Hail Mary
The Hail Mary (
In the
Text
The Latin version of the prayer is the most common in English-speaking and other Western countries.
Ave Maria, gratia plena, |
Hail Mary, full of grace, |
Biblical source
The prayer incorporates two greetings to Mary recorded in the Gospel of Luke: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee",[a] and "Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb".[b][8] In mid-13th-century Western Europe, the prayer consisted only of these words with the single addition of the name "Mary" after the word "Hail", as is evident from Thomas Aquinas's commentary on the prayer.[9]
The first of the two passages from the Gospel of Luke is the greeting of the
The word κεχαριτωμένη (kecharitōménē), here translated as "
The text also appears in the account of the annunciation contained in chapter 9 of the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Matthew.
The second part of the prayer is taken from Elizabeth's greeting to Mary as recorded in Luke 1:42: "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb."[11] Taken together, these two passages are the two times Mary is greeted in chapter 1 of the Gospel of Luke.
In Western (Latin) tradition
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After considering the use of similar words in
Thomas Aquinas spoke of the name "Mary" as the only word added at his time to the Biblical text, to indicate the person who was "full of grace". But at about the same time the name "Jesus" was also added, to specify who was meant by the phrase "the fruit of thy womb".
The Western version of the prayer is thus not derived from the Greek version: even the earliest Western forms have no trace of the Greek version's phrases: "Mother of God and Virgin" and "for thou hast given birth to the Saviour of our souls".
To the greeting and praise of Mary of which the prayer thus consisted, a petition "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death" was added later. The petition first appeared in print in 1495 in Girolamo Savonarola's Esposizione sopra l'Ave Maria.[12] The "Hail Mary" prayer in Savonarola's exposition reads: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."[c]
The petition was commonly added around the time of the
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.[13]
Eleven years later, the sentence was included in the
The current Latin version is thus as follows, with accents added to indicate how the prayer is said in the current ecclesiastical pronunciation of Latin, as well as macrons to indicate the Classical vowel lengths:
Ávē Marī́a, grā́tiā plḗna, |
Hail Mary, full of grace, |
Because recitation of the Angelus, a prayer within which the Hail Mary is recited three times, is usually accompanied by the ringing of the Angelus bell, words from the Ave Maria were often inscribed on bells.[11]
Indulgence
The
Byzantine Christian use
The Hail Mary prayer of the
The Greek text, of which those in other languages are translations, is:
Θεοτόκε Παρθένε, χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη Μαρία, ὁ Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ. εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξί, καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου, ὅτι Σωτῆρα ἔτεκες τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν.[17] |
God-bearing Virgin, rejoice, grace-filled Mary, the Lord with thee. Praised thou among women, and praised the fruit of thy womb, because it was the Saviour of our souls that thou borest. |
To the Biblical texts this adds the opening invocation "Theotokos Virgin", the name "Mary", and the concluding phrase "because it was the Saviour of our souls that thou borest".
Another English rendering of the same text reads:
Mother of God[e]and Virgin, rejoice, Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast given birth to the Saviour of our souls.
or:
God-bearing (or: Theotokos) Virgin, rejoice, O Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast brought forth the Savior of our souls.
