Prayer to Saint michael the Archangel

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Asinner_Pray4me

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Does anyone know where I can find a copy of the letter that Leo XIII wrote concerning this prayer. There are very many websites proclaiming to provide the original or long version of the prayer that was taught to me. None of the divers variations of this prayer proclaiming originality have a reference to the document of Leo XIII.

God bless.
 
Thank-you for the links, Fighting Fat. However none of them provide citations or sources and they vary in their stories. I’m interested in what Pope Leo himself actually wrote about the prayer. It is described as having been part of the Low Mass since 1886 right up to Vatican II. Is there any proof of this? By the way, my family says it every night after the rosary.

God Bless.
 
Well, the Wikipedia article I linked to said this:
The prayer was composed by Pope Leo XIII at the end of the 19th century; he made it part of a set of prayers to be recited on behalf of the Church at the end of Low Mass (liturgy). In 1960, Pope John XXIII made reciting these prayers optional, and following the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council of 1963-1965, it was no longer typically recited in this manner. However, the late Pope John Paul II urged Christians to renew their devotion to saying the prayer.

With respect to the article you are looking for- do you know what it is called?
 
FightingFat said:
Well, the Wikipedia article I linked to said this:
The prayer was composed by Pope Leo XIII at the end of the 19th century; he made it part of a set of prayers to be recited on behalf of the Church at the end of Low Mass (liturgy). In 1960, Pope John XXIII made reciting these prayers optional, and following the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council of 1963-1965, it was no longer typically recited in this manner. However, the late Pope John Paul II urged Christians to renew their devotion to saying the prayer.

With respect to the article you are looking for- do you know what it is called?
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I have no idea what name was put on the letter but it must have been similar to the sort of thing the Vatican issues at the moment when it is promulgating something. If Pope Leo was introducing a change to the Eucharistic Liturgy that was to be adopted worldwide with immediate effect then it surely appeared on official paper. That’s the document I’m after. In 1886 they would have needed a lot of copies to reach all the world’s bishops and so I’m hoping that at least one or a transcript of one is up for downloading.

Thank’s for your help and patience.
 
Thank’s for your help and patience.
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My absolute pleasure! This sort of thing is always interesting and educative! 🙂

My next theology essay is on the unity of the Church and I just found this while browsing through the documents: Satis Cognitum (Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII On The Unity of the church)

Ahhh the Lord is indeed wonderful, and our faith finds it true meaning in service. Thank you for providing me with an opportunity! 🙂

All the Holy Fathers’ documents are avaliable here

vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/index.htm

Did you see that bit that calls him “Pope of the Working Man” on Wikipedia? How cool is that!

🙂
 
FightingFat said:
All the Holy Fathers’ documents are avaliable here vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/index.htm

Did you see that bit that calls him “Pope of the Working Man” on Wikipedia? How cool is that!

🙂
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I checked the vatican web-site already. They only link to his encyclicals on my browser. It seems that all the other writings are not available (to me at any rate).
My next theology essay is on the unity of the Church and I just found this while browsing through the documents: Satis Cognitum (Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII On The Unity of the church)
Click to expand...
Ahhh the Lord is indeed wonderful, and our faith finds it true meaning in service. Thank you for providing me with an opportunity!
Click to expand...
That’s Divine Providence, I’d say. Christ helping the helper to help!

Thank’ s again.
 
Reading through the article on Wikipedia, it doesn’t sound like the prayer was ever part of an encyclical-

It is reported that this prayer was inspired by a vision regarding demons which Leo XIII experienced in the 1880s. A journal from Rome published in 1947 contains the account of a priest who worked at the Vatican during the time of Leo XIII, Fr. Domenico Pechenino, who stated that while the Pope was attending Mass, he began to look upwards and displayed an unusual expression on his face. He left Mass and went to his private office, and a short time later called for the Secretary of the Congregation of Rites, handing him a document. This document contained the prayer to St. Michael. The Pontiff requested that the prayer be disseminated to all Catholic ordinaries throughout the world to be recited, and that the congregation kneel when praying it.

The truth of this account is not fully known, but the prayer was indeed sent to the ordinaries in 1886. Moreover, in 1946 a cardinal reported that Pope Leo XIII truly experienced the vision and spoke about it with his private secretary Rinaldo Angeli.
In 1930, Pope Pius XI linked this prayer with his intention to pray for Russia, then the Soviet Union, and the masses who were experiencing religious persecution there, under the Christian belief that the forces of dictatorship and cruelty were linked to demonic activity.

This account sounds a little less dramatic than some of those promulgated on the internet; for that reason it would appear more likely accurate to me!
 
I think I may be on a hiding to nothing. After a lot of searching I found the following quote by Dr. W. Carroll on the EWTN Q&A section. He is replying to a question about the use of the prayer at Mass.

Any priest may use this prayer at Mass if he wishes. One of our parish priests here in Manassas uses it regularly. It is in no way forbidden. It was removed from mandatory use because there is not a certain authority behind it. The widely publicized vision of Pope Leo XIII is unfortunately undocumented historically.

He also states in another reply that he has “been looking for unsuccessfully for years… for a published source to cite for this alleged vision of Pope Leo XIII.”

It seems that the story of the prayer’s origin and it’s insertion at the end of the Mass is an ‘Urban Myth’. Neither the article on Leo XIII or St. Michael in the Catholic Encyclopaedia make any mention of it. The Catholic Encyclopaedia was written in 1917 and would surely have included such a remarkable story, if true.

Pope John Paul II certainly believed in it because he urged everyone to pray the prayer in 1994. All the sedevacantists and Schismatic catholic organisations use the even more elaborate version of it and this is what drew my attention to it in the first place.

Still, it’s a powerful prayer and I’ll continue to pray it regardless of it’s origins.

God Bless
 
Yes it is a prayer I try to say regularly with my children, it’s also one prayed daily at my *Alma Mater, *The Maryvale Institute. I’ll give the Course Director there a call, Canon John Redford, he’s very knowledgeable about these things and will probably have an answer!

God Bless!

Mark.
 
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