We fly to your patronage ,
O holy Mother of God,
despise not our
petitions
in our necessities,
but deliver us from all dangers.
O ever
glorious and blessed Virgin.
This was one of the first direct prayers to Mary and it comes from 250 A.D.
There are three things to note about this prayer:
1) It refers to the doctrine of the Mother of God 200 years before it is defined as a dogma at Ephesus in 431.
2) It is an obvious example of direct prayer to Mary by early Christians.
3) It is convoking Mary under the most severe time of persecution. This underscores the importance of Mary in the thought of the earliest Christians.
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