The Ave Maria in a Wikipedia Article

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"Ave Maria" (Hail Mary) on Wikipedia

This article was retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail_Mary" 04/22/2009.
This article is about a Catholic prayer. For other meanings, see Hail Mary (disambiguation)

The Hail Mary or Ave Maria (Latin) is a traditional Catholic 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.

Madonna and Child by Taddeo di Bartolo, 1400, an example of Marian art

1. Biblical source
2. The prayer in Greek tradition
3. The prayer in Western (Latin) tradition
4. The prayer in Syriac Orthodox tradition
5. Usage in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches
- 5.1. Slavonic versions of the Greek prayer
6. Usage in the Roman Catholic Church
7. Anglican use of the Hail Mary
8. Musical settings
9. References
10. See also External links

Biblical source

Madonna and child, by Pompeo Batoni, 1742

Madonna by Pompeo Batoni, 1742.

The prayer incorporates two passages from Saint Luke's Gospel: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongst women" (Luke 1:28: Χαιρε κεχαριτωμενη ο Κυριος μετα σου ευλογημενη συ εν γυναιξιν / Chaire, kecharitōmenē, o Kyrios meta sou, eulogēmenē su en gynaixin) and "Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" (Luke 1:42: Και ειπεν ευλογημενη συ εν γυναιξιν και ευλογημενος ο καρπος της κοιλιας σου / Kai eipen eulogēmenē su en gynaixin kai eulogēmenos o karpos tēs koilias sou). In mid-13th-century Western Europe the prayer consisted only of these words with the single addition of the name "Mary" after the word "Hail", as is evident from the commentary of Saint Thomas Aquinas on the prayer.

The first of the two passages from Saint Luke's Gospel is the greeting of the Angel Gabriel to Mary, originally written in Koine Greek. The opening word of greeting, χαῖρε, chaíre, here translated "Hail", literally has the meaning "Rejoice", "Be glad". This was the normal greeting in the language in which Saint Luke's Gospel is written and continues to be used in the same sense in Modern Greek. Accordingly, both "Hail" and "Rejoice" are valid English translations of the word. The word κεχαριτωμένη, (kecharitōménē), here translated as "full of grace", admits of various translations. Grammatically, the word is the feminine present perfect passive voice participle of the verb χαριτόω[2], charitóō, which means "to show, or bestow with, grace" and, in the passive voice, "to have grace shown, or bestowed upon, one". The form of the verb is intensive, hence the translations "full of grace".[3] The text also appears in the account of the annunciation contained in the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 9.

History (source of this box)

Traces of the Hail Mary have been noted in a Syriac ritual attributed to Severus, Patriarch of Antioch (c. 513), as well as to Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540-604) and John of Damascus (c. 676–749). However, the Catholic Encyclopedia admits that these examples do not warrant the conclusion that the Hail Mary was used as a specific formula of Christian devotion. It states that "there is little or no trace of the Hail Mary as an accepted devotional formula before about 1050."

Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) 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."

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. The term "Mother of God" ([[theotokos]]) was particularly important in Eastern tradition as a guard against the "heresy" of Nestorianism, which affirmed Mary as Mother of Christ, but not Mother of God.

The Dutch Jesuit Petrus Canisius is credited with adding the sentence: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners," which appeared for the 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.

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.

The prayer in Greek tradition

The Hail Mary prayer of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches is in the form: (.../...)
Theotokos God-bearing Maid, rejoice, grace-filled Mary, the Lord with thee. Praised thou among women, and praised the fruit of thy womb, because it was the Saviour of our souls that thou barest.

Another English rendering of the same text reads:
Mother of God[7] 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 Saviour of our souls.

To the Biblical texts this adds the opening invocation "Theotokos Virgin," the name "Mary" and the concluding "because it was the Saviour of our souls that thou barest."

