SALVE REGINA. — The best known and most popular of the four major Antiphons, recited in honor of the Blessed Virgin at the end of the Canonical Hours. Leo XIII (6 Jan. 1884) also prescribed it as the final prayer in the private celebration of Holy Mass (Leonis XIII Acta, IV, Rome 1885, pp. 5–6).
The text and its author. — It seems that the author of the text was the same as that of the ancient melody. In structure, the S. R. is a rhythmic prose and may be regarded as 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), which have paired rhyme (“pia,” “Maria”). But because of the richness of its rhythm, the brief lyric may be arranged in various ways, all equally harmonious (cf. J. de Valois, in La Trib. de St-Gervais, 18 [1912], pp. 10–12). According to the ancient melody, illustrated by dom Pothier (v. BIBLICA), the S. R. may be divided into seven members of unequal length, with various subdivisions:
1. 1. Salve, Regina / Mater misericordiae,
2. 2. Vita, dulcedo / et spes nostra, salve!
3. 3. Ad Te clamamus / exules filii Heve
4. 4. Ad Te suspiramus / gementes et flentes
In hac lacrimarum valle.
5. 5. Eia ergo / advocata nostra,
Illos tuos misericordes oculos / ad nos converte.
6. 6. Et Iesum, / benedictum fructum ventris tui,
Nobis post hoc exilium ostende.
7. 7. O Clemens, / o pia,
O dulcis / Virgo Maria.
The two words Mater, in the first verse (double quinarius), and Virgo, in the last (senarius), constitute a later addition, probably due, at least in the case of Mater, to Cluniac influence, since the Marian expression Mater misericordiae was especially dear to the first abbots of Cluny, where the S. R. was received with great honor (cf. P. Cousin, cited in bibl.). This interpolation dates back at least to the thirteenth century (cf. H. Thurston, in Rev. Clerg. fr., 1917 [cited in bibl.], p. 501. The critical text of the S. R. is given by G. M. Dreves, Anal. hymn., L. Leipzig 1907, p. 318 ff.).
The author of the gloriosa antiphona, as it is called by an anonymous writer of the thirteenth century (cf. H. Thurston, p. 510), remains uncertain. Once the attribution to St. Bernard had been abandoned (cf. Giovanni l'Eremita, Vita s. Bern., 7: PL 185, 544), the attributions to St. Pietro di Mezonzo, bishop of Compostella (986–1000), supported, on the authority of Durandus (Racion., IV, 22), by Eladio Oviedo Arce and S. Navarro (v. BIBLICA), and to Ademaro di Monteil, bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay (papal legate in the First Crusade, who died on 1 Aug. 1098 at Antioch), preferred by the authors of the Histoire litt. de France (VIII, Paris 1747, pp. 468–72) and by Vacandard (v. BIBLICA), still retain some credibility. In favor of Ademaro there is, in fact, the explicit testimony of the chronicler Alberico di Trois-Fontaines (d. 1240), who, in explaining the name Antiphona de Podio (“Antiphon of Le Puy”) given to the S. R., states precisely that it was composed by Bishop Ademaro (Chron., a. 1130; MGH, Scriptores, XXIII, p. 828). But Blume (v. BIBLICA) has demonstrated that the probable, if not indeed certain, author of the S. R. Contratto (v.), a monk of Reichenau, who died in 1054 (cf. Ioan. Ego, De vir. ill. Augiae Div.: PL 143, 9). It is certain that in cod. Augiensis 55, from the ninth century (Landesbibliothek of Karlsruhe), on fol. 22 a monk from the middle of the eleventh century (therefore a contemporary of Ermanno) practiced writing (probatio pennae) by reproducing the “incipit” of the antiphon (Salve, regine misericordiae) and following it with a tropus for its first part: clear evidence that the “trope” chosen was then familiar to the monks of Reichenau, and the S. R. must have been much more so. That the S. R. originated in the abbey of Reichenau is also confirmed by the fact that, for the eleventh century, no evidence of it is found elsewhere.
