St. Augustine was one of the most remarkable figures of the early Church. In his famous classic, Confessions, Augustine reveals his struggles with temptation as well as his passionate love of God. This work has extracts chosen from his Confessions that express Augustine's wisdom and his mystical yearning for God, as well as his dissolute youth, his ascent to the imperial court in Milan, and his conversion to Christianity at the age of 32.

Lively narrative and colorful anecdotes are interspersed with passages of great poetry in praise of God. In the process of describing his own very human failings, Augustine also gives advice on how to live a committed Christian life. His view that happiness is not to be found in transitory physical pleasure, but in searching for the truth beyond the material world, is more than ever relevant today.

In this first modern illustrated edition of the Confessions, St. Augustine's words are accompanied by beautiful medieval and Renaissance illustrations from manuscripts in the collection from the British Library.