Salve Regina
Hail, Holy Queen
The great antiphon to Our Lady, hailing the Mother of Mercy as our advocate and our hope in this valley of tears.
Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae,
vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus, exsules filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, advocata nostra,
illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui, nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.
Amen.
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy,
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 valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious Advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us.
And after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
Amen.
Translation source: fisheaters.com/prayers.html
About this prayer
The Salve Regina, or Hail, Holy Queen, is the most beloved of the four seasonal antiphons of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is traditionally ascribed to Hermann of Reichenau, the crippled monk known as Hermannus Contractus, who died in 1054, though older tradition has also named Saint Bernard among its authors. From the late Middle Ages it has closed the day in the Church's prayer, sung at the end of Compline from the Saturday before Trinity Sunday until Advent, that the faithful may commend themselves to their Mother before they sleep.
It is a cry of exile: the children of Eve, banished from paradise, lift up their sighs to the Mother of Mercy from this valley of tears, that she may turn her eyes of mercy upon them and, after this life, show them the blessed fruit of her womb, Jesus. The faithful pray it at the end of the Holy Rosary, the Church joining to it the versicle "Pray for us, O holy Mother of God." It is sung, too, at the deathbed and the burial of religious in many orders, that Our Lady may lead her children home.