ABSTRACT
The historically inuential prayer Anima Christi represents a remarkable synthesis of high and lay piety and seems, ultimately, to be the evidence of the growth of Eucharist piety beginning with liturgical reforms introduced a century before its composition. Written some time before 1315, but rst attested only from around 1340, the prayer was initially recited as a post-Eucharist prayer in the Mass, but rapidly experienced a socially and linguistically heterogeneous transmission independent of this original liturgical context. From an intellectual perspective, i.e., from the abstract point of view of high piety, this prayer represents a perfect conclusion to Thomas Aquinas’s meditation on the Eucharist, culminating in the composition of his portions for the new oce of Corpus Christi. All the same, it presented Thomas’s thought concisely but comprehensibly, allowing it to become part and parcel of popular piety for centuries, articulating a particularly intense personal devotion in simple, direct terms that could easily be recast in dierent vernaculars. The prayer’s form is straightforward; it’s Latin, often very close to the Romance vernaculars, and immediately understandable. It begins with a series of very short but stunningly moving requests: The complete Latin text of the prayer is as follows:
Anima Christi, sanctifica me. Corpus Christi, salva me. Sanguis Christi, inebria me. Aqua lateris Christi, lava me. Passio Christi, conforta me. O bone Jesu, exaudi me. Intra tua vulnera absconde me. Ne permittas me separari a te. Ab hoste maligno defende me. In hora mortis meae voca me. Pone me iuxta te Ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te. In saecula saeculorum. Amen.
