Saint Augustine of Hippo

Late have I loved you

Confessions, X, 27

LatinEnglish

Sero te amavi, pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova, sero te amavi! Et ecce intus eras et ego foris, et ibi te quaerebam, et in ista formosa, quae fecisti, deformis inruebam. Mecum eras, et tecum non eram. Ea me tenebant longe a te, quae si in te non essent, non essent. Vocasti et clamasti et rupisti surditatem meam; coruscasti, splenduisti et fugasti caecitatem meam; fragrasti, et duxi spiritum et anhelo tibi; gustavi, et esurio et sitio; tetigisti me, et exarsi in pacem tuam.

Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! And see, you were within, and I was outside, and there I looked for you; and, deformed as I was, I rushed headlong into the lovely things you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. Those things held me far from you which, unless they were in you, would not be at all. You called, you cried out, and you broke through my deafness; you flashed, you shone, and you put my blindness to flight; you breathed your fragrance, and I drew breath, and now I pant for you; I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst; you touched me, and I burned for your peace.

SourceSaint Augustine of Hippo · Confessions, X, 27

The history of this prayer

St Augustine (354–430) spent his youth seeking truth and happiness away from God. He was converted in Milan in 386, baptized by St Ambrose at Easter 387, and later became bishop of Hippo in North Africa.

Around 397–400 he wrote the Confessions, the story of his soul told to God. In Book X, chapter 27, is this page: God was within him, and he was looking for him outside. St Augustine's feast is on 28 August, the day after his mother, St Monica.

Frequently asked questions

Where is “Late have I loved you” in the Confessions?

In Book X, chapter 27 (paragraph 38 in numbered editions).

Is “Late have I loved you” a prayer?

The whole of the Confessions is addressed to God as a prayer, and this passage has been prayed as such for centuries. The Liturgy of the Hours reads it on St Augustine's feast.

Is “Death is nothing at all” by St Augustine?

No. That text, often read at funerals, comes from a 1910 sermon by Henry Scott Holland, an Anglican canon.

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