Sub Tuum Praesidium
We Fly to Thy Patronage
The most ancient prayer to Our Lady, fleeing to her protection in every danger and need.
Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genetrix.
Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus,
sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper,
Virgo gloriosa et benedicta.
We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of God;
despise not our petitions in our necessities,
but deliver us always from all dangers,
O glorious and blessed Virgin.
Translation source: fisheaters.com/prayers.html
About this prayer
The Sub Tuum Praesidium, "We fly to thy patronage," is the oldest known prayer addressed to the Blessed Virgin Mary. A fragment of it survives on an Egyptian papyrus in the Greek tongue, dated by many scholars to about the third century, a witness that already in the age of the martyrs the faithful invoked Mary as the holy Mother of God and fled to her protection. It stands therefore as ancient proof of the Church's confidence in her intercession, long before that title was solemnly defined at the Council of Ephesus in 431.
Short and trusting, the prayer runs to Our Lady's protection, begs her not to despise our petitions in our necessities, and asks deliverance from every danger. The Church has long woven it into her worship: in the Divine Office, in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and as a ready antiphon throughout the year. The saints have commended it as a sure refuge in temptation and trouble, a few words by which the soul casts itself wholly upon its Mother.