I got this via e-mail:
A friend of mine … wants to know if there is a Latin version of the Fatima prayers, specifically the one say during the Rosary: "O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. . ." Can you help?
I am sure this good, but optional, prayer is originally in Portugese. I don’t recall ever having seen an official or approved translation.
There must be any number of translations into Latin floating around out there. I am sure some readers will provide variants… and maybe even their own Latin versions!
Let start with this.
Iesu mi, dimitte nobis peccata nostra, salva nos a flammis inferorum, duc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim misericordia tua maxime indigentes.
This will work in a pinch.
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Domine Iesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, salva nos ab igne inferiori, [“inferiori” really doesn’t work for me – Fr. Z] perduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim eas, quae misericordiae tuae maxime indigent.
This is how we have been given that prayer here in Finland:
Domine Iesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, salva nos ab igne inferiori, perduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim eas quae misericordiae tuae maxime indigent.
Here’s the Latin version I was taught:
O mi Jesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, libera nos ab igne inferni, conduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim illas quae maxime indigent misericordia tua. Amen.
Well I didn’t do a Latin translation, but as I frequently say the Rosary in Gaelic, I did a Gaelic translation (!): “A Iosa, maith dhom mo pheacai. Saor me o Ifrinn. Tog gach anam are Neamh, go mormhor iad a bfhuil is mo cuis trocaire acu Uait.”
And you thought Latin was rare today???
…:)
I learned as Marko and Phil. What was the original Latin that Mary revealed to the Portugese children at Fatima? ;-)
You mean they don’t speak Latin in Heaven?
this is a version I leared
Mi Jesu, remitte nobis peccata nostra, custodi nos ab igne inferi, attrahe omens anims in caelum, praecipue illas, maxime egentes misericordiae tuae
I learned it from Fish Eaters: O mi Jesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, libera nos ab igne inferni, conduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim illas quae maxime indigent misericordia tua. Amen.
This is how I learned it:
“O mi Iesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, libera nos ab igne inferni,
conduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim illas quae maxime indigent
misericordia tua.”
“O mi Jesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, libera nos ab igne inferni, conduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim illas quae maxime indigent misericordia tua. Amen.”
This is the version I used in “The Rosary in Latin and English”.
Ignis is far and away the most common word for fire in the Vulgate Gospels; flamma is used once and incendium never. Portae inferi is in John’s Gospel as “gates of hell.” I didn’t find the comparative adjective inferior meaning “infernal” in L&S. Ablative igni seems always to be found for igne. I would say “ab igni/ignibus inferi.”
err..umm..make that Matthew’s gospel (of course).
I am lucky enough to possess a copy of Our Lady of Fatima by William Thomas Walsh (Macmillan, 1947), which has an interview by the author with Sr. Lucia in its back pages. On page 225 of that work, Sr. Lucia tells the author, “The correct form is the one I have written in my account of the apparition of July 13: ‘O my Jesus, pardon us, and save us from the fire of hell; draw all souls to heaven, especially those most in need.'”
It also gives the original Portuguese in a footnote (no accents here): “O meu Jesus, perdoai-nos e livrai nos do fogo do inferno; levai as alminhas todas para o Ceu, principalmente aquelas que mais precisarem.”
Note that the version does not have the commonly-added phrase “of thy mercy” to the end of it.
So, given that these come directly from Sr. Lucia, you may want to make your translations directly from them.
I think I prefer the version with ‘igne inferni’ and ‘conduc’. At least this avoids painful attempts to find an adjective ‘hellish’ in place of a simple genitive. ‘Of hell’ as in ‘belonging to hell’ is good enough for me. ‘Infernus’ is perhaps a bit more classical or at least less ambiguous than ‘inferi’, which were the inhabitants of the underworld in particular, originally. And it’s closer to the Portuguese…
Wouldn’t it be nice if the Vatican came up with more ‘official’ versions of these things once in a while? A few weeks ago, the Compendium of the Catechism was published here (Holland) in translation – finally! – including an appendix with the main prayers in Latin and vernicular. Excellent. People need to have access to this stuff. (Too bad only 5000 copies or so were printed for a country of 16 million inhabitants.)
Even when I say the Rosary in Latin, I pray it in Portuguese. (ok, I’m Brazilian)
Ah, that should be ‘vernacular’, of course. Oops. [recalling something involving trolley-cars and cables…?]
Maybe Fr. Z or another latinist could make a new translation from the Portuguese, so we might be able to make better vernacular translations from that and the original?
I obtained from that late Fr. Suitbertus Seidl, translations of the Fatima prayers, and passed them on to the Blue Army, which published them in Soul magazine, around 1990 or so. I’d post them here, but my copy is not handy at the moment.
where I did theology we had
(as several people had – O mi Jesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, ab igne inferni defende nos, then
…. perduc in caelum omnes animas, eorum imprimis, qui …
maxime misericordia tua indigent.
I too say the version used by Phil and Marko. I don’t have a great authority for this: I looked up several versions on the web, this seemed the most common, and it was a valid translation, so I used it.
Fr. Z, could you expand on your objection to “inferiori”? Is it the use of inferior, inferius to mean “below” in a non-comparative sense? (Lewis & Short do not seem to indicate any non-comparative usage for inferior.) Or is it because of the i ending? (Wheelock says that comparative adjectives are not i-stems, yet I see them that way all the time: “a priori”, “a fortiori”.)
I am not a fan of “salva nos”. The verb salvare is an invention of ecclesial Latin. And “salva” looks too much like “salve” to me. I’d rather use the classical “salvi fac nos”. But that’s just me….
Actually, I just remembered to have seen a Latin-German version in the new FSSP Ordo Missae, p. 69:
O mi Iesu, indúlge peccáta nostra, consérva nos ab igne inférni, duc omnes ad caeli glóriam, praecípue tua misericórdia egéntes.
I’m curious… During beatification/canonization causes, are the writings of those to be beatified translated into Latin at any time during the process? This would lead to an “official” Latin translation of the prayer.
Fr. Z, there is actually a different Latin version of the same prayer and I acquired this from a paper handout used at the SSPX seminary in Winona, MN. It goes:
“Nostris, O Jesu, debitis indulge, erue nos ab ignibus inferni; caelique portas universae pande, miseris praesertim”
Any guesses as to how and why there are two different Latin versions? Is one official and the other a popular translation from a vernacular version?
Virtual Rosary has it in Latin, and many other languages. I’m not sure what their source is. (www.virtualrosary.org)
Here is one used by the FSSP US seminary:
Mi Jésu, indúlge peccáta nóstra, consérva nos ab ígne inférni, duc ómnes ad cáeli glóriam, præcípue túa misericórdia egéntes.
Peter
Here’s one version I’ve seen:
Oratio Fatima (The Fatima Prayer)
Domine Iesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, salva nos ab igne inferiori, perduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim eas, quae misericordiae tuae maxime indignet.
The Fatima prayer I’ve used for the last 10 years is the one provided by Phil, Andreas, and others above. I found it on the Web somewhere. But I usually change it to “misericordia tua” since I believe the verb calls for the ablative.
laudetur JS & Ma!
The version I know is also the one Legisperitus (and the others, like Phil etc.) mentioned, but with the “O mi Jesu” at the beginning – but I can´t give you any authoritative/authentic source for it.