O Mira Gratia (“Amazing Grace” in Latin)

Nancy Llewellyn Renders a Spiritual Classic into Latin

[Editor’s note: “Amazing Grace” was written by the Abolitionist priest and pamphleteer John Newton (1725–1807), who had worked in his youth in the slave trade. He wrote against slavery in his pamphlet “Thoughts Concerning the Slave Trade” (1788), and was one of England’s most influential abolitionists who helped secure England’s abolition of slavery in 1807. This Latin translation of the English language’s most famous hymn is by Nancy Llewellyn, who wrote it in honor of her friend David Morgan, a beloved friend of the Classics community, who died in 2013 at the age of 53. It was one of David’s favorite hymns. For more information about David Morgan, read here.]

O MIRA GRATIA / AMAZING GRACE (John Newton) (tr. Llewellyn)[1779]

O mira quanta gratia

Redemit reum me.

Erranti luxit placida

Blanda mirifice.

Timori cordis tribuit

Gratum remedium.

Quam pretiosa apparuit

Credenti praemium.

Quod magna tot pericula

Iam salvus passus sum

Id Gratiae retribuam

Quae ducet me domum.

Promisit bona Dominus;

Firmavit Verbo spem

Qui scutum et dispendium

sit meum dum spirem.

Et quando corpus anima

Solvetur, denuo

Post mortis iam velamina

Vitam possidebo.

Cum saecula viderimus

Ut sol splendentia

Nos modo peregerimus

Laudum initia.