Hail Mary

This article is about a Christian prayer. For other meanings, see Hail Mary (disambiguation).

Madonna by Batoni, an example of Marian art

The Hail Mary or Ave Maria (Latin) is a traditional Christian prayer asking for the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. The Hail Mary is used within Roman Catholicism, and it forms the basis of the Rosary. The prayer is also used by the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox as well as by many other groups within the Catholic tradition of Christianity including Anglicans, Independent Catholics, and Old Catholics. Some Protestant denominations also make use of the prayer. Most of the text of the Hail Mary can be found within the Gospel of Luke.

Biblical source

The biblical basis of the Hail Mary prayer relates to the angel Gabriel's Annunciation to Mary of Jesus' imminent conception and birth just before she leaves Nazareth for the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth. The angel declares: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women" (Luke 1:28) and "blessed is the fruit of thy womb" (Luke 1:42).

The opening word of greeting, χαῖρε, chaíre, literally has the meaning "rejoice" or "be glad." This was a normal greeting in the Greek language in which Luke's Gospel was written and continues to be used in the same sense in modern Greek.

The word κεχαριτωμένη, (kecharitōménē), translated as "full of grace," can be translated in various ways. Grammatically, it is the feminine present perfect passive voice participle of the verb χαριτόω, charitóō, which means "to show, or bestow with, grace."

The text also appears in the account of the annunciation contained in the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 9.

Versions

Greek tradition

The Hail Mary prayer of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic churches is translated as: Mother of God 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 Savior of our souls."

Western version

The current Catholic version, based on the Latin, is as follows: File:La-ecc-Ave Maria.ogg

"Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among 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."

Syriac Orthodox tradition

The Syriac Orthodox Church uses a version of the Hail Mary that combines aspect of the Orthodox and Catholic traditions. The prayer is said in the following manner:

• Leader: Hail Mary, full of grace,
• People: Our Lord is with Thee. Blessed art Thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of Thy womb, our Lord, Jesus Christ. O Virgin Saint Mary, O Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at all times, and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Variant Slavonic versions

There exist two variant versions in Church Slavonic:

Theotokos Virgin, rejoice, (or, Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos)

Mary full of grace,

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,

for thou hast borne Christ the Savior,

the Deliverer of our souls.

Theotokos Virgin, rejoice, (or, Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos)

Mary full of grace,

The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,

for thou hast borne the Savior of our souls

The first is the older, and remains in use by the Old Believers as well as those who follow the Ruthenian recension (among them the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church and the Ruthenian Catholic Church). The second appeared in 1656 under the liturgical reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow, and is in use by the Russian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church).

Usage

In the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, the prayer is very common in the Greek form indicated above, or in translations from it. Although not said quite as often as in the West, it is well known, often used, and appears in several canons of prayer. It is typically sung three times at the end of Vespers during an all-night vigil, as well as occurring many times in the course of daily prayer.

History

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia concludes that "there is little or no trace of the Hail Mary as an accepted devotional formula (in the West) before about 1050." Thomas Aquinas indicated that the prayer was in use in his time, with only the word "Mary" being added to the greeting of the angel Gabriel. Slightly later, the name "Jesus" seems to have been added to specify who was meant by the phrase "the fruit of thy womb."

The Western version of the prayer is thus apparently not derived from the Greek version: even the earliest Western forms have no trace of the phrases "Mother of God and Virgin" or "for thou hast given birth to the Savior of our souls," which are part of the Greek version.

To the greeting and praise of Mary of which the prayer consisted in the West, the petition —"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen."—was commonly added around the time of the Council of Trent in the mid sixteenth century. The Dutch Jesuit Petrus Canisius is credited with adding in 1555 in his Catechism the sentence: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners," which appeared for he first time in his catechism of 1555. Eleven years later, the sentence was included in the Catechism of the Council of Trent of 1566.

The "Catechism of the Council of Trent" stipulates that to the first part of the Hail Mary, by which "we render to God the highest praise and return Him most gracious thanks, because He has bestowed all His heavenly gifts on the most holy Virgin ... the Church of God has wisely added prayers and an invocation addressed to the most holy Mother of God... We should earnestly implore her help and assistance; for that she possesses exalted merits with God, and that she is most desirous to assist us by her prayers, no one can doubt without impiety and wickedness."

Virgin and Angels by Bouguereau, an example of Marian art

The Hail Mary is the essential element of the Rosary, a prayer method in use especially among Latin Rite (Western) Catholics. This tradition appears in the East only among Latinized Ukrainian and Maronite Catholics.

The Hail Mary is also the central part of the Angelus, a devotion generally recited thrice daily by many Catholics, as well as some Anglicans and Lutherans.

Anglicans also employ the Hail Mary in devotional practice. Traditional Anglo-Catholics use the prayer in much the same way as the Roman Catholics, including use of the Rosary and the recitation of the Angelus. Many Anglican churches contain statues of the Virgin Mary, and the faithful use devotional prayers including the Hail Mary. However there might be some variations in local usage, reflecting the differing theological leanings of the two bodies.

Musical settings

The Hail Mary or Ave Maria in Latin 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). Settings also exist by Mozart, Byrd, Elgar, Verdi, Saint-Saens, Rossini, Brahms and Perosi as well as numerous versions by less well-known composers, such as J.B. Tresch.

In Slavonic, the text was also a popular subject for setting to music by Eastern European composers. These include Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Bortniansky and several others.

This text was also very often set by composers in the Renaissance, including Jacques Arcadelt, 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 versions of the text different from the ones shown above. Josquin Desprez, 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.

Even though Protestant Christianity generally avoids any special veneration of Mary, access to the beautiful and culturally significant tradition of Marian music is facilitated by substitution texts. These texts are intended to replace the words of the standard "Ave Maria," preserving word boundaries and syllable stresses, so that music written for the former text can be sung with the latter. An example is the Christ-centric Ave Redemptor:

Ave redemptor, Domine Jesus:

Cujus ob opus

Superatur mors, enim salvatio

Nunc inundavit super universam terram.

Sancte redemptor, reputata

Fides est nobis peccatoribus,

Nunc et in morte, ad iustitiam.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Hail the Redeemer, Lord Jesus,

By whose work

Death is defeated, for salvation

Has now overflowed upon all of the world.

Holy redeemer, our faith

Is reckoned to us sinners,

Now and in death, as righteousness.

See also

Hail Mary Portal

• Theotokos
• Marian devotions
• Mary, the mother of Jesus
• Catholic beliefs on the power of prayer
• Mariology, the theological study of Mary
• Prayer beads and prayer rope
• Marian apparitions
• Marian shrine
• Rosary
• Hail Mary pass

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Hail Mary

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Hail Mary translations

• Ave Maria on video/audio sung by Sharon Janis
• Catholic Encyclopedia 1910: Hail Mary
• Brief commentary on the Hail Mary from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
• Ave Maria article in Christian Cyclopedia
• Various Ave Maria hymn Ave Maria(MIDI by JE1EMU)
• Text of the Hail Mary in many foreign languages

Template:Catholic Prayers

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