The Hail Holy Queen

The Hail Holy Queen (Latin: Salve Regina) is the closing antiphon of the Holy Rosary and one of the four great Marian antiphons of the Catholic liturgical year (along with the Alma Redemptoris Mater, the Ave Regina Caelorum, and the Regina Caeli). It is the prayer with which the Catholic Church concludes the day in many religious communities, the prayer with which the rosary closes, and the prayer that has consoled exiled Christian souls for nine centuries.

Origin and historical development

The Hail Holy Queen is traditionally attributed to Hermann of Reichenau (1013-1054), the Benedictine monk known as Hermann the Lame, who composed the antiphon in the eleventh century at the Abbey of Reichenau in modern Germany. The attribution is contested in modern scholarship (some scholars attribute it to Adhemar of Le Puy, who used it as a battle prayer of the First Crusade), but the eleventh-century origin is secure.

The antiphon was incorporated into the Cluniac Office in the twelfth century and spread rapidly through the medieval Catholic Church. The Cistercians, the Carthusians, the Premonstratensians, and the Dominicans all adopted it as the principal Marian antiphon of the night office. After the Council of Trent, the Salve Regina was assigned to the period from Trinity Sunday through the eve of the First Sunday of Advent in the Liturgy of the Hours, a position it retains in the modern Roman Breviary.¹

Theological structure

The Salve Regina is a complete small Marian theology in itself. It addresses Mary by four titles: Queen ( Regina), Mother of Mercy ( Mater misericordiae), our life, sweetness, and hope (vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra), and Advocate (Advocata). Each title is theologically anchored.

Queen: the Catholic doctrine of Mary's queenship is grounded in her motherhood of Christ the King and in her Assumption into heavenly glory. Pope Pius XII defined the doctrine in Ad Caeli Reginam (1954), establishing the feast of the Queenship of Mary on 22 August (later moved to its current date of 22 August in the post-conciliar calendar).

Mother of Mercy: the title appears in the writings of Saint Odo of Cluny in the tenth century and developed in the medieval Catholic devotional tradition. Mary is Mother of Mercy because she is the Mother of Jesus Christ, who is Mercy Himself, and because her own maternal intercession participates in the Lord's mercy.

Our life, our sweetness, and our hope: the three titles name what Mary is to the Christian soul through her intercession. Vita (life) names her role as participant in the work of our supernatural life; dulcedo (sweetness) names her maternal tenderness; spes (hope) names the eschatological dimension of Marian devotion, since the Mother who has been raised to heaven is the pledge of the heavenly homeland to which all the baptized are called.

Advocate: the title is patristic, found in Saint Irenaeus's Against Heresies (Book V, chapter 19) where Mary is contrasted with Eve as the advocate who undid the disobedience. The title was incorporated into Vatican II's Lumen Gentium: "Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix" (LG 62).

When the Hail Holy Queen is prayed

The Hail Holy Queen is prayed:

• At the close of every Holy Rosary, as the principal closing antiphon.
• In the Liturgy of the Hours from Trinity Sunday through the eve of the First Sunday of Advent, as the closing Marian antiphon of Compline.
• In many Catholic religious communities, at the close of the day.
• At the close of many novenas and devotional prayers.
• On the bodies of the dying, in the Catholic tradition of commending the soul to Mary at the hour of death.

The "valley of tears"

The phrase "valley of tears" (Latin: lacrimarum valle) names the exiled condition of the Christian soul on its earthly pilgrimage. The phrase has its scriptural root in Psalm 84:6 ("as they go through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs"), traditionally rendered in the Latin Vulgate as vallis lacrimarum and applied to the Christian's earthly pilgrimage in the spirit of "Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come" (Hebrews 13:14).

Pairing the Hail Holy Queen with other prayers

The Hail Holy Queen is paired with:

• The Holy Rosary, as the closing antiphon.
• The Hail Mary and the Memorare, in the broader Marian rhythm.
• The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Litany of Loreto).
• The Angelus, as the brief and fuller forms of Marian devotion.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), "Salve Regina," available at newadvent.org. Roman Breviary (current edition), Compline. Pope Pius XII, Ad Caeli Reginam (encyclical, 11 October 1954). Vatican II, Lumen Gentium (1964), chapter 8, paragraph 62. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 966 (the Assumption), 969 (Mary's continuing motherhood), 2677-2678 (Marian prayer of the Church). ↩