AVE MARIA

A form of devotion used in the Church of Rome, comprising the salutation addre ed by the angel Gabriel to the Ble ed Virgin Mary. (Luke i. 28.) The words “Ave Maria” are the first two, in Latin, of the form as it appears in the manuals of the Romish Church, thus: “Hail Mary, ( Ave Maria ,) full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” . To which is appended the following petition: “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and in the hour of our death. Amen.” Here we find, first, a misapplication of the words of Scripture, and then an addition to them. It was not used before the Hours, until the 16th century, in the Romish offices. It was then introduced into the Breviary by Cardinal Quignon. Cardinal Bona admits that it is modern. “I cannot but observe,” says Bingham, “that among all the short prayers used by the ancients before their sermons, there is never any mention made of an Ave Mary, now so common in the practice of the Romish Church. Their addre es were all to God ; and the invocation of the Holy Virgin for grace and a istance before sermons was a thing not thought of. They who are most concerned prove its use can derive its original no higher than the beginning of the fifteenth century.” But Mosheim (Eccl. Hist. Cant. xiv. Part ii. ch. iv.) says that Pope John XXII. [1316–33] ordered Christians to add to their prayers those words with which the angel Gabriel saluted the Virgin Mary.