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Prayer — Daily & Devotional

Carta Domini / Carta Dominica

A True Letter of Our Saviour Jesus Christ

Derived from the medieval 'Sunday Letter' / Himmelsbrief tradition (6th century onward); the present 'True Letter' prayer-card form widely circulated from the 19th century.

A popular devotional text of the Catholic folk tradition — the prayer card 'True Letter' that has circulated in Catholic homes, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, with promises attached to those who keep and pray it.

The Prayer

English (popular devotional form) · Original

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, with Saint Matilda and Saint Bridget, desiring to know something of the Passion of Jesus Christ, offered fervent and special prayers; upon which Our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to them and spoke to them in the following manner:

'I descended from Heaven to the earth in order to convert you. In olden times people were religious, and their harvests were abundant; today they are scanty. If you would reap an abundant harvest, you must not work on Sunday — for on Sunday you must go to Church and pray to God to forgive your sins. He gave you six days for work and one for rest and devotion, and to tender your help to the poor and assist the Church.

'Those who shall carry a copy of this Letter with them shall be free from sudden death; they shall be free from all contagious diseases and from lightning; they shall not die without Confession; they shall be free from their enemies and from the hand of wrongful authority, and from all their slanderers and false witnesses.

'Women in peril at childbirth, by keeping this prayer about them, shall come safely through. In the house where this prayer is kept, no evil thing shall happen; and forty days before the death of one who keeps it, the Blessed Virgin shall appear to him or to her.

'To all those of the Faithful who shall recite for three years, each day, two Our Fathers, two Hail Marys, and two Glory Bes in honour of the Drops of Blood I lost, I will concede the following five graces:

1. The plenary indulgence and remission of your sins.
2. You shall be freed from the pains of Purgatory.
3. If you should die before completing the said three years, for you it shall be the same as if you had completed them.
4. It shall be upon your death the same as if you had shed all your blood for the Holy Faith.
5. I shall descend from Heaven to take your soul, and the souls of your relatives unto the fourth generation.'

When the Prayer is Said

Carried as a prayer card; recited devotionally with the daily two Our Fathers, two Hail Marys, and two Glory Bes in honour of the Holy Wounds and the Drops of Blood of the Lord's Passion.

History & Background

The 'True Letter' belongs to an ancient genre of devotional literature known as the Carta Dominica or 'Sunday Letter' — apocryphal letters from Christ written from heaven, urging the keeping of the Lord's Day, found preserved in dozens of European languages from the 6th century onward. The genre was repeatedly examined by Church authorities through the medieval period; some forms were condemned as superstitious, others tolerated as popular devotion.

The 19th-century prayer-card form known as the 'True Letter of Our Saviour Jesus Christ' is one of the latest descendants of this tradition. It commonly cites visions said to have been granted to Sts. Elizabeth of Hungary, Matilda, and Bridget, and frequently bears an attribution to Pope Leo XIII (Rome, 5 April 1890). Scholarly investigation has not found this attribution in the Acta of Leo XIII; it is generally regarded as spurious. The Holy See has never formally approved the text.

Despite that, the prayer card has had a long life of popular use — slipped into wallets, pinned inside doorways, included in old devotional manuals such as the Pieta Prayer Book. It is included here because it is part of the lived devotional history of many Catholic families, on the honest understanding that it is a piece of folk Catholic tradition rather than an authoritative revelation. The five graces (and the count of 28,430 Drops of Blood) it attaches to three years of daily prayer are characteristic of the popular devotional style of the late 19th century; their authority rests in the devotion they inspire, not in any magisterial guarantee.

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