Ave Maria

Ave Maria or Hail Mary, name given by Roman Catholics to a form of address to the Virgin Mary, included in the divine office and in a few antiphons of the Mass. Ave Maria are the first two words of the prayer that is taken from the salutation (see Luke 1:28) of the angel Gabriel, traditionally worded: “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women”. Appearing in various forms as early as the 6th century in the Liturgy of St James and others, the Ave Maria was finally adopted as a popular devotion in the 11th century. The present form was fixed by Pope Pius V in 1568 and has been used by the Roman Catholic laity as widely as the Our Father, or Lord's Prayer.