The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1877-05-06
."HAIL Mary"

Inc IOllOWlnB luitEcbtiuS
sketch of the familiar Catholic prayer, the
Hail Mary" will be perused with pleas
ure by our readere:
"My object to- day, apropos of the "Hail
Mary" is to give historical sketch o.
that consoliDg prayer, "a ind IT last week
10 n very interesting little Flemish perlodl-
cal. ROpd den Herd
We 90 not foo tho "aail Mary" in the
form in which we now recire it until 1915
In it's origin it eimpiy consisted OF tue
words4of the Angel and st. EliEth-.h:
Pope Gregory the great $50 6D4) or
dered thai primitive a.! hs'' N. MAJ" gao 10 DC DC
Advent, and there We fipd Ha follows
Ace Maria. Gratia plena Don,inms tecum,
ben edictd tn in naulier6uS ct beRsdicfus fruc
tus Ventris tui e. hai! Mary, fuii OF grace,
the Lord Is with thee; blessed art thou
amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of
thy tomb.")
In the thirteenth century already it was,
according TO Durandus, recited after the
"Our Father" before the "Officium Divi-
mum " or the Priests Office
Pope Urban w.. in 1868. added the
name of Jesus after The Scrlptural sentence,
az the devotion of the faithful had intro
duced the name of Mary AFTER the first
greeting ('Grandcolas Lancien Sacrdmen.
taire de EgLise." VOL, 1649, pag. 4l9).
In 1913 we begin to tiud the addition.
"Holy Mary, pray for us sinners ! Amen"
But the Franciacans, in their BTeviary,
published in 1915, enriched it with the last
part, Now aud at the hour of our DEATH"
A few years later Pope Plus V. sho wed his
appreciation of the prayer as we now have it
by allowing its insertion n the Roman Bre-
wary.
We all know the decree of Pope UrbauII
(1099), whereby be ordaine d that from the
day the Army of the Crusaders started the
oh hpila ahnn(A ring kDellS
ing and night to warn the faithful to say
that prayer. There exists also document
from Eudes .de Snlly, Bishop of Paris,
1875, by which he urges upon his priests
that they should see tha5 the people know
and recite the Hail Mary" From those
days forward the sweet .:Hail Mary" be-
comes the universal prayer Of tue Chris
| tiau world.
St. Bonaventure, at the Central Chapter
Of the Franc:scans held at Pisa in 1862,
ordered his religious to encourage the
faithful in honorng the mystery of the In
carsation by saying three times the Hail
Mary" at the sound of the church bells
towards evening. Hence the ringing of the
Apgelus bell, which, from that date,
became the law with the Franciscan com
nunty. f.
XXI, issued a Boil at Avignou, by which
he INDUCED this pious practice. But the
indulgences which are now attached to this
devotion were not given until the 14rh of
Septemb Der, 1924, when Pope Benedict XIII.
granted them by the Breve IngunctG Nobis,
AID, u.
the Greek Church has used the words OF
the Angel Gabriel and st. Elrz Abeth in her
Rituals from the earIie,t days of IS. james
aud Basil, and boasts of having received
the addition, "Holy Mary Mother of God
pray for US Sinners" as early as the Coun.
Gil of Ephesus, in the beginning of the
fifth century. 1t is an undeniabie fact that
the Greek had the "Hal Mary almost as
complete az we have it now as early as
GAY. ST. Severos, Patriarch of Alexandria,
wrote in his formulary of the Sacrament OF
Baptism in the following manner Peace
be to thee, Mary fnll of grace the Lord
is with thee; blessed art thou amongst
women, aud blessed ia the fruit that is in
thy womb, Jesus Christ. Holy Mary
Mother of God, pray for US sinners. Amen
(GrandcolaS loo. cit page Ala 1t was
tbereabout in that form that ST. Ildelfsns
Bishop of Toledo, knew the" Hail Mary
about 900 years ago. Still the Western
Church did not accept it as general pray e
until the eleventh century, and from those
days-v}z the time of the Crusaders-i
became the custom to say the "Hail Mary
every morning and night at the sound o.
the church belle, as Aurnout Wyon tells n
iu his book "Lignum Vito"