Ave Maria
The Hail Mary
The angelic salutation, joining the words of the Archangel Gabriel and Saint Elizabeth with the Church's petition.
Ave Maria, gratia plena,
Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Translation source: fisheaters.com/prayers.html
About this prayer
The Ave Maria joins the words of Sacred Scripture to the prayer of the Church. Its first half is the salutation of the Archangel Gabriel at the Annunciation, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee" (Saint Luke 1:28), united to the greeting of Saint Elizabeth at the Visitation, "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb" (Saint Luke 1:42), to which the Holy Name of Jesus is added.
The petition that follows, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death," is the Church's own, invoking Our Lady under the title proclaimed at the Council of Ephesus in 431, which defined her to be truly the Mother of God. The prayer was fixed in its present form in the Roman Breviary under Pope Saint Pius V in 1568. It is the prayer most constantly upon the lips of the faithful: told through the beads of the Rosary, recited in the Angelus, and woven through every Catholic devotion to the Blessed Virgin.