History, full text and sense verse to verse of the antiphone that Christianity has been singing for nine centuries
On the night of October 11, 1492, in the middle of the Atlantic, the sailors of the three carabelas sang the Salve, "who used to say and sing in their own way all the sailors." The Journal of on-board From Columbus's first trip. Hours later they saw land. That scene says more of this prayer than any definition: it is the prayer that is sung in the open, when one is known far from home.
Because that's what the Hail is talking about. Not of glory, but of destierro: "We call you the banished children of Eve.". Y su petición final no es un favor: es ver a Jesús.
The text
God save you, Queen and Mother of mercy,
life, sweetness and hope of us; God save you.
We call you the banished children of Eve;
We sighed at you, groaning and crying,
in the valle de lágrimas.
So, Madam, our lawyer,
return to us those your merciful eyes;
And after this exile, show us Jesus,
You're welcome to go.
¡Oh clementísima, oh piadosa, oh sweet Virgen María!
V. Pray for us, Holy Mother of God. R. So that we may be worthy to achieve the promises of Christ.
En latín: Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve. Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Evae. Ad te suspiramus gemens et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, advocate nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad converts us. Et Iesum Benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis, post hoc exsilium, ostende. The clemens, the sink, the dulcis Virgo Maria.
The text was not always this
Here is a fact that almost no one knows and that changes the way to pray. The critical apparatus of medieval hymnology - the Analecta Hymnica of Dreves and Blume, the reference edition - it records something sharp: the word Mater, today usual in the first verse, is not found in any medieval source and is a late interpolation of 16th century.
In other words, during its first four hundred or five hundred years, the antiphone did not begin. "Hail, Queen and Mother of mercy"but «Hello, Queen Mercy»: Hail, Reina of mercy. And the deal also did not say exactly what we say today: the critical text ends «The clemens, the laver, the dulcis Mary», sin Rhubarb, which is probably added from the 13th century.
Another surprise: in the ancient manuscripts the Hail no appears as Complete Antiphon, but with headings of the type «Ad Magnificat», i.e. as a solemn antiphon of Magnícite at the big Marian parties. His post at the end of the day won it later.
Quién la escribió: la respuesta honesta
You don't know. And it should be said without any doubt, because four traditional powers are in circulation and none have contemporary documentary support.
| Travición travicional | Qué dice la crítica |
|---|---|
| Hermann Contracto, monje de Reichenau (1013-1054) | It was the dominant attribution at the beginning of the 20th century, but it is based on Análisis estilísticoNot in medieval testimony. The editor himself who places it under his name warns that Hermann was attributed to other people for his fame. |
| Navarro de Monteil, Bishop of the Puy († 1098) | Of ahí el nombre Antiphona de Podio"Puy antiphon." That I composed it as the song of the first crusade is news of a 19th century dictionary, without manuscript or testimony of the time. |
| Pedro de Mezonzo, Bishop of Compostela († 1003) | Galician tradition very dear, linked to the looting of Compostela by Almanzor. The ancient erudition transmits it with the formula "said that": rumor, not done. |
| Saint Bernard of Clairvaux († 1153) | No basis at all. See below. |
The most heavy hypothesis today does not name anyone: most of the manuscripts prior to the 14th century come from Cistercian monasteries, and hence a French origin in the field of the Cyster is concluded. The oldest musical testimony bears aquitaine notation.
As for the date, the scholars put it among the siglos XI y XII. One of the most cited manuscripts is a cistercian antiphonary of the abbey of Santa Maria de Morimondo, in the diocese of Milan, which dates back to 1175 (other studies advance it to 1150-1160); in it the Salve functions as antiphone of the Magnícite.
St. Bernardo in Spira: a beautiful legend that did not happen
It is said that St. Bernardo, being an apostolic legacy in Germany, entered the Cathedral of Spira the Christmas Eve of 1146 while the Salve was being sung and, at the end, kneeled three times exclaimed "O gracious, O pious, O sweet Virgin Mary!"The three steps of the pavement were marked with bronze plates. In the most widespread version, it was he who added that triple invocation there.
The Catholic erudition has disassembled it for more than a century with three arguments: the story is from the 16th century and tells a fact of the XII; The contemporaries and the companions of the saint are silent; and the melody suggests the same author for the antiphone and its outage, not a later addition. Added to this is the handwritten evidence: the three invocation are already in the oldest testimonies. What was added later, in the 13th century, was the word Rhubarb.
How he came to pray throughout the Church
- To 1135, en ClunyPeter the Venerable decrees that it be sung processionally at certain parties. Before him there is no sign of his use there.
- In the mid-12th century it entered the Císter, como antífona solemne del Magnícite in the Purification, the Annunciation and the Nativity of Mary; from 1218, como canto procedurasional diario.
- To 1221-1230 los dominics They start singing it from Completas, with a night procession in Bologna, and spread through Europe. It is the moment when the Hail becomes the prayer of the end of the day.
- Low Gregorio IX (1227-1241) is ordered to sing after Complete on Fridays in the diocese of Rome. The Franciscans they incorporate it into their brevity, and through that way it passes to Roman Breviary.
- El Breviario de san Pío V (1568) extends its use; León XIIIon 6 January 1884it is prescribed at the end of every prayer mass (the so-called Leonine preces), suppressed in the liturgical reform of 1964.
