Traditional prayer
Anima Christi (Soul of Christ)
Soul of Christ, sanctify me;
Body of Christ, save me;
Blood of Christ, inebriate me;
Water from the side of Christ, wash me;
Passion of Christ, strengthen me:
O good Jesus, hear me;
Within Thy wounds hide me;
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee;
From the evil enemy defend me;
In the hour of my death call me,
And bid me come unto Thee,
That with all Thy saints I may praise Thee
For all eternity. Amen.
Latin
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 meæ voca me,
Et jube me venire ad te,
Ut cum sanctis tuis laudem te,
In sæcula sæculorum. Amen.
Latin The Raccolta, or Collection of Indulgenced Prayers and Good Works (1910), no. 95, pp. 79–80
About this prayer
The Anima Christi dates from the first half of the fourteenth century. The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907 reports that the manuscripts agree it was enriched with indulgences by Pope John XXII in 1330; that it appears in a British Museum manuscript of about 1370 and in the prayer book of Cardinal Peter de Luxembourg, who died in 1387; and that its author is unknown. John XXII may have written it, but that is not certain.
It is often credited to St. Ignatius of Loyola, because he set it at the beginning of his Spiritual Exercises. The same article calls that a mistake: the prayer is found in manuscripts written about a hundred years before the saint was born. He loved it and handed it on; he did not write it.
The Raccolta of 1910 prints it as no. 95, the Latin beside a rhymed English verse (“Soul of Christ, be my sanctification”), and records an indulgence from Pius IX in 1854, with a greater one when it is said after Communion. The plain English above is from Father Lasance’s prayer book of 1908.
Each line asks one part of Christ’s self-gift to do its work in the one who prays: His soul to sanctify, His body to save, His blood to fill, the water from His side to wash. The soldier’s spear “opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water” (John 19:34, Douay-Rheims). “Inebriate” is the old word for being filled beyond measure. The prayer turns at the wounds: what wounded Him becomes the place where the soul hides. Christ’s own promise stands behind it: “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him” (John 6:57, Douay-Rheims; 6:56 in modern Bibles).
When to pray it
- After Holy Communion, in the quiet minutes back in the pew.
- During a visit to the Blessed Sacrament or at adoration.
- In suffering of body or heart (illness, labour, a long night with a sick child, grief) when “Within Thy wounds hide me” is the whole prayer.
- At night, with the line for the hour of death.
Any indulgences named on this page are those recorded in the older prayer books it cites. Pope Paul VI reformed the Church's indulgences in 1967 (Indulgentiarum Doctrina); the current rules are in the Church's Enchiridion of Indulgences.