The oldest known prayer to Our Lady
Found on an Egyptian papyrus, c. 3rd century
Sub tuum præsídium confúgimus, sancta Dei Génetrix: nostras deprecatiónes ne despícias in necessitátibus, sed a perículis cunctis líbera nos semper, Virgo gloriósa et benedícta.
We fly to thy protection, O holy Mother of God; despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from all dangers, O glorious and blessed Virgin.
Amen.
SourceThe oldest known prayer to Our Lady · Found on an Egyptian papyrus, c. 3rd century
The John Rylands Library in Manchester holds a small scrap of Egyptian papyrus with this prayer written in Greek (Papyrus Rylands 470). Scholars date it between the third and fourth centuries, which makes it the oldest known prayer to Our Lady. It already calls Mary Theotokos, “Mother of God”, before the Council of Ephesus (431).
It is still prayed in East and West: in the Coptic and Byzantine liturgies and, in the Roman rite, also as a Marian antiphon. From the first centuries Christians turned to Mary's protection in these words.
The Sub tuum praesidium, preserved on an Egyptian papyrus dated between the third and fourth centuries.
In Greek. The Latin version given here is the one prayed in the Roman rite.
In any danger or distress, and as a night prayer. It is short enough to know by heart.