Refugium peccatorum is one of the petitions of the Litany of Loreto, the Marian litany of the Holy House of Loreto that the Holy See approved for public use in the sixteenth century and that the Church still prays in the form published on the Vatican's own rosary pages. The invocation was carried into ordinary Catholic speech by centuries of preaching and by devotional classics on Mary's mercy, and it stands behind the closing petitions of the Hail Mary and the Memorare.

The title says nothing about Mary that is not first about Christ: she is a refuge because she leads to him, and the sinner who takes shelter with her is being led to confession, to penance and to the Cross where mercy was won. It also expresses the Church's confidence that holiness is not repelled by sin. The one preserved from all sin is precisely the one most willing to receive sinners, because her whole existence is ordered to the Redeemer who came to call them.

Universal Church

The usual image is the Virgin of Mercy: Mary standing with her mantle held wide by angels while people of every rank kneel beneath it. The gesture is the same one the third-century prayer Sub tuum praesidium already makes — fleeing under her protection.

• Refugium Peccatorum
• Refuge of Sinners

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• litany-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary

• memorare

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• sub-tuum-praesidium