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.