CATHOLIC C. 1264 AD

Adoro Te Devote

Also known as Godhead Here in Hiding · I Devoutly Adore Thee · Hidden God

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore, Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more, See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art. Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived: How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed; What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do; Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true. On the cross thy godhead made no sign to men, Here thy very manhood steals from human ken: Both are my confession, both are my belief, And I pray the prayer of the dying thief. I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see, But can plainly call thee Lord and God as he: Let me to a deeper faith daily nearer move, Daily make me harder hope and dearer love. O thou our reminder of Christ crucified, Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died, Lend this life to me then; feed and feast my mind, There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find. Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican; Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom ran, Blood whereof a single drop has power to win All the world forgiveness of its world of sin. Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below, I beseech thee send me what I thirst for so, Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light And be blest forever with thy glory's sight.
Amen.

Other forms

Latin (Adoro Te Devote)

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas, Quae sub his figuris vere latitas; Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit, Quia te contemplans totum deficit. Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, Sed auditu solo tuto creditur. Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius; Nil hoc verbo veritatis verius. In cruce latebat sola Deitas, At hic latet simul et humanitas; Ambo tamen credens atque confitens, Peto quod petivit latro paenitens. Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor; Deum tamen meum te confiteor. Fac me tibi semper magis credere, In te spem habere, te diligere. O memoriale mortis Domini! Panis vivus, vitam praestans homini! Praesta meae menti de te vivere, Et te illi semper dulce sapere. Pie pellicane, Jesu Domine, Me immundum munda tuo sanguine. Cujus una stilla salvum facere Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere. Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio, Oro fiat illud quod tam sitio; Ut te revelata cernens facie, Visu sim beatus tuae gloriae. Amen.

About this prayer

The Adoro Te Devote is one of the four Eucharistic hymns composed by Saint Thomas Aquinas around 1264 for the newly instituted feast of Corpus Christi. Pope Urban IV had charged Aquinas with creating the liturgical office for the new feast; he composed four hymns and a sequence that together constitute one of the great achievements of medieval Latin religious poetry. The Adoro Te Devote was written for private devotion rather than for liturgical singing, and it has remained one of the most beloved private prayers of Catholic devotion ever since.

The prayer's theme is the paradox of the Eucharist: Christ is truly present under the appearances of bread and wine, but the senses cannot detect this presence. Sight, touch, and taste are 'deceived' (in the prayer's word); only hearing, attending to the words of Christ himself, can apprehend what is really there. The believer responds with the faith that 'Truth himself speaks truly or there's nothing true.' The prayer then traces the Christian's relationship to the Eucharistic Christ through several biblical references: the penitent thief on the cross, the apostle Thomas, the pelican (medieval symbol for Christ's self-giving), and the longing for the beatific vision.

The English translation included here is by the 19th-century English Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889), who translated the prayer in 1878. Hopkins's translation is widely regarded as one of the finest English versions of any medieval Latin hymn, preserving Aquinas's theological precision while rendering the Latin into Hopkins's characteristic English rhythms. Hopkins died in 1889 and his translation is in the public domain.

When it's said

Used as a private prayer of Eucharistic adoration, particularly during periods of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament in Catholic churches. Recited or sung at Holy Hours, before or after the reception of Communion, and during personal prayer in the presence of the reserved Eucharist. Some Catholic religious orders use it as part of their daily office on Corpus Christi and during its octave. Less commonly sung at Mass than the other Eucharistic hymns of Aquinas (Pange Lingua, Verbum Supernum, Sacris Solemniis), it has remained primarily a private devotional prayer.

Notes on the text

Aquinas (1225-1274) composed the Adoro Te Devote at the request of Pope Urban IV when the feast of Corpus Christi was instituted in 1264. The four Aquinas Eucharistic hymns (Pange Lingua, Sacris Solemniis, Verbum Supernum, Adoro Te Devote) together with the Lauda Sion sequence constitute the complete liturgical poetry of Corpus Christi and are considered some of the finest medieval Latin religious verse. The image of the 'tender Pelican' (pie pellicane) refers to the medieval bestiary tradition that the pelican wounds its own breast to feed its young with its blood. The bird had become a standard Christian symbol for Christ's self-giving in the Eucharist by the 13th century. Aquinas uses the image not as natural history but as iconography familiar to any 13th-century Christian reader. The Hopkins translation deliberately uses 'godhead' and 'manhood' (rather than 'divinity' and 'humanity') to preserve the Anglo-Saxon weight that Hopkins felt was missing from earlier Victorian translations of medieval Latin.

Common questions

Did Thomas Aquinas really write the Adoro Te Devote?

Yes. Aquinas's authorship of the Adoro Te Devote is well-attested in the historical record. Pope Urban IV commissioned him to compose the liturgical poetry for the new feast of Corpus Christi in 1264, and Aquinas produced four Eucharistic hymns plus the sequence Lauda Sion. The Adoro Te Devote is one of the four; its Aquinas authorship is uncontested by scholars.

What does the 'tender Pelican' image mean?

The image refers to a medieval bestiary tradition that the pelican wounds its own breast with its beak to feed its young with its blood. The bird had become a standard Christian symbol for Christ's self-giving in the Eucharist by the 13th century, when Aquinas wrote the prayer. The 'pie pellicane' (tender Pelican) addressed in the prayer is Christ, asking him to cleanse the sinner with his blood as the bestiary pelican feeds its young.

Why does the prayer say the senses are 'deceived'?

The prayer is reflecting on the doctrine of transubstantiation: Catholic teaching holds that at the consecration of the Mass, the substance of bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Christ, while the accidents (appearances perceived by the senses) remain those of bread and wine. The senses, perceiving only the accidents, report bread and wine; faith, hearing the words of Christ, knows that the underlying substance is now Christ himself. Hence the senses are 'deceived' in the sense that they cannot apprehend what is really present, while hearing the words of Christ apprehends it correctly.

Source

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Adoro Te Devote (c. 1264), composed for the Office of Corpus Christi at the request of Pope Urban IV. English translation by Gerard Manley Hopkins, c. 1878, published posthumously in his collected poems. Public domain.

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Last reviewed: June 2026 against primary source.