Lorica (incantation)
In the Christian monastic tradition, a lorica is a prayer recited for protection. The Latin word lorica originally meant "armor" or "breastplate." Both meanings come together in the practice of placing verbal inscriptions on the shields or armorial trappings of knights, who might recite them before going into battle.
Notable loricas include Rob tu mo bhoile, a Comdi cride, which in its English translation provides the text for the hymn Be Thou My Vision, the Lorica of Laidcenn and the Lorica of Saint Patrick, which begins
- I arise today
- Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
- Through a belief in the Threeness,
- Through confession of the Oneness
- Of the Creator of creation.
[edit] Lorica of St Patrick
Linguistically this lorica cannot be traced back further than the eighth century, and this raises the question of whether it was based on an earlier poem dating back to the time of St Patrick in the fifth century, or whether it was actually completely unknown to the saint, although it has been ascribed to him.[1]
C. F. Alexander (1818-1895), penned a song version of St Patrick's Breastplate in 1889 at the request of H. H. Dickinson, Dean of the Chapel Royal at Dublin Castle. He recalls, "I wrote to her suggesting that she should fill a gap in our Irish Church Hymnal by giving us a metrical version of St. Patrick's 'Lorica' and I sent her a carefully collated copy of the best prose translations of it. Within a week she sent me that exquisitely beautiful as well as faithful version which appears in the appendix to our Church Hymnal." [2]
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