Sub Tuum Praesidium | The OLDEST Known Hymn to the Theotokos
Chant School · Floriani
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Show Notes
In this episode, we learn the Sub Tuum Praesidium, the oldest existing hymn to Mary as "Theotokos" or "God-Bearer." Although the church didn't definitively teach that Mary was the Mother of God until the council of Ephesus in 431, this hymn predates that council by at least 150 years!
We fly to thy protection,
O Holy Mother of God;
Do not despise our petitions
in our necessities,
but deliver us always
from all dangers,
O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.
Sub tuum praesidium
confugimus,
Sancta Dei Genitrix.
Nostras deprecationes ne despicias
in necessitatibus nostris,
sed a periculis cunctis
libera nos semper,
Virgo gloriosa et benedicta