Hail Mary Prayer

Madonna and Child (Galleria Borghese, Rome) via Wikipedia

The Hail Mary Prayer (Latin = Ava Maria) is a Catholic prayer directed to the Blessed Virgin Mary and central to the Holy Rosary. It’s essentially a prayer of praise and a request for intercession.

The first part of the prayer is based on a visitation of an angel to Mary, as told in Luke 1:28. The second part relates to Mary’s subsequent visit to Elizabeth while carrying Jesus in her womb (Luke 1:42).

The prayer’s unofficial form existed as early as the eleventh century. The closing supplication arose in the 14^th to 15^th centuries. And the entire prayer was incorporated into Roman Catholicism by Pope Pius V in 1568, and still undergoes minor modifications, keeping step with contemporary idioms. A recent form is:

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.

Some Anglican churches use a variation of the Hail Mary, and the classical composers Franz Schubert and Johan Sebastian Bach, among others, have featured the prayer within their work.

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