A prayer to the Virgin Mary, also known as the Angelic Salutation, used devotionally since the 11th-c in the Roman Catholic Church, and finally officially recognized in 1568. The first two parts are quotations from scripture (Luke 1.28, 2), the third part being added later. In its Latin form, it is often sung in Roman Catholic ceremonies, and has received many famous musical settings.
Hail Mary (from the Latin Ave Maria (Salutatio Angelica), is a traditional Catholic and Orthodox prayer calling for the intercession of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Rooted mainly in Biblical texts, the Ave Maria developed in the Middle Ages; In the Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, it is known as the "Angelic Salutation" as well as being called the "Hail Mary."
The first part of the prayer is the salutation of the Archangel Gabriel as reported in the Gospel of Luke 1:28 "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee". The second is from the greeting given to Mary by her cousin Elizabeth in Luke 1:42 "Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb", and a reinforcement of basic Christian belief in the real divinity and real humanity of Jesus.
As a separate formula for Roman Catholic devotion, the "Hail Mary" – though a pious tale has it miraculously recited to Ildephonsus of Toledo (fl.
The Hail Mary is the essential element of the Rosary, a prayer method practiced primarily by Catholics, comprised of 4 sets of 5 Mysteries meditating upon the incarnation, life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Each of these Mysteries is prayed as a decade (ten), consisting of one Our Father (Pater Noster or The Lord's Prayer), ten Hail Marys, and one 'Glory Be' (Gloria Patri) (Doxology).
In the East, the prayer is very common as well.
The words of the Hail Mary
Latin
Ave Maria, gratia plena Dominus tecum;
Amen.
English
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee;
Amen.
Byzantine Rite and Eastern Orthodox Usages
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.
Musical settings
The Ave Maria has been set to music numerous times. 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.
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. Josquin, 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.
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. Adding to the confusion, the traditional Ave Maria prayer is often sung to Schubert's melody of Ellens dritter Gesang;
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