Ave Maris Stella
Hail, Star of the Sea
An ancient Vespers hymn to Our Lady as the Star of the Sea, the light by which wayfarers steer for the harbour of heaven.
Ave, maris stella,
Dei Mater alma,
atque semper Virgo,
felix caeli porta.
Sumens illud Ave
Gabrielis ore,
funda nos in pace,
mutans Hevae nomen.
Solve vincla reis,
profer lumen caecis,
mala nostra pelle,
bona cuncta posce.
Monstra te esse matrem,
sumat per te preces
qui pro nobis natus
tulit esse tuus.
Virgo singularis,
inter omnes mitis,
nos culpis solutos
mites fac et castos.
Vitam praesta puram,
iter para tutum,
ut videntes Iesum
semper collaetemur.
Sit laus Deo Patri,
summo Christo decus,
Spiritui Sancto,
tribus honor unus. Amen.
Hail, thou Star of ocean,
Portal of the sky,
Ever Virgin Mother
Of the Lord most High.
Oh, by Gabriel's Ave,
Uttered long ago,
Eva's name reversing,
Stablish peace below.
Break the captives' fetters,
Light on blindness pour,
All our ills expelling,
Every bliss implore.
Show thyself a Mother;
Offer Him our sighs,
Who for us Incarnate
Did not thee despise.
Virgin of all virgins,
To thy shelter take us;
Gentlest of the gentle,
Chaste and gentle make us.
Still, as on we journey,
Help our weak endeavour,
Till with thee and Jesus
We rejoice for ever.
Through the highest heaven
To the Almighty Three,
Father, Son, and Spirit,
One same glory be. Amen.
Translation source: fisheaters.com/prayers.html
About this prayer
Ave Maris Stella, "Hail, Star of the Sea," is an anonymous hymn of the eighth or ninth century, long sung at Vespers on the feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in her Little Office. Its title rests upon an old reading of Our Lady's name: where some took Mary, in Hebrew Miryam, to signify Star of the Sea, the Fathers saw in the title a figure of her office, the steady light by which the storm-tossed mariner steers for the harbour. Saint Bernard gave the image its famous voice: in peril, look to the star, call upon Mary.
The hymn unfolds as a string of petitions: that she who received the angel's Ave may loose the bonds of sinners, give light to the blind, drive away our evils, and obtain every good; that she may show herself a Mother and present our prayers to her Son, who was born for us. The Church marks a hidden grace in the greeting itself, for Ave reversed spells Eva: the word that hailed the new Eve unmakes the name of the old, and the sorrow of the first mother is turned to joy in the second. It closes, as the Church's hymns do, in praise of the Most Holy Trinity.