Leonine Prayers
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The Leonine Prayers are the prayers that Pope Leo XIII prescribed for recitation after a Low Mass celebrated with the people.
The prayers consisted of three Ave Marias, a Salve Regina followed by a versicle and response, and a prayer for the conversion of sinners and the freedom and exaltation of Holy Mother the Church, and a prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel.
Pope Pius X permitted the addition to these prayers of a thrice-repeated "Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us."
These prayers were officially suppressed by the Instruction Inter Oecumenici of 26 September 1964, which came into effect on 7 March 1965.[1]
[edit] History
In 1859, faced with rebellion against his temporal sovereignty by people wishing to join what was to become the Kingdom of Italy, Pope Pius IX ordered that, within the Papal States, special prayers should be said after Mass. He did not impose these prayers worldwide, but appealed generically for prayers for the defence of the temporal sovereignty that he saw as necessary for the Holy See to "exercise spiritual power without any hindrance".[2]
The prayers he prescribed for use within the Papal States were three Ave Marias, and a Salve Regina followed by a versicle and response and a collect.
On 6 January 1884, Pope Leo XIII ordered that the prayers be recited throughout the world. This instruction was published by a decree Iam inde ab anno of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, published in Acta Sanctae Sedis 16 (1884), pages 249–250.
It is from the name of this pope that the name "Leonine Prayers" is derived.
The prayer that follows the Salve Regina was modified in 1886, to make it a prayer for the conversion of sinners and "the freedom and exaltation of Holy Mother the Church". The prayer to Saint Michael was added at the same time.
In 1904, Pope Pius X granted permission to add at the conclusion of the Leonine Prayers a threefold invocation, "Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us", a permission that was universally availed of.
In 1929, the purpose for which these prayers had originally been instituted was therefore attained through the creation of the State of Vatican City, which meant that the Popes once more held a minimal temporal sovereignty, sufficient to guarantee the free exercise of their spiritual authority. In the following year, Pope Pius XI ordered that the intention for which these prayers should from then on be offered was "to permit tranquillity and freedom to profess the faith to be restored to the afflicted people of Russia".[3]
The prayers were to be said only after a Low Mass, a Mass without singing, and in some cases were omitted after such Masses if celebrated with special solemnity.[4]
In 1964, with effect from 1965, the prayers were suppressed by the Instruction Inter Oecumenici on implementing the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council.
They are still often recited after celebrations of Tridentine Mass.
[edit] References
- ^ Inter Oecumenici, 48 j
- ^ Encyclical Qui nuper of 18 June 1859
- ^ Allocution Indictam ante of 30 June 1930, in Acta Apostolicae Sedis 22 (1930), page 301
- ^ J. O’Connell, The Celebration of Mass: A Study of the Rubrics of the Roman Missal, (Milwaukee: Bruce 1941), vol. 1, pages 210–211
