Latin · Original
Ecce Crucem Domini! Fugite partes adversae! Vicit Leo de tribu Iuda, Radix David! Alleluia!
Ecce Crucem Domini
Behold the Cross of the Lord (The Brief of St. Anthony)
by St. Anthony of Padua (traditional)
Four lines against every evil power, given by St. Anthony to a woman tormented by temptation, and carved by Sixtus V on the base of the obelisk in St. Peter's Square.
The Prayer · Multiple Versions
English
Behold the Cross of the Lord! Be scattered, ye hostile powers! The Lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, has conquered! Alleluia!
When the Prayer is Said
In temptation and fear; on 13 June, the saint's feast; carried on the person as a brief.
History & Background
Franciscan tradition holds that Anthony gave this prayer, written on a slip of parchment, to a poor woman driven to despair by temptations, and that it delivered her; hence its name, the 'Brief' of St. Anthony. It is built from the Apocalypse (5:5): the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, has conquered. In 1586 Pope Sixtus V, himself a Franciscan, had the words cut into the base of the obelisk he raised in the centre of St. Peter's Square, where they stand today.
The same versicle opens the responses of Leo XIII's exorcism prayer to St. Michael, which this site also carries.
Related Saints