Trisagio Mariano and Trinitarian Prayer to Mary
Holy, Holy, Holy Marian. The Sub tuum praesidium, the Memorare and the deep meditation of the Avemaría. Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, Wife of the Holy Spirit
Mary and the Most Holy Trinity
Mary's relationship with the Trinity is the foundation of all her greatness and all her intercession capacity. It is not an extrinsic or accidental relationship: Mary was chosen from all eternity to be the meeting point between the divine and the human, the place where the Trinitarian mystery touched history.
Theological tradition has expressed this relationship in three titles that the liturgy and popular devotion have repeated over the centuries: Predilect Daughter of the Father - for among all creatures was the most loved by the Father, preserved from original sin and chosen to be the Mother of his Son; Mother of the Son - the title that corresponds to him by divine right and gives him a relationship of closeness with Christ that no other creature has -; and Wife of the Holy Spirit - for the Holy Spirit came down upon her in the Annunciation and worked in her the Incarnation of the Word.
These three relationships are the foundation of the prayers presented on this page. They are not mere pious formulas: they are confessions of a theological truth that the Church has deepened over twenty centuries.
El Trisagio Mariano
The Trisagio (of the Greek tris, «tres veces», y hUS, "holy") has its origin in the vision of Isaiah: "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; all the earth is full of his glory" (Is 6: 3). This triple acclamation passed to the early Christian liturgy - the Sanctus of the Mass - and also to individual prayer as a way to honor the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.
The Marian Trisagio adapts this triple structure to the figure of Mary in her relationship with the three Divine Persons. It is not a single text with a single canonical version: it has existed in multiple forms throughout history. The most widespread in Hispanic and Latin American spirituality is the following:
O Mary, most beloved daughter of the Eternal Father!
Holy is the Father, who filled you with graces before you were born,
who chose you among all women to be the Mother of his Son,
who loved you with Father's love from all eternity.
Glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
O Mary, Mother of the Eternal Son!
Holy is the Son, who wanted to be born of you,
who chose you as Mother and honored you as every son honors his mother,
who on the Cross gave you all his disciples as Mother and Queen.
Glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
O Mary, Wife of the Holy Spirit!
Holy is the Spirit, who came down upon you in Nazareth,
who did the greatest prodigy in history in you: the Incarnation of the Word,
who filled your soul with his seven gifts without measure or reservation.
Glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty,
What it was, what it is and what it is to come!
And Santa, Santa, Santa is you, Mary,
that you were chosen by the Trinity to be the bridge between heaven and earth.
Amen.
The Sub tuum praesidium - The oldest Marian prayer
El Sub tuum praesidium is the oldest Marian prayer that is preserved. It was discovered in an Egyptian Greek papyrus, the Papanus Rylands 470, dated by specialists around the third century of the Christian era - possibly between the 250's and 300's - and preserved today at the John Rylands Library in Manchester. Its antiquity makes it an exceptional witness to how the first Christians already came to the intercession of Mary.
The original Greek text is: Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν, καταφεύγομεν, Θεοτόκε. τὰς ἡμῶν ἱκεσίας, μὴ παρίδῃς ἐν περιστάσει, ἀλλ’ ἐκ κινδύνων λύτρωσαι ἡμᾶς, μόνη ἁγνή, μόνη εὐλογημένη. Its importance is double: it is the first known Marian prayer and it is the first time the title appears Theotokos (Mother of God) in a document written outside the Bible, even before the Council of Ephesus (431) that would define it dogmatically.
Bajo you shelter us,
Holy Mother of God.
Do not dismiss the pleas
that we address you in our needs,
rather, deliver us always
of all dangers,
O glorious and blessed Virgin.
(Latin original, siglo III)
Sub nucleus praesidium confugimus,
Sancta Dei Genetrix.
We deprecation and waste
in need of ours,
sed a periculis cunctis
free us,
Virgo gloriosa et benedicta.
