Andreas Moran
06-03-2009, 05:05 PM
In Lent especially, we may have recourse to prayers for protection from temptations. In the Celtic Church, and to some extent later in Anglo-Saxon England, some saints wrote special prayers for protection from evil generally or something in particular, sometimes a plague. These are called loricae (sing. lorica). The word lorica derives from Ephesians 4:14 where 'breastplate' is 'lorica' in Latin (and θωρακα or θωραξ in Greek). The most famous loricae are those written by St Patrick (5th century) and St Gildas (6th century). The prayers are often strongly trinitarian in character. A Celtic saint assaulted by devils would use a lorica as defence; one thinks of the assaults suffered by St Guthlac. A comparable prayer might be the 'Let God arise . . . ' found in Russian prayer books and used by Russians when some evil or threat presents itself. An example of a short lorica is this:
'God, even the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with me against every sorrow.'
The lorica of St Gildas is long and includes prayers for protection of every part of his body, but the first part is this:
Lorica of St Gildas
Help, O Oneness of Trinity
have pity O threeness of unity,
I beseech Thee to help me who am
placed
in peril as of a mighty sea,
So that neither the pestilence of this
year
nor the vanity of the world
may suck me under.
And this I beg from the might
of the powers of the high heavens:
that they may not leave me to be
torn by foes,
But may defend me with their
mighty arms;
that they may stand before me in
battle array
as the army of heaven’s levy.
Cherubim and Seraphim with their
thousands
Michael and Gabriel and their like,
I call upon thrones, the virtues, the
archangels,
the principalities, powers and angels
that, shielding me in dense formation,
I may stand strong to strike down
the enemy.
I beseech all other chief leaders,
patriarchs and the four-times-four
prophets
and I beg the Apostles, pilots of
the ship of Christ,
the martyrs, yea, and all captains,
and I adjure also virgins,
faithful widows and confessors,
that for the sake of their salvation may
encircle me
And all evil may perish from before me;
That Christ may make a strong
alliance with me
that terror and fear may affright the foul host.
'God, even the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with me against every sorrow.'
The lorica of St Gildas is long and includes prayers for protection of every part of his body, but the first part is this:
Lorica of St Gildas
Help, O Oneness of Trinity
have pity O threeness of unity,
I beseech Thee to help me who am
placed
in peril as of a mighty sea,
So that neither the pestilence of this
year
nor the vanity of the world
may suck me under.
And this I beg from the might
of the powers of the high heavens:
that they may not leave me to be
torn by foes,
But may defend me with their
mighty arms;
that they may stand before me in
battle array
as the army of heaven’s levy.
Cherubim and Seraphim with their
thousands
Michael and Gabriel and their like,
I call upon thrones, the virtues, the
archangels,
the principalities, powers and angels
that, shielding me in dense formation,
I may stand strong to strike down
the enemy.
I beseech all other chief leaders,
patriarchs and the four-times-four
prophets
and I beg the Apostles, pilots of
the ship of Christ,
the martyrs, yea, and all captains,
and I adjure also virgins,
faithful widows and confessors,
that for the sake of their salvation may
encircle me
And all evil may perish from before me;
That Christ may make a strong
alliance with me
that terror and fear may affright the foul host.