Throughout the year, the Church prays different Marian Antiphons based on the proper liturgical season. We’ll post the current Antiphon throughout the year:
Advent/Christmas: Alma Redemptoris Mater
Lent: Ave Regina Caelorum
Easter: Regina Caeli
Pentecost: Salve Regina
Here’s a great article about the different seasons, highlighting the Salve Regina, which is sung from Pentecost until the first Sunday of Advent.
Here’s a video of the antiphon sung to the Simple Tone by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos; chant score is from the Liber Usualis (1961), p 279. (English translation below.)
Here’s the chant score of the Simple Tone version, from the Liber Usualis:
This comes from “Singing the Four Seasonal Marian Anthems,” by Lucy Carroll, published in Adoremus; it includes an English translation of the antiphon:
The Salve Regina has also been credited to Herimann the Lame (Hermanus Contractus), monk of Reichenau, but it is also attributed to Adhemar de Monteil (+1098) and Saint Bernard (+1153). It has become a traditional Carmelite hymn, sung at Carmelite events throughout the world. It is sung as a seasonal anthem from the day after Pentecost Sunday until the first Sunday of Advent. As a spoken prayer, it has also been added to the conclusion of the rosary, so it is perhaps the most familiar of these four texts to Catholics.
Salve Regina, mater misericordiae, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra salve. Ad te clamamus, exules filii Evae. Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes, in hac lacrimarum valle. Eia ergo, advocate nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos, ad nos converte. Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende. O Clemens, o pia, o dulcis virgo Maria.
This early translation is by the Reverend Adrian Fortescue, 1913:
Hail holy queen, mother of mercy, hail our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us. And after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, o loving, o sweet Virgin Mary.
Leave a Reply