Aramaic version
The
Text | Transliteration |
---|---|
ܫܠܳܡ ܠܶܟ̣ܝ̱ ܒܬ̣ܽܘܠܬܳܐ ܡܰܪܝܰܡ ܡܰܠܝܰܬ̣ ܛܰܝܒܽܘܬ̣ܳܐ. | Shlom lekh[f] bthulto Maryam[g] malyath taybutho, |
ܡܳܪܰܢ ܥܰܡܶܟ̣ܝ̱. | moran 'amekh. |
ܡܒܰܪܰܟ̣ܬܳܐ ܐܰܢ̱ܬܝ̱ ܒܢܶܫ̈ܶܐ. | Mbarakhto at bneshe. |
ܘܰܡܒܰܪܰܟ ܗ̱ܽܘ ܦܺܐܪܳܐ ܕܰܒܟܰܪܣܶܟ̣ܝ̱. ܡܳܪܰܢ ܝܶܫܽܘܥ. | Wambarakhu firo dabkarsekh moran Yeshu'.[h] |
ܐܳܘ ܩܰܕܺܝܫܬܳܐ ܡܰܪܝܰܡ ܝܳܠܕܰܬ̣ ܐܰܠܗܳܐ. | O qadishto Maryam yoldath Aloho.[i] |
ܨܰܠܳܝ ܚܠܳܦܰܝܢ ܚܰܛܳܝ̈ܶܐ. | Saloy hlofayn hatoye, |
ܗܳܫܳܐ ܘܰܒܫܳܥܰܬ ܘܡܰܘܬܰܢ | hosho wabsho'at u mawtan. |
ܐܰܡܺܝܢ܀ | Amin. |
Slavonic versions
There exist two variant versions in
Cyrillic | Romanization | English Translation |
|
|
Theotokos Virgin, rejoice, (or: Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos) |
|
|
Theotokos Virgin, rejoice, (or: Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos) |
The first is the older, and remains in use by the
Latin Church Catholic use
The Hail Mary is the last prayer in Appendix V of the Roman Missal, the last of seven prayers under the heading "Thanksgiving After Mass". There it appears with "with you" instead of the traditional "with thee", "are you" instead of the traditional "art thou" and "your womb" in place of the traditional "thy womb":
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you;
blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
The Hail Mary is the central part of the Angelus, a devotion generally recited thrice daily by many Catholics, as well as broad and high church Anglicans, and Lutherans who usually omit the second half.
The Hail Mary is an essential element of the Rosary, a prayer method in use especially among Roman Rite (Western) Catholics. The Eastern Catholic Churches say a similar version.
The Rosary consists traditionally of three sets of five Mysteries, each Mystery being meditated on while reciting a decade (a set of ten) of Ave Maria. The 150 Ave Maria of the Rosary thus echo the 150
Lutheran use
Martin Luther believed that Mary should be held in highest reverence, advocating the use of the first half of the Hail Mary (that is, "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.") as a sign of reverence for and devotion to the Virgin.[19][20][j] The 1522 Betbüchlein (Prayer Book) retained the Hail Mary.[5] The second part of the prayer used in Catholicism today ("Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death") was not in use in Germany at the time.[15]
Anglican use
Some
Musical settings
The Hail Mary (Ave Maria in Latin) has been set to music numerous times. The title "Ave Maria" has been given also to musical compositions that are not settings of the prayer.
One of the most famous is the
In Gounod's version, he superimposed melody and the words to the first prelude from Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, omitting only the words "Mater Dei" (Mother of God).
Anton Bruckner wrote three different settings, the best known being a motet for seven voices. Antonín Dvořák's version was composed in 1877. Another setting of Ave Maria was written by Giuseppe Verdi as part for his 1887 opera Otello. Russian composer César Cui, who was raised Roman Catholic, set the text at least three times: as the "Ave Maria", op. 34, for one or two women's voices with piano or harmonium (1886), and as part of two of his operas: Le flibustier (premiered 1894) and Mateo Falcone (1907).
Settings also exist by
In the
Ave Maria, gratia plena,
Dominus tecum, Virgo serena.
Ave cuius conceptio,
solemni plena gaudio,
celestia, terrestria,
nova replet letitia.
Ave cuius nativitas,
nostra fuit solemnitas,
ut lucifer lux oriens
verum solem preveniens.
Ave pia humilitas,
sine viro fecunditas,
cuius annunciatio
nostra fuit salvatio.
Ave vera virginitas,
immaculata castitas,
cuius purificatio
nostra fuit purgatio.
Ave preclara omnibus
angelicis virtutibus,
cuius fuit assumptio
nostra glorificatio.
O Mater Dei, memento mei. Amen.
The much-anthologized "Ave Maria" by Jacques Arcadelt is actually a 19th-century arrangement by Pierre-Louis Dietsch, loosely based on Arcadelt's three part madrigal "Nous voyons que les hommes".
In the 20th century, Franz Biebl composed Ave Maria (Angelus Domini), actually a setting of the Angelus prayer, in which the Ave Maria is repeated three times, but its second part only once as the climax.
