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Braga rite courts in Iberia

1 texts in the archive
Braga rite courts in IberiaBR
Braga rite courts in Iberia1 texts
iiWhat they prayed from
Oratio — The PrayersTranslation live01

Sub Tuum Praesidium (We Fly to Your Patronage)

The Sub Tuum Praesidium ('Under your protection we take refuge, O Theotokos') is the oldest surviving Marian prayer preserved on a manuscript, extant on Greek papyrus P.Ryl. III 470 at the John Rylands Library, Manchester. Its dating remains actively contested: Edgar Lobel proposed a 3rd-century date and Colin Roberts the late 4th century, but Hans Förster, Theodore de Bruyn, and Arne Effenberger have argued on paleographical and codicological grounds for a 6th–9th century origin, making the traditional early dating uncertain. The text explicitly addresses Mary as Theotokos (God-bearer) and entered Western liturgy by the 11th century, finding a home in the Rite of Braga (Portugal) and thereby in Iberian royal court devotion. It continues in active liturgical use in the Byzantine, Coptic, and Latin Western rites.

Uncertain; papyrus P.Ryl. III 470 dated by Lobel/Roberts to the 3rd–4th century but assigned by Förster, de Bruyn, and Effenberger to the 6th–9th century; Latin form established by the 11th centuryGreek (original); Latin and vernacular translations·All Catholic royal court chapels broadly · Braga rite courts in IberiaCourt-typical