The prayer in Western (Latin) tradition

After considering the use of similar words in Syriac, Greek and Latin in the 6th century, the article on the Hail Mary[5] in the Catholic Encyclopedia concludes that "there is little or no trace of the Hail Mary as an accepted devotional formula before about 1050", though a later pious tale attributed to Ildephonsus of Toledo (fl. 7th century) the use of the first part, namely the angel's greeting the Mary, without that of Elizabeth, as a prayer.

Saint Thomas Aquinas spoke of the name "Mary", which served to indicate who was the "full of grace" person mentioned, as the only word added at his time to the Biblical text. But at about the same time the name "Jesus" was also added, to specify who was meant by the phrase "the fruit of thy womb".

The Western version of the prayer is thus not derived from the Greek version: even the earliest Western forms have no trace of the Greek version's phrases: "Mother of God and Virgin" and "for thou hast given birth to the Saviour of our souls".

To the greeting and praise of Mary of which the prayer thus consisted, a petition "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen", was added later. The petition first appeared in print in 1495 in Girolamo Savonarola's "Esposizione sopra l’Ave Maria"[6]. The "Hail Mary" prayer in Girolamo Savonarola's exposition reads:

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

The petition was commonly added around the time of the Council of Trent. 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.

Eleven years later, the sentence was included in the Catechism of the Council of Trent of 1566. The "Catechism of the Council of Trent" says 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."

The current Latin version is thus as follows, with accents added to indicate how the prayer is said in the current ecclesiastical pronunciation of Latin:

Áve María, grátia pléna, Dóminus técum. Benedícta tu in muliéribus, et benedíctus frúctus véntris túi, Iésus. Sáncta María, Máter Déi, óra pro nóbis peccatóribus, nunc et in hóra mórtis nóstrae. Ámen.

A version with macrons follows for any who wish to recite the prayer with the restored classical pronunciation of Latin:

Avē Marīa, grātia plēna, Dominus tēcum. Benedicta tū in mulieribus, et benedictus frūctus ventris tuī, Iēsus. Sancta Marīa, Māter Deī, ōrā prō nōbīs peccātōribus, nunc et in hōrā mortis nostrae. Āmn.

In English:

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.

For translations from the Latin into various languages, see Wikisource.

The prayer in Syriac Orthodox tradition

The Syriac Orthodox Church uses a version of the Hail Mary much closer to the current Western form than to the Greek version. 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.

Usage in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches

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

Slavonic versions of the Greek prayer

There exist two variant versions in Church Slavonic:

Romanization	English Translation
Bogoroditse Djevo, raduisya, Obradovannaya Marie, Gospodh s' toboyu. Blagoslovena tyh v' zhenach, Y blagosloven plod chreva Tvoego, Yako rodila esi Christa Spasa, Izbavitelya dusham nashim.	Theotokos Virgin, rejoice, (or: Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos) 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 borne Christ the Saviour, the Deliverer of our souls.
Bogoroditse Djevo, raduisya, Blagodatnaya Marie, Gospod s' toboyu: Blagoslovyena tyh v' zhenakh, Y blagoslovyen plod chreva Tvoyego, yako Spasa rodila yesi dush nashikh.	Theotokos Virgin, rejoice, (or: Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos) 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 borne the Saviour 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 Roman Catholic Church

The Hail Mary is the essential element of the Rosary, a prayer method in use especially among Latin Rite (Western) Catholics, and that appears in the East only among Latinised Ukrainian and Maronite Catholics. It consists of four sets of five Mysteries. These meditate upon events of Jesus' life during his childhood (Joyful Mysteries), public ministry (Luminous Mysteries), Passion (Sorrowful Mysteries), and from his Resurrection onwards (Glorious Mysteries). The Luminous Mysteries are of comparatively recent origin, being added by Pope John Paul II in 2002. Each of these Mysteries is prayed as a decade (a unit of ten), consisting of one Our Father (Pater Noster or The Lord's Prayer), ten Hail Marys, and one 'Glory Be' (Gloria Patri) (Doxology).