Sub Tuum Praesidium | The OLDEST Known Hymn to the Theotokos

Link to Music

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