St Michael the archangel

This prayer was composed by Pope Leo XIII in 1886, reportedly following a vision or locution in which he witnessed a terrifying exchange between Satan and God, after which he was shaken and immediately wrote the prayer. It was originally mandated to be prayed aloud by the priest and faithful after every Low Mass throughout the universal Church, a practice that continued until the liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The prayer draws on the biblical imagery of Michael as the great warrior archangel who cast Satan out of heaven (Revelation 12) and stands as the defender of God's people. In 1994, Pope John Paul II encouraged its revival, and many traditional and charismatic Catholic communities have restored it to regular use after Mass. Its imagery of spiritual battle — "the wickedness and snares of the devil" — resonates powerfully with the New Testament's call to put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6).