“Prayer to Archangel Michael, the Terrible Governor of the Heavenly Powers” is probably one of the most common apocryphal prayers these days. It is often called simply the “Prayer to Archangel Michael” (it should not be confused with prayers to Archangel Michael that do not contain apocryphal elements).
Here is one of the modern versions of this prayer, which, according to our observations, is one of the most popular (we left the spelling and punctuation of the text unchanged):
Lord, Great God, King without beginning, send Your Archangel Michael to help Your servants (name). Protect us, Archangel, from all enemies, visible and invisible. Oh, Lord the Great Archangel Michael! Destroyer of demons, forbid all enemies fighting me, and make them like sheep, and humble their evil hearts, and crush them like dust in the face of the wind. Oh, Lord the Great Archangel Michael! Six-winged first Prince and Governor of the Heavenly Forces - Cherubim and Seraphim, be our helper in all troubles, sorrows, sorrows, a quiet refuge in the desert and on the seas. Oh, Lord the Great Archangel Michael! Deliver us from all the charms of the devil, when You hear us, sinners, praying to You and calling on Your Holy name. Hasten to our aid and overcome all who oppose us, by the power of the Honest and Life-giving Cross of the Lord, the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, the prayers of the Holy Apostles, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, Andrew, for Christ's sake, the Fool for the Fool, St. the prophet Elijah and all the holy great martyrs: St. martyrs Nikita and Eustathius, and all our reverend fathers, who have pleased God from the ages, and all the holy Heavenly Powers. Oh, Lord the Great Archangel Michael! Help us sinners (name) and deliver us from cowardice, flood, fire, sword and vain death, from great evil, from the flattering enemy, from the reviled storm, from the evil one always, now and ever, and forever and ever. Amen. Holy Archangel of God Michael, with Your lightning sword, drive away from me the evil spirit that tempts and torments me. Amen.
This text is a slightly modified version of what was widespread among the people in the 16th - early 16th century. XX centuries “Prayers to Archangel Michael, the Terrible Governor of the Heavenly Forces.” In 1913, A. I. Yatsimirsky published several copies of this apocryphal (“false”) prayer and pointed out the Russian origin of this text. One of the versions of the prayer (“Prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ, to the Holy Archangel Michael”) was published by D. S. Likhachev based on a 17th-century copy from the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences. D. S. Likhachev believed that this prayer was written in 1572 or 1573 by Ivan the Terrible under the pseudonym Parfeny the Ugly, along with the Canon to the Angel the Terrible Governor.
However, A. A. Turilov and A. V. Chernetsov pointed out the dubiousness of such an attribution. They discovered a list of prayers compiled no later than the mid-16th century. In addition, the researchers noted that this prayer was very popular in the writing of the 16th–19th centuries. and was preserved in hundreds of lists; it was often included in collections of conspiracies. One of the options for the “Prayer to Archangel Michael, the Terrible Governor of the Heavenly Forces” is “Prayer to Michael and Gabriel the Archangels.”
The versions of the “Prayer to Archangel Michael, the Terrible Governor of the Heavenly Forces” that are widespread these days are not particularly different from each other. Differences may be caused by copying errors or distortions. So, instead of creating them like sheep, we can find creating them like sheep. The degree of “modernization” of the language of prayer also varies. Church Slavonic linguistic forms (posli, crusher, prince, voivode, Most Holy, flattering, sword) can be replaced by Russian ones (went, crusher, prince, voivode, Most Holy, flattering, sword).
In recent years, the “Prayer to Archangel Michael, the Terrible Governor of the Heavenly Forces” has also been distributed under the title “Prayer for the President of Russia.” In this version, the “name” is replaced by the names of both V.V. Putin and D.A. Medvedev: Lord God, Great King, Beginningless, Lord, send Your Archangel Michael to help Your servants Demetrius and Vladimir; or: Lord God, Great King, Beginningless, send, O Lord, Thy Archangel Michael to the aid of Thy servant Vladimir (Dimitri).