Prayers  ·  The Hail Mary

Marble Vault

The Hail Mary

A traditional Catholic prayer

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.

In 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.

Where it comes from

Gabriel kneels barefoot with a lily in one hand and the other lifted toward heaven; Our Lady lifts one palm and lays the other on her breast, her eyes lowered, while the Dove comes in at the window on a shaft of light. The first words of the prayer are his greeting to her and the next are Saint Elizabeth's, both below, and the closing petition, the Catechism of the Council of Trent says, was framed by the Church itself, its own voice set after the angel's and Elizabeth's. There is little trace of the Hail Mary as an accepted prayer before about 1050, and the Roman Breviary of 1568 gave its complete form official recognition. The angel said it once, the Church has said it ever since, and the hour of our death is already in it.

Herbert Thurston, “Hail Mary”, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 7 (1910): newadvent.org

²⁸And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

⁴²And she cried out with a loud voice and said: Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

Luke 1:28 · Luke 1:42, Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

More in painting

The traditional prayers  ·  The Rosary