El Memorare - History and text
El Memory ("Remember") is one of the most beloved Marian prayers in the history of Christian spirituality. His traditional authorship is attributed to St. Bernardo de Claraval (1090-1153), the great Doctor Mariano of the medieval West, although current historians place the final text in the 15th century, possibly in Franciscan environment. The version we know was popularized by Father Claude Bernard (1588-1641), a Parisian priest known as "the poor priest" for his dedication to the prisoners of death, who always carried her with him and distributed her for thousands of copies among the faithful. Its mass spread in the 19th century is largely due to its inclusion in the Little Office of the Virgin and in the popular devotionaries.
Cardinal Newman, who became from Anglanism to Catholicism in 1845, confessed that Memorare had been one of the prayers that most influenced his conversion. Alfonso Ratisbonne, whose conversion is reported on another page of this site, also recited it in the days before his vision.
Remember, O most pious Virgin Mary,
that you have never heard of
that none of those who have come to your protection,
Begging you assistence
and claiming your help,
has been abandoned from you.
Encouraged by this trust,
I also come to you, O Virgin,
Mother of virgins,
and, waving under the weight of my sins,
I'm a pishi.
Do not cast away my pleas,
O Mother of the Eternal Word,
but listen to them and take them favourably.
Amen.
(Texto latino)
Memorare, the piissima Virgo María,
non auditum a saeculo,
Whom ad your current praesidia,
tua implorantem auxiliary,
your petentem suffrage they derelictum.
Ego such animatus confidante,
Ad te, Virgo Virginum, Mater, curro;
to you I come; coram te gemens sinner assist.
Noli, Mater Verbi, my verse of cleft;
sed audi propitia et exaudi. Amen.
The Avemaria - Deep meditation of each sentence
The Avemaria is the most repeated prayer in the history of humanity. It is estimated that, by adding all the rosaries prayed in the world every day, prayer is pronounced more than two billion times every 24 hours. And yet its depth is inexhaustible. Each sentence is a condemned theological universe.
"God save you, Mary." - The same salutation of the angel Gabriel in Nazareth (Lk 1: 28). In the original Greek, Chaire"Be glad." It is not a simple greeting: it is the proclamation that the sadness of original sin has ended for someone, that in Mary the plan of God has found its first fulfillment.
«Llena eres de gracia» — Kecharitomene in Greek: "the one that has been and continues to be filled with grace." A perfect passive participle that indicates past action with permanent effects. Mary received not only grace at the time of the Annunciation: she has been filled with grace ever since her Immaculate conception.
"The Lord is with you" - The same phrase that the angel directs to Gideon in the Old Testament (Jc 6: 12) when he announces an impossible mission. With God, nothing is impossible: neither the virginal conception, nor the Resurrection, nor the grace we ask for in this prayer.
"Blessed are you among all women." - The words of Elizabeth to Mary at the Visitation (Lk 1.42). Mary's blessing does not nullify that of other women: it locks them and overcomes them. It is the blessing of Eve, Debora, Judith and Esther brought to its fullness.
"And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus." - The name of Jesus -Yeshua, "God saves" - it is pronounced here for the first time in the Avemaría. Everything that precedes (salutation, grace, the company of God, blessing) makes sense only in relation to Him. Mary is inseparable from Christ.
"Holy Mary, Mother of God" - The title Theotokos, defined in Ephesus (431), is the dogmatic axis of the Avemaría. Mary is the Mother of God not because she is greater than God, but because the Son of God took her humanity from her. Divine motherhood is the key to all of Mary's greatness.
"Pray for us, sinners" - The request for intercession. Mary is not a goddess who acts for herself: she is a creature who intercedes before her Son. The sinner who prays the Avemaria is recognized as such - without concealment - and is welcomed by the one who never sinned.
"Now and at the time of our death" - The Avemaría covers all life: the present ("now") and the final moment ("time of death"). It is the only prayer that explicitly calls for assistance at the time of death. Christian tradition has prayed the Avemaría along with the dying as a passport to eternity.
Hail, Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among all women
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us, sinners,
now and at the time of our death.
Amen.