The Lord’s Prayer in Latin

The Lord’s Prayer, or ‘Our Father’ is possibly the most familiar of all Catholic prayers, as it is found in Scripture and is also part of the Mass. Many traditional Catholics like to pray the Lord’s prayer in Latin at least some of the time – which is a given if they pray their Rosary in Latin!

The English wording commonly used by Catholics is almost identical to the text from Matthew’s Gospel, as found in the 1899 Douay-Rheims bible:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our supersubstantial bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. Amen.

Matthew 6: 9-13

Likewise, when we say the Lord’s prayer in Latin, it is almost identical to the version found in the Vulgate. Here’s the Latin from same section of Matthew’s Gospel, according to the Vulgate Bible:

Pater noster qui in caelis es sanctificetur nomen tuum. Veniat regnum tuum fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum supersubstantialem da nobis hodie. Et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimisimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne inducas nos in temptationem sed libera nos a malo.

Matthew 6: 9-13

As you can see, the variations are slight:

we usually say ‘adveniat‘ instead of veniat. They are both verbs meaning ‘to come’ and are both in the subjunctive voice (expressing a desire).
Instead of supersubstantialem, (‘supersubstantial’ means ‘life-sustaining’) we say ‘daily’, (quotidianum) although supersubstantial is truer to the original Latin.
Dimisimus‘ seems to be synonymous with ‘dimittimus‘; they are both derived from dimittere, ‘to release’ or ‘to discharge’.

Although Protestants often add a Doxology to the end of the prayer (for Thine is the Kingdom etc) none of the Church Fathers or saints including John Chrysostom, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome or Gregory the Great included this addition. The doxology does not appear in the Traditional Latin Mass, but was added to the Novus Ordo, apparently as a nod to ecumenism.

These days, Catholics usually refer to this prayer as the Pater Noster or simply, ‘The Lord’s Prayer’, but it was known for centuries as Oratio Dominica (oratio = prayer; dominica = adjective, meaning ‘the Lord’s’). Throughout the Middle Ages, te prayer was said in Latin by all classes of people.

It wasn’t until after the Reformation that the prayer came to be known as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’.

For more resources on the Lord’s Prayer, see my Pater Noster sorting cards, which help children learn the Latin version of the prayer or you may like to watch my pronunciation video below.