«GOD BE BLESSED». — A formula of praise to God, Jesus Christ, the Virgin, and s. Giuseppe, customarily recited or sung after Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament and often also after Mass.
The original series of these praises is due to the Jesuit Luigi Felici (1736–1818), who, having founded a congregation of «sailors» in Rome, composed it in 1797, in order to eradicate more effectively the vice of blasphemy, recommending it not only to the «sailors» but also to all the faithful, as an act of reparation. The pious practice soon spread to other associations, confraternities, and churches. Pius VII (23 July 1801) enriched it with indulgences; Pius IX, preaching on 13 January 1847 in the church of S. Andrea della Valle against blasphemy, warmly recommended it; and on 8 August of the same year he added new indulgences and prescribed that it be recited after the more solemn Masses or the last Mass celebrated in each church, and after the service of Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament. From the Papal States the practice spread throughout Italy and also abroad. The same Pius IX, after the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, added the praise: «Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception»; Leo XIII (2 February 1897; Acta Sanctae Sedis, 29
The indulgences now attached to this pious practice are as follows: an indulgence of three years, each time; of five years, when the Praises are recited in public; plenary, once a month, when they have been recited every day (cf. Preces et pia opera, Rome 1938, no. 646, p. 514).