A Medium in Bordeaux
According to spiritist accounts, the prayer was communicated on the night of December 25, 1873, through a medium referred to as Madame W. Krell, active within a spiritist group in Bordeaux, France. In Kardecist doctrine, the words are attributed to a spirit called Cáritas, one of several messages this medium is said to have received and recorded through psychography, or spirit-dictated writing.
Publication
These messages, including the Prayer of Charity as originally transcribed in French, were published in 1875 in a book titled Rayonnements de la Vie Spirituelle. That publication is the basis for the prayer's spread through spiritist, Umbanda, and later Santo Daime circles, even as the spirit-authorship behind it remains a matter of religious belief rather than documented fact.
A Prayer Valued for Protection
Within spiritist and related traditions, the prayer is regarded as unusually effective for protection when recited with sincere feeling rather than by rote, and practitioners describe it as reaching a depth of the soul that brings serenity. Its lasting popularity across generations of practitioners is often cited within these circles as evidence of the prayer's enduring resonance.