August Queen of Heaven! Sovereign Mistress of the Angels! Thou, who from the beginning hast received from God the power and mission to crush the head of Satan; we humbly beseech thee to send thy holy legions that, under thy command and by thy power, they may pursue the evil spirits; encounter them on every side: resist their bold attacks, and drive them hence into the abyss of everlasting woe. Amen.
'Who is like unto God!'
An Indulgence of 40 days is attached to the devout recital of this prayer.
- Archbishop Étienne Marilley, Diocese of Luasanne, Switzerland
All ye holy Angels and Archangels keep us and defend us. Amen.
O good and tender Mother! Thou shalt ever be our love and our hope.
A Prayer in time of Temptation
O Divine Mother! Send thy Angels to defend me, and drive the cruel enemy from me.
These prayers were approved by the Archbishop of Tours, and the Bishops of Bayonne and Nantes in the year 1863.
Origin of the Miraculous Prayer
A pious priest of the Diocese of Bayonne, the Abbé Cestac, is the founder of two Religious Congregations in the aforesaid city, viz., the Servants of Mary, who devote themselves to the work of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, though not cloistered: and the Bernardines, who are contemplatives. To one of these devout Religious the Blessed Virgin deigned to make the following communication, which is contained in a letter from the Abbé Cestac to M. Dupont of Tours.
'Anglet, near Bayonne.
'SIR,
'It is not exactly correct to say that the Blessed Virgin appeared to a good, simple saint of the Community, but rather, I should say, that this soul received a supernatural communication from this Divine Mother, or at any rate conceived she had received such communication from on high. She was at prayer, when a ray of divine light illumined her soul. She saw in spirit the vast desolation caused by the devil throughout the world, and at the same time she heard the Divine Mother telling her that it was true that hell had been let loose upon the earth; but that the time had come when we were to pray to her as Queen of Angels, and when we were to ask of her the assistance of the heavenly legions to fight against these deadly foes of God and of men.
'"But, my Good Mother," answered this soul, "you who are so kind, could you not send them without our asking you?"
'"No," she answered; "because prayer is one of the conditions required by God Himself for obtaining favours."
'And the soul believed she heard the prayer I send you. Naturally, I was made the depositary of this prayer, and my first duty was to submit it to my Lord Bishop, who has benignly deigned to approve of it. It was then that Our Lady made known to me that I should get it printed at the expense of her Work, and distribute it gratis. Since that time, this prayer has received the approbation of their Lordships the Archbishops and Bishops of Tours, of Toulouse, of Besançon, of Tarbes. It is being reprinted at Lille, it is being translated into Spanish, and spread far and wide.
(Signed) 'CESTAC,
'Priest of the Diocese of Bayonne.'
It would appear that the devil was terribly enraged at the publication of this prayer, for the Abbé Cestac in a recent letter to M. Dupont tells him that the very day on which he sent to Tours 20,000 copies with an offering of 300 francs for the tomb of Saint Martin (sent to him for that purpose), a large building three storeys high, was cast to the ground: while a similar misfortune befell the same Community at another of their establishments, some distance off. In neither case, however, was anyone hurt! This occurred on the 11th of November, 1863, Feast of Saint Martin of Tours. The Abbé Cestac adds that Providence came to the aid of the good Religious, and enabled them to restore their injured property. It is likewise affirmed that seven printing presses were broken while in the act of printing the prayer, and that the only place at which it could be printed was at Le Puy, where there is a celebrated Shrine of Our Blessed Lady, to which crowds of devout pilgrims flock.
- text taken from the book A Month of Mary According to the Spirit of Saint Francis de Sales, by Father Gaspar Gilli