Did You Know?

The Hail Mary is a beautiful invocation and a means of growing closer to Our Lady. It is also an extremely old prayer, and is based on the Angel Gabriel’s greeting to the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation, and on her cousin Elisabeth’s greeting when Mary visited her.

Forms of this prayer date from the eleventh century in the West, and perhaps as early as the sixth century in the East. In 1273, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote a booklet in which, in that age, ended with the words “… and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.”

The invocation “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death” was only added in the second half of the 16th century by St. Pius V, thus giving origin to the prayer we say today.

Most Catholics are familiar with the Hail Mary from its use in praying the Rosary. In the five-decade Rosary, the Hail Mary is recited ten times in each of the decades as one meditates on the mysteries of Jesus’ ministry and his redeeming activity.