Sub Tuum Praesidium is after the Magnificat (which goes back to the Gospel of Luke) the oldest known Marian devotion. It can be traced back to a papyrus from Alexandria in the third century and is still a part of the current liturgy of the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

We have supplemented the text with macrons to mark etymologically long vowels.

The translation is the Catholic version of this prayer in English.

The text’s transcription emulates the capitalis rustica, a style of the Latin alphabet that was in use in the imperial Rome and Late Antiquity for writing on papyrus or parchment with a reed pen. We made use of Hasan Guven’s typeface Vatican Rough Letters.