Oldest Prayers to Mary and Joseph

 

OLDEST PRAYERS TO MARY AND JOSEPH

In 1917, the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England, acquired a large panel of Egyptian papyrus, written in Koine Greek (the “Mediterranean Lingua Franca” in which the Gospels were written). The prayer, as explained at Trisagion Films’ Website, is to be found in the fragment labeled under the number 470, and it appears to be from a Coptic Christmas liturgy (maybe Christmas Vespers), although the fragment might as well be a private copy of the prayer.

The prayer goes:

Beneath [your] compassion, we take refuge, O Mother of God: do not despise our petitions in time of trouble, but rescue us from dangers, only pure one, only blessed one.

https://aleteia.org/2016/07/08/let-us-pray-the-earliest-known-marian-prayer/

—Daniel Esparza, “Let us pray: the earliest known Marian prayer,” Aleteia.org, July 8, 2016

One of the oldest prayers to St. Joseph is a brief, one-sentence inscription written in Greek.

The 19th-century book by Edward Healy Thompson, The Life and Glories of St. Joseph, recalls this short prayer.

The Greek epigraph inscribed on a gem of the fourth or fifth century brought to light by Cavedoni speaks volumes for the loving confidence reposed in him by the early Christians. Thus it runs, “O Joseph, assist me in my labors and give me grace.”

This is one of the few prayers that can be traced with certainty to the early centuries of the Church, and is evidence that devotion to St. Joseph was present among the first Christians. 

https://aleteia.org/2023/03/17/here-is-one-of-the-oldest-prayers-to-st-joseph/

—Philip Kosloski, “Here is one of the oldest prayers to St. Joseph,” Aleteia.org, March 17, 2023

Devotion and prayers of the early Church are significant because, among other reasons, they put us in touch with the spirituality of early Christianity. We are consoled by the understanding that the spirit in which we pray is near if not identical to that of the early Christians who lived closer in time to the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Laus Deo in aeternum!