There is no single author of the Angelus. The present form of the Angelus, as it was recommended by Pope Paul VI in his Marialis Cultus, is the result of a century-long development and was definitively approved by Pope Benedict XIV in 1724. The Angelus is an explicitly biblical prayer. It...
The “Ave Regina Caelorum” is one of the four antiphons sung after Night Prayer. It is used in Lent. Hail, Queen of heaven;Hail, Mistress of the Angels;Hail, root of Jesus;Hail, the gate through which the Light rose over the earth.Rejoice, Virgin most renowned and of unsurpassed beauty. “Witaj Niebios Królowo”...
Litany is a series of short petitions and exhortations to which the people respond by the Kyrie eleison: Grant this, Lord: to Thee, Lord. In the East, marian litanies are numerous. From Constantinople the Litany was taken to Rome and the West. The Litany of Loreto, so called because of...
The “Alma Redemptoris Mater,” which dates from the eleventh century, is one of the four antiphons sung after Night Prayer. It is used in the Advent Season. Loving mother of the Redeemer,gate of heaven, star of the sea,assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again.To the wonderment...
The “Salve, Regina” is one of the four Marian antiphons. It was possibly written by Hermann the Lame, a monk of Reichenau (1013-1054). The “Salve, Regina” was sung at the end of Night Prayer and used as a processional antiphon at the Abbey of Cluny (France) from around 1135. Hail,...
The Latin version of this prayer, Ave, Maris stella, can be traced to the late eighth/early ninth century. The title, Star of the Sea (or Ocean), is one of the oldest and most widely spread titles for Mary. The prayer is often used to pray for travelers. Mary herself is...
The “Regina Caeli” is a twelfth-century antiphon for Evening Prayer during the Easter Season. Since the thirteenth century, it has been used as the seasonal antiphon in honor of the Blessed Virgin after Night Prayer. Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia.The Son whom you merited to bear, alleluia, has risen as...
The Memorare is a sixteenth-century version of a fifteenth-century prayer that began “Ad sanctitatis tuae pedes, dulcissima Virgo Maria.” Claude Bernard (1588-1641) popularized the idea that the Memorare was written by Saint Bernard. Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored...
The Hail Mary! This Marian prayer summarizes the whole of the Church’s public prayers to Mary. Its first part – the Evangelical Salutation – is among the first to be used in the Church and its full form put together with the Supplication of the Church in the fifteenth century...
This prayer, known in Latin as Sub tuum Praesidium and first found in a Greek papyrus, c. 300 A.D., is the oldest known prayer to the Virgin. We fly to Thy protection, O Holy Mother of God; Do not despise our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us always from...
