Prayers  ·  The Hail, Holy Queen

Marble Vault

The Hail, Holy Queen

A traditional Catholic prayer

Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

In Latin

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae; vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus exsules filii Evae. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, Advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte. Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.

Where it comes from

Angels bear Our Lady up by the edges of her mantle, her own hands joined, while others play the lute and the viol around her, and above them the Trinity waits. Its Latin, the Salve Regina, is now generally ascribed to Hermann Contractus, one name behind words that whole choirs have carried. The Dominicans began singing it at Compline about 1221 and spread it; in the Breviary it is the anthem of Our Lady from First Vespers of Trinity Sunday until the Saturday before Advent. The story that Saint Bernard added its last three invocations is late and doubtful. In 1884 Leo XIII ordered it said after every Low Mass, and the friars' night song was handed to every parish. She is carried up with her hands still joined, and the prayer follows her from this valley of tears, where we are.

H. Henry, “Salve Regina”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 13 (1912): newadvent.org

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The traditional prayers  ·  The Rosary