Hail Mary

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This article is about a Christian prayer. For other meanings, see the "other meanings" section near the end of the article.

Hail Mary (Angelic Salutation) (from the Latin Ave Maria (Salutatio Angelica), is a traditional Roman Catholic prayer calling for the intercession of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Rooted in Biblical texts, the Ave Maria developed in the Middle Ages; in this context, Mary is known as the Blessed Virgin. The prayer is also used by other denominations in the Catholic tradition, notably Anglo-Catholic members of the Anglican Communion.

The first part of the prayer is the salutation of the Archangel Gabriel as reported in the Gospel of Luke 1:28 "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee". The second is from the greeting given to Mary by her cousin Elizabeth in Luke 1:42 "Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb", and a reinforcement of basic Christian belief in the real divinity and real humanity of Jesus. The closing petition "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." is stated by the official "Catechism of the Council of Trent" to have been "framed by the Church itself" [link].

As a separate formula for Roman Catholic devotion, the "Hail Mary" – though a pious tale has it miraculously recited to Ildephonsus of Toledo (fl. 7th century) – dates to the 11th century. [link]

The Hail Mary is the essential element of the Rosary, a prayer method practiced primarily by Catholics, comprised of 4 sets of 5 Mysteries meditating upon the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Each of these Mysteries is prayed as a decade (ten), consisting of one Our Father (Pater Noster or The Lord's Prayer), ten Hail Marys, and one 'Glory Be' (Gloria Patri) (Doxology). It is also the central part of the Angelus, a devotion generally recited thrice daily by Catholics, and some Anglicans and Lutherans.

Contents

1 The words of the Hail Mary

1.1 Latin
1.2 English

2 Musical settings
3 External links
4 See also

The words of the Hail Mary

Latin

Ave Maria, gratia plena Dominus tecum; Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.

Amen.

English

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.

See also Hail Mary (translations) and External links (below) for other non-English versions.

Musical settings

The Ave Maria has been set to music numerous times. Among the most famous settings is the version by Charles Gounod (1859), adding melody and words to Johann Sebastian Bach's first prelude from the Well-Tempered Clavier. Antonín Dvořák's version was composed in 1877. Another setting of Ave Maria was written by Giuseppe Verdi 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 1 or 2 women's voices with piano or harmonium (1886), and as part of two of his operas: Le Flibustier (premiered 1894) and Mateo Falcone (1907).

This text was also very often set by composers in the Renaissance, including Josquin Desprez, Orlando di Lasso, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Before the Council of Trent there were actually different versions of the text, so the earlier composers in the period sometimes set different versions than the ones shown above. Josquin, for example, himself set more than one version of the Ave Maria. Here is an example of a text set by Josquin which begins with the first six words above, but continues with a poem in rhymed couplets:

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.''

Franz Schubert's Ellens dritter Gesang (D839, Op 52 no 6, 1825) is often misidentified as "Schubert's Ave Maria" because it opens with the greeting "Ave Maria" ("Hail Mary"), even though it is not a setting of the traditional Ave Maria prayer. The original text of Schubert's song is from Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake and was translated into German by Adam Storck. Adding to the confusion, the traditional Ave Maria prayer is often sung to Schubert's melody of Ellens dritter Gesang; and in Walt Disney's Fantasia, the tune is used with yet another text beginning with the phrase. Recently Andrea Bocelli's rendering of the Ave Maria in his popular album Sacred Arias has gained considerable listenership.

Jesper Kyd, a Danish composer for video games, has remade the song to be the theme song to Hitman: Blood Money.

External links

[The prayer on roman-catholic-prayers.com]
[Catholic Encyclopedia 1910:] Hail Mary
[Brief commentary on the Hail Mary from the Catechism of the Catholic Church]
[Christian Cyclopedia] Ave Maria
[Various Ave Maria hymn] Ave Maria(MIDI by JE1EMU)
[Text of the Hail Mary in many foreign languages]