Oratio ad Sanctum Michael
Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel
The Leonine prayer to the great Archangel, defender of the Church against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
Sancte Michael Archangele,
defende nos in proelio,
contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.
Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur:
tuque, Princeps militiae caelestis,
Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos,
qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo,
divina virtute in infernum detrude.
Amen.
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle;
be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
Satan and the other wicked spirits,
who wander through the world for the ruin of souls,
by the power of God, thrust down into hell.
Amen.
Translation source: fisheaters.com/prayers.html
About this prayer
This prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel was composed by Pope Leo XIII and published in 1886. Tradition holds that the Pope, after a vision of the assaults that the powers of hell would loose upon the Church, wrote the prayer and ordered it said throughout the world. From 1886 until the liturgical changes of the 1960s it was recited by priest and people kneeling after every Low Mass, among the petitions known as the Leonine Prayers.
It invokes Michael, whose name means "Who is like God," the prince of the heavenly host who in the Apocalypse casts down the dragon and his angels. The Church begs his protection in the unseen battle against the devil, that by the power of God, and not by any strength of his own, he may thrust Satan and the wicked spirits down into hell. In our own day many of the faithful have taken up again the custom of saying it after Mass and in time of spiritual combat.