Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with Thee: blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.* Holy Mary, Mother of God, prayer for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. AmenAve Maria

Though we are familiar with this prayer to our Lady, the Ave Maria as we use it today made its appearance only gradually over the centuries:-

1. The Angelic Salutation c. 1050

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!

2. The Greeting of Elizabeth is added to the Angelic Salutation c. 1050

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.

The Angelic Salutation and greeting of Elizabeth appear in the Little Office of Our Lady. In this Office of psalms, antiphons and hymns the Ave Maria appears as a Versicle and Responsory.

3. The Holy Name is added in the thirteenth century and attributed to Pope Urban IV (1261)

This was onfirmed by an Indulgence granted for this formula by Pope John XXII (1316-1334)

Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,

Jesus Christ. Amen

4. A scriptural sentence or allusion following Jesus, and known as the Jesus Clause.

In the fourteenth century, Dominic of Prussia (1384-1460) composed a series of fifty Jesus Clauses with which to conclude the Ave prayer.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus

Here follows on of the Clauses referring to one aspect of the life of Christ. e.g.

The Fifth Clause:

Jesus Christ whom thou didst wrap in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger. Amen

The Nineteenth Clause:

Jesus Christ whose feet Mary Magdalen washed with her tears,

and wiped with her hair, kissed and anointed. Amen.

5. In 1493 a prayer asking for our Lady’s intercession appears.

It is first seen in Compost et Kalendrier des Bergiers, published in Paris.

Hail Mary, full of Grace, God is with thee,

Thou art among women, and blessed be the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

Pray for us sinners. Amen

6. By the sixteenth century we find the Ave Maria prayer with a text we would recognise.

A form of the prayer as we know it today is found in the Sarum Berviary of 1531. The only variants are the addition of the word Christus following Jesus, and the omission of the word nostrae before the Amen.

The full prayer is to be found in the Catechism of the Council of Trent 1566 and given final authority by its inclusion in the new Roman Breviary of 1568 by Pope Pius V who had previously issued the Catechism.

It is interesting to note that Bishop Challoner’s eighteenth century revision of the Douay Rheims Bible used the words, ‘our Lord is with thee’ as a translation of  dominus tecum at the Annunciation passage in Luke 1:28.

Cardinal Wiseman of Westminster, (1802-1865) writing of this asserts that Catholics from time immemorial were accustomed to say:

Hail Mary, full of grace, Our Lord is with thee,