In Slavonic, the text was also a popular subject for setting to music by Eastern European composers. These include
A famous setting for the Orthodox version of the prayer in Church Slavonic (Bogoroditsye Djevo) was composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff in his All-Night Vigil.
Since
See also
Notes
- ^ Luke 1:28: Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ; Chaire, kecharitōmenē, o Kyrios meta sou.[6]
- ^ Luke 1:42: Εύλογηένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξὶν καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου; Eulogēmenē su en gynaixin kai eulogēmenos o karpos tēs koilias sou.[7]
- ^ The prayer is printed in Latin on the first page of the exposition and reads: "Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum Benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus Fructus uentris tui Iesus sancta Maria mater Dei ora pro nobis peccatoribus nunc et in hora mortis. Amen".
- ^ With Pope John XXIII's edition of the Roman Missal, the use of the letter J in printing Latin was dropped even in liturgical books, which had preserved that usage long after it ceased in the printing of ordinary Latin texts, including documents of the Holy See.
- ^ Θεοτόκε literally means "God-bearer". The Greek phrase Μήτηρ Θεοῦ, corresponding literally to "Mother of God", appears regularly, in the abbreviated form ΜΡ ΘΥ, in icons representing her.
- ArabicSalam.
- ^ Mary, in Aramaic, is rendered as Maryam.
- ^ Jesus
- ^ God
- ^ In keeping with the principle of sola scriptura, Luther exclusively emphasized the quotation from Luke 1:42,[21] without addition.
References
- ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Hail Mary". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
- ^ "Hail Mary | Prayer, History, & Uses | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
- ^ Schmitt, Jacob (1894). Explanation of Deharbe's small catechism: by James Schmitt. Transl. from the 7th German ed. [Josef Deharbe SJ]. Herder. p. 289. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
- ^ Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia: Hail Mary
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4514-9668-0.
- ^ Luke 1:28
- ^ Luke 1:42
- ISBN 978-0-8232-2531-6, retrieved 11 April 2020
- ^ "Saint Thomas Aquinas on the Hail Mary", Catholic Dossier, May–June 1996, Ignatius Press, Snohomish, Washington.
- Liddell and Scott, A Greek–English Lexicon, "χαρι^τ-όω".
- ^ a b c
Thurston, Herbert (1910), "Hail Mary", The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. VII, New York: Robert Appleton Company, retrieved 19 September 2007
- ^ British Library - Rare Books Department, shelfmark: IA 27542.
- ^ This sentence appeared for the first time in his catechism of 1555: Petrus Canisius, CATECHISMI Latini et Germanici, I, (ed. Friedrich Streicher, S P C CATECHISMI Latini et Germanici, I, Roma, Munich, 1933, I, 12.
- .
- ^ a b Calloway, Donald H (2017). Champions of the Rosary: The History and Heroes of a Spiritual Weapon. Marian Press. p. 543. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
- ISBN 88-209-2785-3(in the appendix relating to "pious invocations")
- ^ Nicholas Danielides, Archon Lambadarios.
- ^ Qolo Shlom leg bthulto Maryam, su KoleSuryoye.nl - Syriac Church Lyrics. — The initial part of the prayer was written in Syriac language of the Syriac liturgy, modern son of the Aramaic which was spoken at the time of Mary, while the Green text has been handed down by Saint Luke the Evangelist
- ^ Lehmann, H., ed. Luther's Works, American edition, vol. 43, p. 40, Fortress, 1968.
- ^ Luther's Works, 10 II, 407–409.
- ^ Luke 1:42
- ^ Society of Mary.
- ^ Ave Maria, D.839 (Schubert, Franz) music score in Public Domain Petrucci Music Library.
- ISBN 1-84383-135-Xpage 115.
- ^ Ave Redemptor (Relph).
- ^ Ave Redemptor (Ngai), Choral Public Domain Library.
External links
- University of Dayton Hail Mary in various languages
- Audio recordings and texts of the Hail Mary and other prayers in various languages
- Article 2, "THE WAY OF PRAYER", 2676–2677, on the Hail Mary—Catechism of the Catholic Church
- "The Village of St. Bernadette" on YouTube, video of Andy Williams' performance of a song using "Ave Maria" as its refrain.