QUAERITUR:
Is there an official Latin version of the Oratio Fatimae? I have seen different ones online and a fair amount of ambivalence about which to use. Keeping with St Thomas More, it seems to me that a prayer is made of words and that the words matter.
Thank you for your outstanding blog.
Yes, words matter.
No, there isn’t an official version.
However, there are many versions to choose from!
The original is in Portuguese:
O meu Jesus, perdoai-nos e livrai nos do fogo do inferno; levai as alminhas todas para o Ceu, principalmente aquelas que mais precisarem.
Notice that it doesn’t mention “mercy”. However, we are all used to adding that. So, we could say:
O Iesu mi, dimitte nobis peccata nostra, salva nos ab igne inferni, omnes perduc in caelum animas, praesertim (tua) maxime indigentes (misericordia).
There are a lot of versions out there, if memory serves.
This is timely, since Saturday 13 October is the anniversary of the final apparition at Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun. Where I am, the Extraordinary Ordinary granted, at my request, to the priests in the Diocese of Madison, permission to say a Votive Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as 2nd class, rather than observe the Feast of Edward the Confessor. As wonderful as Edward is, he is less venerated in Wisconsin than in England. Hence, we have the option of the Votive Mass. This is the TLM, mind you, according to the rubrics of the 1962MR 342 & 370-372.
O mi Jesu
dimitte nobis peccata nostra
libera nos ab igne inferni
conduc in caelum omnes animas
praesertim illas quae maxime indigent misericordia tua
I notice in the recordings of Pope St John Paul the Great and Pope Benedict XVI praying the Rosary in Latin, this prayer is not included. Did it not “catch on” in certain places?
I like:
O Jesu mi,
Ignosce nobis,
Libera nos ab igne inferni,
Trahe omnes animas ad caelum,
Praesertim Maxime intendentes.
I had learned:
Domine Iesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra,
salva nos ab igne inferiori.
Perduc in caelum omnes animas,
praesertim eas qui misericordiae tuae maxime indigent.