Prayer of Tobias and Sarah on the wedding night — Tob 8:4-8

The prayer of Tobias and Sarah on the first night of marriage (Tob 8:4-8) is the most beautiful and most ancient biblical text on Christian marriage. As the Book of Tobit (deuterocanonical, written in Hebrew/Aramaic c. 3rd century B.C., preserved in the Vulgata Clementina as the translation of St Jerome from the Aramaic text) narrates, young Tobias son of Tobit marries in Ecbatana Sarah daughter of Raguel — after the archangel Raphael has guided him throughout the journey. Sarah had already been given in marriage seven times, and on each occasion the demon Asmodeus had killed the bridegroom before the consummation (Tob 3:8). Tobias, instructed by Raphael, burns on the wedding night the heart and liver of a fish caught in the river Tigris (Tob 6:3-5; 8:2), and the angel binds Asmodeus in the desert of upper Egypt (Tob 8:3). Before the conjugal union, Tobias calls Sarah to prayer — and the biblical text transmits to us in its entirety this first Christian prayer of marriage in three great movements: (1) blessing of the God of the fathers; (2) memorial of the creation of Adam and Eve; (3) petition for shared longevity. The text is presented here trilingual: Latin of the Vulgata Clementina (St Jerome’s version, 4th-5th century, full DP), English of the Douay-Rheims (1582-1610, full DP) and Portuguese of the translation of Fr Pereira de Figueiredo († 1797, full DP). This prayer is traditionally proposed to Christian spouses for the first wedding night and for all marriage anniversaries.

Then Tobias rising up, said to her:

«Arise, Sarah, and let us pray to God today, and tomorrow, and the next day: because for these three nights we are joined to God: and when the third night is over, we will be in our own wedlock. For we are the children of saints, and we must not be joined together like heathens that know not God.»

(So they both arose, and prayed earnestly both together that health might be given them. And Tobias said:)

«Lord God of our fathers, may the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains, and the rivers, and all thy creatures that are in them, bless thee.

Thou madest Adam of the slime of the earth, and gavest him Eve for a helper. And now, Lord, thou knowest, that not for fleshly lust do I take my sister to wife, but only for the love of posterity, in which thy name may be blessed for ever and ever.»

(Sarah also said:)

«Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us, and let us grow old both together in health.»

(Tob 8:4-8 — Douay-Rheims)

O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — God of Tobias and Sarah — who see in Christian spouses the image of your covenant with the Church (Eph 5:32), bless the spouses who this night begin their marriage with the prayer of Tobias, and the spouses who on this anniversary renew it: that we may never join together like those who know not God, but always in the purity of the children of the saints, in the hope of blessed posterity, and in the firm confidence of arriving both together in health at a happy old age in your company. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.