Mélancolie de la Beauté. L’hymne à Pulchritudo de saint Augustin

Abstract

In Book X of his Confessions, Augustine calls God Pulchritudo, “Beauty”. This “Beauty” is invoked at a point in his book where we move from biographical elements to a series of philosophical and theological treatises on Creation and Time. Creatures possess beauty, only the Creator is beauty in himself, free of disharmony, and only He can grant access to His beauty. This irruption of Pulchritudo lighting up his memoirs gives Augustine’s life a new meaning. This is where he confesses his transgressions, through hymns of praise, and eventually through a life marked by the longing to eventually meet Beauty. There is great melancholy in the Confessions which the hymn to Pulchritudo gives both the tone and the key to understanding to.