HAIL HOLY QUEEN. – The best-known and most popular of the four Greater Antiphons, recited in honor of the Blessed Virgin at the end of the canonical Hours. Leo XIII (6 Jan. 1884) prescribed it also as the final prayer in the private celebration of the Holy Mass (Leonis XIII Acta, IV, Rome 1885, pp. 5-6).
**The Text and Its Author.** – The author of the text seems to be the same as that of the ancient melody. Structurally, the Hail Holy Queen is a rhythmic prose and may be considered a sequence with a single rhyme in *e* (1. “misericordie”; 2. “salve”; 3. “Heve”; 4. “valle”; 5. “converte”; 6. “ostende”), except for the two closing lines (originally two senarii) with a rhyming couplet (“pia,” “Maria”). Yet, due to the richness of its rhythm, the brief lyric can be arranged in various ways, all equally harmonious (cf. J. de Valois, in La Tribu de St-Gervais, 18 [1912], pp. 10-12). According to the ancient melody, illustrated by Dom Pothier (v. BIBLICA), the Hail Holy Queen can be divided into seven unequal sections, with various interpolations:
1. Salve, Regina / Mater misericordiae,
2. Vita, dulcedo / et spes nostra, salve!
3. Ad Te clamamus / exules filii Hevae
4. Ad Te suspiramus / gementes et fientes
In hac lacrimarum valle.
5. Eia ergo / advocata nostra,
Illos tuos misericordes oculos / ad nos converte.
6. Et Iesum, / benedictum fructum ventris tui,
Nobis post hoc exilium ostende.
7. O Clemens, / o pia,
O dulcis / Virgo Maria.
The two words: *Mater*, in the first verse (double quatrain), and *Virgo*, in the last (senarius), constitute a later addition, probably due at least in part, for *Mater*, to Cluniac influence, the expression *Mater misericordiae* being very dear to the early abbots of Cluny, where the Hail Holy Queen was received with great honor (cf. P. Cousin, cited in bibl.). This interpolation dates back at least to the 13th century (cf. H. Thurston, in Rev. Clerg. fr., 1917 [cited in bibl.], p. 501). The critical text of the Hail Holy Queen is given by G. M. Dreves, Anal. hymn., L, Leipzig 1907, p. 318 ff.
The author of the glorious antiphon, as called by an anonymous writer of the 13th century (cf. H. Thurston, p. 510), remains uncertain. The attribution to St. Bernard (cf. Giovanni l’Eremita, Vita s. Bern., 7: PL 185, 444) has been rejected, while the attributions to St. Peter of Mezonzo, bishop of Compostella (986-1000), supported by the authority of Durandus (Ration., IV, 22), by Eladio Oviedo Arce, and by S. Navarro (v. BIBLICA), and to Adhemar of Monteil, bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay (papal legate in the First Crusade, d. 1 Aug. 1098 at Antioch), preferred by the authors of the Histoire litt. de France (VII, Paris 1747, pp. 468-72) and by Vacandard (v. BIBLICA), still find some credence. In favor of Adhemar is the explicit testimony of the chronicler Alberic of Trois-Fontaines (d. 1240), who, explaining the name *Antiphon de Podio* (“Antiphon of Le Puy”) given to the Hail Holy Queen, states that it was precisely composed by Bishop Adhemar (Chron., a. 1130: MGH, Scriptores, XXIII, p. 828). However, Blume (v. BIBLICA) has demonstrated that the probable, if not certain, author of the Hail Holy Queen is Hermannus Contractus (v.), monk of Reichenau, d. 1054 (cf. Ioan. Ego, De vir. ill. Augiae Div., PL 143, 9). It is certain that in the Codex Augiensis 55, from the 9th century (Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe), at f. 42, a monk from the mid-11th century (thus contemporary with Hermannus) practiced writing (probatio pennae) reproducing the “incipit” of the antiphon (*Salve, regina misericordiae*) and adding only a *trope* for the first part of the same: clear evidence that the chosen “trope” was then familiar to the monks of Reichenau, and the Hail Holy Queen must have been even more so. That this antiphon has Reichenau as its place of origin is further confirmed by the fact that no traces of it are found elsewhere before the 11th century.
**Original Liturgical Use.** – The Hail Holy Queen must have been adopted, upon its composition, as an antiphon *ad canticum* (Magnificat or Benedictus) and as a processional chant. In the Statutes of Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, drawn up c. 1135, it is prescribed for the usual procession on the feast of the Assumption and when the community goes to the church of St. Mary (Statuta Congr. Cluniacensis, 76: PL 189, 1048). The Cistercians used it as an antiphon, at the Magnificat and Benedictus, for the four major feasts of the Virgin from the mid-12th century; from 1218 they recited it daily, and in 1251 adopted it as the chant after Compline. The Dominicans, however, regularly sang it after Compline in Bologna around 1230, by order of the blessed Master Jordan of Saxony, and later throughout the Order (General Chapter of Limoges, 1250). Perhaps at the suggestion of Raymond of Peñafort, in 1239 Pope Gregory IX ordered its singing in the churches of Rome after Compline on Fridays (Vita Greg. IX, in RIS. 1ª ed., III, 1, p. 582; cf. P. Godet [V. BIBLICA.], p. 475). Around this time, the Hail Holy Queen was also sung after Compline in the Chapel of King St. Louis IX of France (cf. S. Bäumer [V. BIBLICA.], I, p. 375).
