Return to Tradition on the St Michael prayer: the 1964 date is right, the vision story needs context
Discussing the Bishop of Knoxville’s request that parishes stop adding group prayers at Mass, Return to Tradition says the Leonine prayers were dropped under Paul VI in 1964 and that Leo XIII instituted them after a vision. The date is right; the vision story is late and unconfirmed.
By TradWatch™ staff
2 min read
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Verdicts at a glance
- Accurate
The obligation to recite the Leonine prayers, including the St Michael prayer, after Low Mass was removed under Paul VI in 1964. · Anthony Stine
- Needs context
In this brief · 7 sections
In a Return to Tradition episode published on 18 October 2026, Anthony Stine discussed the Bishop of Knoxville’s column asking priests to move away from group prayers added before, during and after Mass, including the prayer to St Michael. On the column itself, see our earlier fact-check. Here we check the history the episode gives.
What was said
Statement 1: Anthony Stine
Return to Tradition · October 18, 2026
In 1964, the obligation to recite the Leonin prayers, including the St. Michael prayer, was removed under Paul VI
In brief: The obligation to recite the Leonine prayers, including the St Michael prayer, after Low Mass was removed under Paul VI in 1964.
Our verdict: AccurateThe record supports the claim as stated.
See the recordThis content is embedded for purposes of commentary, criticism, and news reporting. TradWatch is not affiliated with Return to Tradition. Views quoted are those of the speaker.
Statement 2: Anthony Stine
Return to Tradition · October 18, 2026
In response to this though, Pope Leo XIII instituted the Leonin prayers, one of which is the St. Michael prayer, the short form version, and mandated it to be said after every low mass.
In brief: Leo XIII instituted the Leonine prayers, including the St Michael prayer, in response to an 1884 vision of a dialogue between Christ and the devil.
Our verdict: Needs contextThe words are accurate, but missing context changes how they read.
See the recordThis content is embedded for purposes of commentary, criticism, and news reporting. TradWatch is not affiliated with Return to Tradition. Views quoted are those of the speaker.
Context
The episode also reads the bishop’s column and argues about participation in the new Mass; those parts are covered in our earlier piece or are opinion.
The record
What the sources show, statement by statement.
Verifiable factcan be checked against the sources cited.TradWatch analysisis our interpretation, clearly labelled.Statement 1 · Anthony Stine
The obligation to recite the Leonine prayers, including the St Michael prayer, after Low Mass was removed under Paul VI in 1964.
Statement 2 · Anthony Stine
Leo XIII instituted the Leonine prayers, including the St Michael prayer, in response to an 1884 vision of a dialogue between Christ and the devil.
Verifiable fact The vision story appears decades later
The Leonine prayers were ordered on 6 January 1884 without the St Michael prayer, which was added in 1886 (Wikipedia). Accounts of a vision first appeared in print in 1933 and 1947, give differing dates, and the sources close to the prayer’s institution in 1886 say nothing of a vision (Wikipedia).
Sources
TradWatch analysis Hedged, but presented as the reason
The episode says Leo XIII “is said to have” had the vision, which is fair. Presenting the prayers as instituted “in response” to it goes beyond what the early record shows: the 1884 decree preceded the St Michael prayer, and the vision accounts are late.
Source
Bottom line
The Leonine prayers were suppressed by Inter Oecumenici in 1964 (in force 1965). The story that Leo XIII acted after a vision first appears in print decades later and is not in the sources from 1884–1886.
The original
This content is embedded for purposes of commentary, criticism, and news reporting. TradWatch is not affiliated with Return to Tradition. Views quoted are those of the speaker.
Open on YouTubeSources
- 1.Primary sourceCited in statement 1
Bishop BANS St Michael Prayer At Mass!
Return to Tradition · October 18, 2026
podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/anthony-stine/episodes/Bishop-BANS-St-Michael-P…
- 2.
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More analysis
- Liturgy law: from the 1984 indult to Traditionis custodesInfoVaticana on the Knoxville St Michael prayer request: its Church texts are real, one is cited without its conditionAn InfoVaticana opinion piece against the Bishop of Knoxville’s request cites Sacrosanctum Concilium 13, canon 214 and Paul VI’s 1972 “smoke of Satan”. All three are real; the Council text also asks that devotions harmonize with the liturgy, the point the bishop relies on. · 2 min read
- Amoris Laetitia and Fiducia SupplicansReturn to Tradition on Prof. Rosito: his address mentions neither Communion nor redefining the familyReading a LifeSiteNews report, Return to Tradition says a Vatican theologian praised the spirit of Amoris laetitia’s opening to Communion and urged “new ways of being family”, under the title “Synod Theologian Urges The Vatican To Redefine The Traditional Family”. The address mentions neither Communion nor a redefinition. · 3 min read
- Liturgy law: from the 1984 indult to Traditionis custodesLifeSiteNews says the Bishop of Knoxville “bans” the St. Michael prayer after Mass. He asked parishes to move away from all added prayers at Mass, and to keep this one in devotionsBishop Mark Beckman’s column does ask priests to lead parishes away from saying the Prayer to St. Michael together immediately after Mass. But it applies to every prayer added before, during or after Mass, is framed as catechesis rather than a decree, and urges the faithful to keep praying to St. Michael outside the liturgy. · 2 min read