Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet

Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet, Saint Augustine was a Father of the Church whose writings were very influential to the development of Western Christianity. He is the patron saint of Augustinians. He was born in 354 but was not baptized until 387. In his youth, Augustine was hedonistic.

He ran with a crowd of experienced boys who would often boast of their sexual exploits. The younger boys, like Augustine, were pressured to have their own sexual exploits in order to fit in. This was when St. Augustine uttered his now famous prayer: “Lord grant me chastity and continence but not yet.”

He did have a thirteen-year affair with a woman from Carthage who eventually bore his son. He abandoned her upon his conversion when his son was seventeen years old.