In the tradition of the Italian Navy, the sailor's prayer is the text that is read on board the ships in navigation, both during the ceremony of the lowering of the flag and at the end of the masses; the prayer is read by the youngest officer on board; ashore the text is read at the end of the religious services celebrated in suffrage of the sailors.
The text of the prayer was composed by the writer Antonio Fogazzaro in 1901 and was recited for the first time on the Garibaldi ship; the reading of the prayer was made compulsory starting from 1909 following the rapid spread of the tradition.