Leonine Prayers

After the problem was settled with the Lateran Treaty of 1929, Pope Pius XI ordered the intention shifted to the restoration in Soviet Russia of freedom to profess the Catholic faith.

In 1859, Pope Pius IX, facing rebellion against his temporal sovereignty in the course of the Risorgimento, ordered that Masses celebrated in the Papal States be followed by three Ave Marias, a Salve Regina, a versicle and response, and a collect.

[5] On 6 January 1884, in the context of anti-clerical political and social developments in the new Kingdom of Italy, Pope Leo XIII ordered the prayers be recited throughout the world.

But the following year, Pope Pius XI ordered that the Leonine Prayers should be offered “to permit tranquillity and freedom to profess the faith to be restored to the afflicted people of Russia”.

[9] The 26 September 1964 Instruction Inter Oecumenici, which came into force on 7 March 1965, on implementing the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council decreed: “The Leonine Prayers are suppressed”.

The priest says the Leonine prayers kneeling on the steps to the altar.
A priest and altar server kneel to recite the Leonine Prayers.