Book of Common Prayer · The Litany (1662) · All versions
Harley 7653: a litany of protection (English or Irish) (written c. 800 for a woman ("the handmaid of God"); in England by the 11th century)
English translation by AnglicanGuide from the Latin. Read the Latin edition. Words in [brackets] are supplied or summarise omitted matter.
A private devotional litany: angels, patriarchs, apostles and twenty-one women saints are invoked, then the God of the patriarchs, apostles and martyrs; it continues into a morning prayer for the keeping of the feet, hands, mouth, ears and eyes, and ends with angels and apostles again. The opening leaf is lost. Translated in full by AnglicanGuide.
Source: F. E. Warren (ed.), The Antiphonary of Bangor, part II, HBS 10 (1895), appendix, pp. 83–85 (Internet Archive). Public domain (translation © AnglicanGuide).
The Litany
The Invocation of the Angels and Saints
The manuscript begins in the middle of a sentence.
… be thou my health. Cherubim, be thou my strength. Seraphim, be thou my salvation and my armour. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Saints, I pray you and beseech you that you vouchsafe to keep me in your prayers: that you pray for me, the handmaid of God: that never an unclean spirit or adversary may be able to harm me.
Holy David, I beseech thee.
Holy Elijah, I beseech thee.
Holy Moses, I beseech thee.
Saint Peter, I beseech thee.
Saint Paul, I beseech thee.
Saint Andrew, I beseech thee.
Saint James, I beseech thee.
Saint Thomas, I beseech thee.
Saint John, I beseech thee.
Saint Philip, I beseech thee.
Saint Bartholomew, I beseech thee.
Saint James, I beseech thee.
Saint Matthew, I beseech thee.
Saint Simon, I beseech thee.
Saint Thaddeus, I beseech thee.
Saint John the Baptist, I beseech thee.
Saint Mark, I beseech thee.
Saint Luke, I beseech thee.
Saint Petronilla. Saint Agnes. Saint Agatha. Saint Cecilia. Saint Eugenia. Saint Thecla. Saint Perpetua. Saint Benedicta. Saint Euphemia. Saint Constantina. Saint Juliana. Saint Eulalia. Saint Lucy. Saint Tarsilla. Saint Emiliana. Saint Justina. Saint Christina. Saint Scholastica. Saint Romula. Saint Musa. Saint Anastasia.
I beseech you, guard my soul and my spirit and my heart and my mind and all my flesh.
Angels, archangels, prophets, apostles and most blessed martyrs, Nazarites crowned without spot; and Saint Silvester and Saint Laurence, in the name of Sabaoth.
The Petitions to God
God of Abraham, and God of Isaac, and God of Jacob.
God of the angels.
God of the archangels.
God of the patriarchs.
God of the prophets.
God of the apostles.
God of the martyrs.
God of the virgins.
God of all the saints.
God of our fathers, have mercy on me always.
Let all my enemies and adversaries flee before the sight of thy majesty. And through these angels let them fall, as Goliath fell before the sight of thy servant David.
All ye angels, I beseech you, drive out any unclean spirit, or any binding, or any evil-doing of men that seeks to harm me. Whoever has this writing with him shall not be afraid for any terror by night or at noonday.
See then, Egyptian, that thou harm not the servants nor the handmaids of God; presume not to hurt them in food nor in drink, in sleep nor out of sleep, nor in any pain of the body. (A contemporary hand adds in the margin: nor on the sea, nor in the river.)
Deliver me, O Lord, deliver me, O Lord, for thine is the dominion and the power, through the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
The Morning Prayer
Be thou with me, Lord of Sabaoth; in the morning when I rise, look upon me, and govern all my acts and my words and my thoughts.
Keep my feet, that they go not about the houses of idleness, but stand in the prayer of God.
Keep my hands, that they be not often stretched out to take gifts, but rather be lifted up, clean and pure, in prayers to the Lord, that I may say: The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice.
Keep my mouth, that I speak not vain things, nor tell worldly tales, nor slander my neighbour.
Keep my mouth, that I invite not others to vain speech, but be ever ready to the praise of God and slow to anger.
Keep my ears, that I hear not slander, nor lying, nor idle words, but that they be opened daily to hear the word of the Lord, that I may pass the whole day in thy will.
Give me, O Lord, the fear of thee, compunction of heart, humility of mind and a pure conscience, that I may look up to heaven and despise the earth, hate sin and love righteousness.
Take from me, O Lord, worldly care, the appetite of gluttony and the desire of fornication.
Keep my eyes, that they look on no one to covet, nor on anything unlawful; nor let me desire my neighbour's goods, nor the delights of the world, that I may say with the prophet: Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; and again: Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.
The Closing Invocation
Father and Son and Holy Spirit, holy Trinity, be thou my helper.
Together I beseech the angels, archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominations, thrones, cherubim and seraphim, that they intercede for me a sinner before the just Judge, that he may forgive all my sins.
I beseech Saint Michael the glorious; Raphael and Uriel, Gabriel and Raguel, Heremiel and Azael, that they receive my soul at the last day with the choir of angels and lead it to the pleasantness of paradise.
I ask Peter and Paul, Andrew, James, John and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, Philip and James, Simon and Thaddeus, that they help me in the day of judgement, that my soul may joyfully behold the most pure Godhead.
I ask John and Clement, Gregory and Benedict, Martin and Laurence, Stephen and George, that they help me at all times.
All ye saints and martyrs, pray for me.