Salve Regína,
mater misericórdiæ;
vita, dulcédo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamámus
éxsules fílii Evæ,
ad te suspirámus,
geméntes et flentes
in hac lacrimárum valle.
Eia ergo, advocáta nostra,
illos tuos misericórdes óculos
ad nos convérte:
et Iesum,
benedíctum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsílium osténde.
O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo María.
V. Ora pro nobis, Sancta Dei Genetrix.
R. Ut digni efficiamur
promissiónibus Christi.

The Salve Regina (Latin for “Hail, Queen”) is one of the four great Marian antiphons of the Latin liturgy. It is a short, sonorous prose hymn addressed to Mary as “Mother of Mercy, our life, sweetness and hope.”

The hymn’s exact author is uncertain. Medieval tradition ascribes it to Hermann Contractus, while other scholars have suggested Petrus of Monsoro or the 12th‑century monk Adhémar of Puy‑en‑Velay. Its earliest appearance is in the Cistercian liturgy after Compline in the mid‑13th century, and it quickly spread to the Dominican, Franciscan and Carthusian offices. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the word “Mater” in the first line is a later sixteenth‑century insertion, indicating that the core of the hymn is older. The hymn was already in use in the Roman Breviary by the 13th century, after Pope Gregory IX ordered the Marian antiphons to be sung at the close of the Office.

Before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council the Salve Regina was the antiphon assigned to the final days of the liturgical year—from the Saturday before Advent until the feast of the Presentation (or, in some rites, until Holy Thursday). It was sung after Compline in many monastic communities (Cistercians, Dominicans, Carmelites) and after every Low Mass by papal law of 6 January 1884 (Pope Leo XIII). In the Mozarabic Rite the hymn is recited after Compline and the Lesser Hours throughout the year. The De Benedictionibus (Book of Blessings) records the antiphon’s text as part of the official rubrics for Vespers and Compline1. The Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (1999) lists the Salve Regina among the approved Marian prayers, confirming its continued liturgical status5.

The hymn petitions Mary as Mother of Mercy (Mater misericordiae), invoking her as the source of life, sweetness and hope for the faithful. The faithful cry out to her as “exiles, children of Eve” (exsules filii Evae), expressing the human condition of sin and suffering. They ask her to turn her merciful eyes toward them (illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte). The climax is a request to show Jesus, the “blessed fruit of your womb,” after the “exile” of the world—a plea for the ultimate hope of salvation. The triple invocation “O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria” (gentle, pious, sweet) highlights Mary’s virtues and her role as intercessor, a formula popularized in the 14th‑century legend of St Bernard of Clairvaux.