When it is said
It is a monk’s own prayer, not part of any church service.
Say the first line the moment you know you have sinned, and keep saying it.
Where it comes from
Author by tradition
Who was Apollo?
Apollo was a rough herdsman who committed a terrible crime. His heart was struck at once by what he had done. He went to the monks of Scetis, in the Egyptian desert, and told them everything. He stayed and lived among them as a monk.
Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Apollo 2 (Migne, Patrologia Graeca 65, columns 133 to 136)
Forty years without a prayer
At Scetis, Apollo heard the monks sing that our days are seventy years, or eighty for the strong (Psalm 90:10). He told them he was 40 years old and had never prayed once. If he lived 40 more years, he said, he would never stop asking God to forgive his sins. Instead of working with his hands, he prayed this one line night and day.
Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Apollo 2 (Migne, Patrologia Graeca 65, columns 133 to 136); E. A. Wallis Budge, The Paradise or Garden of the Holy Fathers (1907), volume 1, pages 269 to 270
The second prayer
Later, a monk who lived with Apollo heard him ask God to forgive him so that he might rest a little. Then Apollo was given full assurance that God had forgiven his sins.
Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Apollo 2 (Migne, Patrologia Graeca 65, column 136)
The Scripture in it
But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Ἥμαρτον ὡς ἄνθρωπος, ὡς Θεὸς ἱλάσθητι.
Ὤχλησά σοι, Κύριε, ἄφες μοι, ἵνα ἀναπαύσωμαι μικρόν.