Today, la General management of the Liturgy of the Hours states in its No. 92 that at the end of Completas one of the antiphons to the Virgin is said and that "in Easter time will always be the Queen of heaven antiphon, be glad". This should be stressed because it is almost always wrong: since the post-reconciliation reform the Salve is no longer assigned to a certain liturgical time. The prayer "from the Trinity to Advent" belongs to the previous rite.
¿Y al final del Rosario?
It is a universal custom, and it deserves an honest answer: does not contain any document to introduce it. It does not appear in the structure of the Rosary set by Saint Pius V in 1569, nor does the Directory of the Holy See on popular piety include it among the constituent elements. It's devotional custom, very deep-rooted and very beautiful, not a mandatory part.
His explicit recognition for the Magisterium is, in fact, recent:
Towards
"God save you, Queen"
El título de Reina does not apply to Mary in Scripture. It is indirectly based on the crowned woman of the Apocalypse and on the veterotesthetic figure of the queen mother, the gebirahwho in the court of Israel sat at the right hand of the king not by his own power, but by being his mother. Your express magisterial support is the encyclical Ad caeli Reginam de Pius XII (1954), which mentions the Salve among the prayers with which the Latin Church greets it.
"Life, sweetness and hope for us"
It is the verse that is most misinterpreted, and the one that best teaches to distinguish. They are titles which Scripture reserves to God and Christ, and which here apply to Mary. participation and maternity, not identity. The Council formulated it with precision in talking about Marian titles: "The Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church with the titles of Advocate, Assistant, Relief, Mediator. This, however, must be understood in such a way that it does not subtract or add to the dignity and effectiveness of Christ, the only Mediator." (Lumen gentium, n. 62).
"The banished children of Eve"
Remite a la exulsión del paraíso (Génesis 3,23-24). Hay aquí un matiz de oro: dice the children of Evenot the children of Adam. The banishment is named by the mother - and who responds to that cry is the new Eve. The whole antiphone is built on that correspondence.
"In this valley of tears"
It comes from Psalm 83 according to the Vulgata, which reads in valle tear. But the Hebrew says «valle de Baca», which is a toponym, read by Latin tradition as "valley of crying"; New Vulgate He doesn't bring that reading anymore. That is: "valley of tears" is a reading of the Vulgata, not the Hebrew text. Which doesn't take a gram of truth from the experience you name.
"Our lawyer"
It's the title that supports Lumen gentium 62, and that it is appropriate to understand well: lawyer It is said of the Holy Spirit and Christ. Mary advocates before Christ, no. for Él.
"Return to us those your merciful eyes"
Recuerda at psalm 123, pear with a significant inversión: en el salmo somos We those who raise up our eyes to God; here we ask that it be She He who turns his own towards us. It is medieval reelaboration, it does not quote: the gesture of those who, exhausted from looking up, simply ask to be looked at.
"Show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb."
Literal date of Lucas 1,42Elizabeth's words at the Visitation. And it is the key that solves for itself any objection: the culminating request of the Hail is not a favor or a privilege, but ver a Jesús. The Latin verb is ostende: Show it. Mary does not retain anything; she points. Whoever prays the Hail to the end ends up looking at Christ.
Six things that are said about the Hail and are not true
- "St. Bernardo composed it.", o «añadió el O clemens en Espira». No medieval source supports it; the story is from the 16th century.
- "Gregory IX approved it in 1250." Impossible: morió en 1241. It runs a lot on devotional websites.
- «Es la oración mariana más antigua». No: el Sub tuum praesidium is very previous, although its exact dating is discussed.
- "The original text reads Mater misaricordiae». False, and tested at primary source: Mater no apcineen ningún manuscript medieval.
- "Benedict XVI commented the Hail in Save». No: what he said there was the anthem Ave maris stella.
- "To pray the Hail wins plenary indulgence." El Manual of indulgences grant partial indulgence to whom this prayer is devout; the plenary of the same concession corresponds to the Rosary, in its conditions.
Una oración para la weatherie
There is a revealing detail in the Catecismo de la Iglesia Católica: does not mention the Hail. S í la recoge el Compendium 2005, in its appendix of common prayers, in Latin and Spanish. It is not a forgetfulness: it is that this antiphone was not born in the classrooms or in the documents, but in the cloisters and in the roads. The monks sang it by turning off the lights, the Dominicans in the night procession, the pilgrims, the soldiers and the sailors of Columbus in the middle of the ocean.
Nine centuries later he continues to say the same, and therefore he does not age: he recognizes that we are passing through, that this is a banishment and that there is weeping; he does not disguise it. And he asks only one thing for the end of the way: that, when the exile is over, She will teach us her Son.
Sources
Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium, née 62 y 66 · Pío XII, Ad caeli Reginam (1954) Rosarium Virus Mariae, n. 37 (2002) · Congregación para el Culto Divino, Directory on popular piety and liturgy (2001) · General management of the Liturgy of the Hours, n. 92 · Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2005), apéndice de oraciones · Manual of indulgences, 4.ª edición (1999) · G. M. Dreves y C. Blume, Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, vol. 50 (Leipzig, 1907), pp. 309-310 and 318-319 · H. Henry, article "Salve Regina" of the Catholic Encyclopedia (1912) · Diario de a bordo del primer viaje de Cristóbal Colón, tickets of October 11 and November 1, 1492, in the summary of Fra Bartolomé de las Casas.
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