# We Fly to Your Patronage

> A very old and short prayer to Mary, for entrusting ourselves to the Mother of God when we are afraid, worn out, or bringing the day to a close.

- Source: Light of Saints, “We Fly to Your Patronage”, https://lightofsaints.com/en/prayers/we-fly-to-thy-patronage-sub-tuum-praesidium
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Published: 2026-11-06

## Meaning

This prayer says that we take refuge in the holy Mother of God and asks her not to despise our petitions in our necessities, but to deliver us from danger. We also ask Mary to reconcile us, commend us, and lead us to her Son, Jesus Christ.

## Prayer

_Traditional prayer of the Church._

We fly to your 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.

## Intentions & hopes

The faithful pray it when they feel afraid, threatened, tempted, or weighed down by hardship, and also to close the day. What we may hope for is to be accompanied by the prayer of the Blessed Virgin Mary and drawn closer to Christ.

## When & how to pray

- This prayer can be prayed at any time, especially when you are anxious, in danger, or facing temptation.
- It is also well suited to the evening, before going to sleep or after Night Prayer.
- Settle into a calm posture; you may kneel or sit. Then make the Sign of the Cross.
- Pray it slowly, then close with the versicle and response and "Amen."
- In the Liturgy of the Hours, this prayer may be used as the Marian antiphon after Night Prayer outside Easter Time.

## Origins

The oldest known text of this prayer is written in Greek on Rylands Papyrus 470, a papyrus fragment from Egypt acquired by the John Rylands Library in Manchester in 1917. In 1938 the papyrologist C. H. Roberts identified the fragment as an early form of this prayer.

The Latin text "Sub tuum praesidium" is a translation from the Greek. When it was translated cannot yet be determined, and the sources disagree about it.

In the Roman Rite, this prayer became the antiphon for the Canticle of Simeon (Nunc Dimittis) at Night Prayer in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the Liturgy of the Hours, it may be used as the Marian antiphon after Night Prayer outside Easter Time.

The prayer is also known in the Eastern Churches: in the Byzantine Rite this hymn is sung at Vespers during Great Lent, and it is also used in the Coptic and Armenian liturgies. In the West, besides the Roman Rite, it is also used in the Ambrosian Rite.

The Second Vatican Council, in Lumen Gentium 66, states that the faithful take refuge under Mary's protection "in all their dangers and necessities"; the council's own note quotes "Sub tuum praesidium confugimus." In October 2018, Pope Francis invited the whole Church to pray this prayer every day, together with the Rosary and the prayer to Saint Michael.

_Edition note: Text: The rights holder named on the source. Checked word for word against the source on 2026-11-05._

## Sources

- [Latin Prayers, Pater Noster](https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/latin-prayers-9125) — Text taken from www.ewtn.com
- [Holy See Press Office Communiqué (29 Sept 2018)](https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2018/09/29/180929d.html) — Latin text from press.vatican.va
- [Liturgical Year : Prayers : Sub Tuum (from M. O'Carroll, Theotokos: A Theological Encyclopedia of the Blessed Virgin Mary)](https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/prayers/view.cfm?id=1084) — Published by CatholicCulture.org
- [The Earliest Marian Prayer: The Heart of Christian Devotion](https://thepostil.com/the-earliest-marian-prayer-the-heart-of-christian-devotion/) — Published by The Postil
- [Religion:Sub tuum praesidium](https://handwiki.org/wiki/Religion:Sub_tuum_praesidium) — Published by HandWiki