Ave Maria

[Lat. Hail, Mary!) (Eccl. Hist.) A prayer of the Roman Catholic Church to the Virgin Mary, so called from the words with which it commences. It is also called Angelica Salutatio, or the Angelic Salutation: these words being the beginning of the salutation which the angel addre ed to Mary, when he announced to her that she was to be the mother of the Saviour. The invocation was first used by the priests during ma on the 4th Sunday after Advent, by an ordinance of Gregory I. With the extended worship of the Virgin since the 11th century, the A. has come to be a lay prayer nearly equal in use with the Pater-Noster, and was sanctioned as such at the end of the 12th century. In the first half of the 16th century, the prayer came generally to receive, as a conclusion to the earlier formula, the words, " Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." John XXII., in 1326, ordained that every Catholic should, at the ringing of the bells, morning, noon, and night, repeat 3 Aves, which prayer is called Angelus. The Aves are reckoned by the small beads of the rosary, which are hence called Ave Marias, while the large beads are used in the Pater Nos ters. As in Italy, according to the division of time pecuhar to the country, the close of the 24th hour coincides always with sundown, when the bells call pious persons to prayer, it was usual, and it is even now very common to say, at Ave Maria, instead of at 24 o'clock. To this custom Byron alludes in these fine lines: IMG:content-0430.png:[blocks in formation] A'ven, (LOCH,) in Scotland, a lake in the county of Banff, surrounded by the great mountains of Cairngorm, and Ben-Macdhui. A'ven, or A'von, a name common to some English and Scottish rivers. - See AVON.