medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
My first attempt at a reply got swallowed by the e-mail system - apologies
if you get it twice:
The first part ("Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, for all the
benefits which thou hast given me, for all the pains and insults which thou
hast borne for me.") was apparently a prayer by Richard on his deathbed, as
recorded in the Life (in Latin) written by his confessor Ralph (Ralf)
Bocking. I have only seen an extract from the translation by David Jones in
"Saint Richard of Chichester: The Sources for His Life" (Sussex Record
Society, December 1995, ISBN 0854450408 ).
Canon Peter Atkinson of Chichester has judiciously written: "And the rest of
the prayer, with its well-known rhyming triplet about knowing Jesus more
clearly and loving him more dearly and following him more nearly, though it
comes from a later time, shows a profound insight into Richard's character
and spirituality."
The "Prayer" in its present form was first published in 1913, in
"Churchman's Prayer Manual" by G.R. Bullock-Webster, and he seems to have
written the second part.
John Briggs
Bill East wrote:
>
> Respondeo: The reason I ask these things is that prayers have a way of
> being foisted on saints. For example, the familiar "Prayer of St
> Francis" ("Where there is despair, may I bring hope" etc.) is a modern
> composition with no connexion to St Francis; I think it occurs for the
> first time on a ninetenth-century holy picture, and has only become
> well known during the past thirty years or so. This is true: look in
> any older book of popular prayers, and you will find the "Prayer of St
> Richard" and the "Prayer of St Ignatius" but not the "Prayer of St
> Francis. I certainly did not learn it in my schooldays. There is, so
> far as I know, no Italian orginal. If there were, it would be a major
> document in early Italian philology, as is his "Canticle of Brother
> Sun".
>
> Now with the greatest of respect, the fact that Brenda learnt "The
> prayer of St Richard" in her schooldays (as did I) does not mean that
> it is correctly attributed to St Richard. If it does derive from St
> Richard, there is surely a Latin original, or else the early Middle
> English original would be a document of some philological interest.
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