, so that my feeling of devotion overflowed, and the tears ran down from my eyes, and I was happy in my tears." -- "Why does truth provoke hatred? Why is Your servant treated as an enemy by those to whom he preaches the truth, if happiness is loved, which is simply joy in truth? Simply because truth is loved in such a way that those who love some other thing want it to be the truth, and precisely because they do not wish to be deceived, are unwilling to be convinced that they are deceived. ...They love truth when it enlightens them, they hate truth when it accuses them. Because they do not wish to be deceived and do wish to deceive, they love truth when it reveals itself, and hate it when it reveals them. Thus truth shall reward them as they deserve: those who do not wish to be revealed by truth, truth will unmask against their will, but it will not reveal itself to them. Thus...does the human mind, blind and inert, vile and ill-behaved, desire to keep itself concealed, yet it desires that nothing should be concealed from...