The Franciscans adopted it, along with the other Marian antiphons, around 1249 (Wadding, Annales, III, 208 ff.; cf. Anal. Franc., 3 [1807], p. 275). Its use spread widely. Thus, the Council of Peñafort (1302) prescribed it for the province of Valladolid, “every day after Compline, with prayers for the Church, the Pope, and the King” (can. 12: Mansi, XXV, 105). According to the *Rubricae novae*, published by Giovanni Mercati (Rass. Greg., 2 [1903], cols. 436-40), the Franciscan custom was introduced into the Roman Breviary in 1350 by Pope Clement VI. The reform of Pius V (1568) definitively regulated its use: from Trinity Sunday to the first Sunday of Advent.
**The Music.** – The original melody of Hermannus Contractus, in its freest form as a sequence (text in H. Beseler, Die Musik d. M. A., Potsdam 1931, p. 87 [ex. 49]), has undergone many variants (the main forms are the “Dominican” and the “Cistercian”). In the 16th century and later, new melodies arose, particularly through the influence of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. The simple, almost syllabic melody in the first tone, now popular, seems to be due to Fr. F. Bourgoing (original form in A. Gastoué, Cours de plain-chant, Paris 1904, p. 85 ff.; cf. J. de Valois, in La Trib. de St-Gervais, 18 [1912], p. 80). The more ornate melody in the first tone is by Henri Du Mont, of the Oratory, d. 1684 (cf. Eph. Lit., 60 [1946], p. 86). The ancient melody, however, is superior in sentiment and artistry.
**Various Developments.** – As an antiphon after Compline, the Hail Holy Queen, combined with prayers and other religious chants, gave rise, from the 13th century onward, to extra-liturgical devotional offices, called, from the antiphon that was their center, *Salve* (in France *Salut*), i.e., an evening greeting to the Mother of God. In some places, such Marian pious exercises were accompanied by music and organ; by the 16th century, they also concluded with the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. A similar custom still prevails at the shrine of Einsiedeln.
Even today in Lyon, the Hail Holy Queen is sung in the rite of absolution for the dead, with medieval tropes.
After the *Ave maris stella*, the Hail Holy Queen was once the favorite chant of sailors: thus, for example, among Columbus’s companions. Still today, the evocative evening singing of the Hail Holy Queen, with polyphonic music, is famous at the abbey of Einsiedeln (already propagated from Reichenau), where it was instituted by John of Lenzingen, a Cistercian, on 11 Aug. 1547. The same is true at the celebrated abbey of Montserrat in Spain.
BIBL.
G. M. Dreves, *Analecta hymnica medii aevi*, L, Leipzig 1907, p. 318 ff.
H. Beseler, *Die Musik des Mittelalters*, Potsdam 1931, p. 87.
A. Gastoué, *Cours de plain-chant*, Paris 1904, p. 85 ff.
J. de Valois, in *La Tribu de St-Gervais*, 18 (1912), pp. 10-12, 80.
Dom P. M. Ferretti, *Il “Salve Regina” e la sua melodia*, Rome 1923.
P. Godet, *Le Bréviaire romain*, Paris 1907, p. 475.
S. Bäumer, *Histoire du Bréviaire*, I, Paris 1895, p. 375.
H. Thurston, in *Revue du Clergé Français*, 1917, p. 501.
P. Cousin, in *Revue Bénédictine*, 30 (1913), pp. 121-24.
Eph. Lit., 60 (1946), p. 86.
Literary and Religious Value
As a starting invocation, one should recall the hymn by Giovanni il Geometra (10th century): *Χαίρει μου, ὁ Βασίλεχος* (Hymni in Deipar., IV: PG 106, 864). There is, in it, a certain correspondence of ideas; but «the Western *Salve Regina* is far superior in the impetus of the confidently supplicating sentiment» (G. Prampolini, *Storia Univ. della Lett.*, II, Turin 1934, p. 298). Both in its words and its melody, the *Salve Regina* is one of those compositions that are the equivalent of an entire poem» (Pothier [see bibliography], p. 147), and Dante echoes its divine sweetness in the suggested backdrop of the «pleasant valley» (Purg., VII, 82).
Commentaries
The four sermons in antiphon form on the *Salve Regina* (PL 184, 1059-78), attributed both to St. Bernard of Clairvaux and to Bernard, archbishop of Toledo (d. 1124), as well as the *Meditatio in Salve Regina* (PL 184, 1077-80, and, with variants in PL 149, 583-90) attributed to Anselm of Lucca (d. 1083), are precious texts, but of doubtful authenticity and uncertain date. Notable commentaries: St. Peter Canisius, *De Maria Virgine*, Ingolstadt 1577 (pp. 616-25); Francesco Coster, *De cantico Salve Regina*, Antwerp 1587; St. Alphonsus Maria de’ Liguori, *Le glorie di Maria* (part 1°).