The Hail Mary Prayer (Ave Maria)

The Hail Mary prayer is one of the most famous prayers in all of Catholicism. It is the foundation to the Rosary, and is based off of two passages from Saint Luke’s Gospel.

The Hail Mary is a traditional Catholic prayer asking for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. In Roman Catholicism, the prayer forms the basis of the Rosary and the Angelus prayers.

The Hail Mary (Latin: Ave Maria) is a traditional Catholic prayer based on Gabriel’s visit to Mary, mother of Jesus and Mary’s subsequent visit to Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Both of these visits are featured in the gospel of Luke. The Hail Mary is a prayer of praise for and petition to the Mother of God. Since the sixteenth century, the Roman Catholic version of the prayer closes with an appeal for her intercession. The prayer takes different forms in various traditions and has often been set to music.

In the Roman Catholic Latin Church, the prayer forms the basis of the Rosary and the Angelus prayers. The liturgies of the Oriental Orthodox Churches use many prayers addressed to Mary, but only vaguely similar to the Hail Mary. On the other hand, the Eastern Orthodox Church has a quite similar prayer (without explicit request for her intercession), both in Greek and in translations, that it frequently uses outside of the formal liturgy, like the Jesus Prayer. The Eastern Catholic Churches follow their respective traditions or adopt the Latin-Church prayer, which is also used by many other Western groups historically associated with the Catholic Church such as Lutherans, Anglicans, Independent Catholics, and Old Catholics.

Biblical source

The prayer incorporates two greetings to Mary in Saint Luke’s Gospel: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.” and “Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” 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” or “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 (“Hail” reflecting the Latin translation, and “Rejoice” reflecting the original Greek).

The word κεχαριτωμένη, (kecharitōménē), here translated as “full of grace”, admits of various translations. Grammatically, the word is the feminine perfect passive participle of the verb χαριτόω, charitóō, which means “to show, or bestow with, grace” and here, in the passive voice, “to have grace shown, or bestowed upon, one”.

The text also appears in the account of the annunciation contained in the apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 9.

The second passage is taken from Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary in Luke 1:42, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” Taken together, these two passages are the two times Mary is greeted in Chapter 1 of Luke.

In Western (Latin) tradition

After considering the use of similar words in Syriac, Greek and Latin in the 6th century, Herbert Thurston, writing 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 to Mary, without that of Elizabeth, as a prayer. All the evidence suggests that it took its rise from certain versicles and responsories occurring in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which just at that time was coming into favour among the monastic orders.

Saint Thomas Aquinas spoke of the name “Mary” as the only word added at his time to the Biblical text, to indicate the person who was “full of grace.” 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. The “Hail Mary” prayer in Savonarola’s exposition reads: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst 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 St. 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 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.” Soon after, in 1568 Pope Pius V included the full form as now known in his revision of the Roman Breviary.

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, as well as macrons to indicate the Classical vowel lengths:

Ávē Marī́a, grā́tiā plḗna, Dóminus tḗcum. Benedícta tū in muliéribus, et benedíctus frū́ctus véntris túī, Iḗsūs. Sā́ncta Marī́a, Mā́ter Déī, ṓrā prō nṓbīs peccātṓribus, nunc et in hṓrā mórtis nóstrae. Āmēn.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst 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.

Because recitation of the Angelus, a prayer within which the Hail Mary is recited three times, is usually accompanied by the ringing of the Angelus bell, words from the Ave Maria were often inscribed on bells.

Byzantine Christian use

The Hail Mary prayer of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Byzantine Rite Catholic Churches is similar to the first part of the Latin Church form, with the addition of a very brief opening phrase and a short concluding phrase. It is well known and often used, though not quite as frequently as in the Western Church. It appears in several canons of prayer. It is typically sung thrice at the end of Vespers during an All-Night Vigil, and occurs many times in the course of daily prayer.

The Greek text, of which those in other languages are translations, is:

Θεοτόκε Παρθένε, χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη Μαρία, ὁ Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ. εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξί, καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου, ὅτι Σωτῆρα ἔτεκες τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν.

God-bearing Virgin, 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 borest.

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

Another English rendering of the same text reads:

Mother of God 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.

or:

God-bearing (or: Theotokos) Virgin, rejoice, O Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women. Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, for thou hast brought forth the Savior of our souls.

Slavonic versions

There exist two variant versions in Church Slavonic:

Cyrillic	Romanization	English Translation
Богородице дѣво радѹйсѧ ѡбрадованнаѧ Марїе Господь съ тобою благословена ты въ женахъ, и благословенъ плодъ чрева твоегѡ, Якѡ родила еси Христа Спаса, Избавителѧ дѹшамъ нашимъ.	Bogoroditse Djevo, raduisya, Obradovannaya Marie, Gospodh s’ toboyu. Blagoslovena tyh v’ zhenakh, Y blagosloven plod chreva Tvoego, Yako rodila yesi 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.
Богородице дѣво, радѹйсѧ, Благодатнаѧ Марїе, Господь съ тобою: благословена Ты въ женахъ, и благословенъ плодъ чрева Твоегѡ; якѡ Спаса родила еси дѹшъ нашихъ.	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, corresponding more closely to the Greek, 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.

Latin Church Catholic use

The Hail Mary is the last prayer in Appendix V of the Roman Missal, the last of seven prayers under the heading “Thanksgiving After Mass”. There it appears with “with you” instead of the traditional “with thee”, “are you” instead of the traditional “art thou” and “your womb” in place of the traditional “thy womb”:

Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you;
blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

The Hail Mary is the central part of the Angelus, a devotion generally recited thrice daily by many Catholics, as well as broad & high church Anglicans, and Lutherans who usually omit the second half.

The Hail Mary is an essential element of the Rosary, a prayer method in use especially among Roman Rite (Western) Catholics. The Eastern Catholic Churches say a similar version.

The Rosary consists traditionally of three sets of five Mysteries, each Mystery being meditated on while reciting a decade (a set of ten) of Ave Maria. The 150 Ave Maria of the Rosary thus echo the 150 psalms. These Mysteries concern events of Jesus’ life during his childhood (Joyful Mysteries), Passion (Sorrowful Mysteries), and from his Resurrection onwards (Glorious Mysteries). Another set, the Luminous Mysteries, is of comparatively recent origin, having been proposed by Pope John Paul II in 2002. Each decade of Ave Maria is preceded by the Our Father (Pater Noster or The Lord’s Prayer) and followed by the Glory Be (Gloria Patri) (Doxology). The repetition of the fixed-language prayers assists recitation from the heart rather than the head. Pope Paul V said that “the Rosary is a treasure of graces … even for those souls who pray without meditating, the simple act of taking the beads in hand to pray is already a remembrance of God – of the supernatural”.

Lutheran use

Martin Luther believed that Mary should be held in highest reverence, advocating the use of the first half of the Hail Mary (that is, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”) as a sign of reverence for and devotion to the Virgin. The 1522 Betbüchlein (Prayer Book) retained the Hail Mary. Only after his death was the second part (“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death”) added.

Anglican use

Some Anglicans also employ the Hail Mary in devotional practice. Anglo-Catholic Anglicanism uses the prayer in much the same way as Roman Catholics, including use of the Rosary and the recitation of the Angelus. Some Anglican churches contain statues of the Virgin Mary, and the faithful use devotional prayers including the Hail Mary. That manifestation of veneration of Mary, decried by certain Protestants as worship, was largely removed from Anglican churches during the English Reformation but was reintroduced to some extent during the Oxford Movement of the mid-1800s.

The Hail Mary in Spanish

Dios te salve, Mara,
llena eres de gracia,
el Seor es contigo.
Bendita tu eres entre todas las mujeres,
y bendito es el fruto de tu vientre, Jesus.
Santa Maria, Madre de Dios,
ruega por nosotros, pecadores,
ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte.
Amen

The Hail Mary in Italian

Ave Maria, piena di grazia,
il Signore e con te.
Tu sei benedetta fra le donne
e benedetto e il frutto del tuo seno, Gesu.
Santa Maria, Madre di Dio,
prega per noi peccatori,
adesso e nell’ora della nostra morte.
Amen

The Hail Mary in French

Je vous salue, Marie, pleine de grace.
Le Seigneur est avec vous.
Vous etes benie entre toutes les femmes,
et Jesus, le fruit de vos entrailles, est beni.
Sainte Marie, Mere de Dieu,
Priez pour nous, pauvres pecheurs,
maintenant et a l’heure de notre mort.
Amen