The original liturgical use. — The S. R. must have been adopted, as soon as it was composed, as an antiphon ad canticum (Magnificat or Benedictus) and as a processional chant. In the Statutes of Pietro il Venerabile, abbot of Cluny, drawn up around 1135, it is in fact prescribed for the customary procession held on the feast of the Assumption and when the community went to the church of S. Maria (Statuta Congr. Cluniacensis, 76: PL 189, 1048). From the middle of the twelfth century, the Cistercians used it as an antiphon at the Magnificat and the Benedictus for the four major feasts of the Virgin; from 1218 they recited it daily, and in 1251 they adopted it as a chant after Compline. The Dominicans, however, regularly sang it after Compline in Bologna around 1230, by order of the blessed Giordano di Sassonia, their master general, and subsequently throughout the Order (General Chapter of Limoges, 1250). Perhaps at the suggestion of Raimondo di Peñafort, in 1239 Pope Gregory IX ordered it to be sung in the churches of Rome after Compline on Fridays (Vita Greg. IX, in RIS, 1st ed., III, 1, p. 582 D; cf. P. Godet [V. BIBLICA.], p. 475). Around this time the S. R. was also sung after Compline in the Chapel of the king of France, St. Louis IX (cf. S. Bäumer [V. BIBLICA.], I, p. 375).
The Franciscans adopted it, together with the other Marian Antiphons, around 1249 (Wadding, Annales, III, 208 ff.; cf. Anal. Franc., 3 [1897], p. 275). The practice spread more or less everywhere. Thus the Council of Peñafort (1302) prescribed it for the province of Valladolid, “every day, after Compline, with the prayers for the Church, the Pope, and the King” (can. 12: Mansi, XXV, 105). According to the Rubricae novae, brought to light 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 Ermanno Contratto, in its freer sequence form (text in H. Besseler, Die Musik d. M. A., Potsdam 1931, p. 87 [ex. 49]), underwent many variations (the principal forms are the “Dominican” and the “Cistercian”). In the sixteenth century and afterward, new melodies arose, especially as a result of the Oratorio of the Philippians. The simple, almost syllabic melody in the fifth 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 Enrico Du Mont, an Oratorian, who died in 1684 (cf. Eph. Lit., 60 [1946], p. 86). The ancient melody, however, is superior in feeling and artistry.
Various developments. — As an antiphon after Compline, the S. R., joined to prayers and other religious chants, gave rise, as early as the thirteenth century, to extra-liturgical devotions called Salve (in France Salut), after the antiphon that formed their center; that is, an evening greeting to the Mother of God. In certain places this exercise of Marian piety took place with music and organ; around the sixteenth century it also concluded with the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. A similar custom still exists in the shrine of Einsiedeln.
Even today in Lyon the S. R. is sung during the rite of absolution for the dead, with medieval tropes.
After the Ave maris stella, the S. R. was once the sailors’ favorite chant: thus, for example, among the companions of Columbus. The evocative evening singing of the S. R. with polyphonic music in the abbey of Einsiedeln (formerly an offshoot of Reichenau), where it was instituted by Giovanni di Lenzingen, a Cistercian, on 11 Aug. 1547, remains famous today. The same is true in the celebrated abbey of Monserrato in Spain.
Valore letterario e religioso. - Per l'invocazione iniziale è da ricordare l'inno di Giovanni il Geometra (sec. 3): Χαῖρᾱ μοι, ὁ Βασίλειος (Hymni in Deipor., IV: PG 106, 864). V'è, in esso, anche un certo riscontro di pensieri; ma «il S. R. occidentale è di gran lunga superiore per lo slancio del sentimento che supplica fiducioso» (G. Prampolini, Storia Univ. della Lett., II, Torino 1934, p. 298). Tanto dal punto di vista delle parole che della melodia, la S. R. «è una di quelle composizioni che equivalgono a tutto un poema» (Pothier [V. BIBLICA.], p. 147), e Dante ne fa riecheggiare la divina dolcezza nel suggestivo sfondo della «valletta amena» (Purg., VII, 82).
Commenti. - I quattro sermoni In antiphonam S.R. (PL 184, 1059-78), attribuiti sia a s. Bernardo di Clairvaux, sia a Bernardo arciv. di Toledo (m. nel 1124), come pure la Meditatio in S. R. (PL 184, 1077-80, e, con varianti in PL 149, 583-90) attribuita ad Anselmo di Lucca (m. nel 1083), sono testi preziosi, ma di dubbia autenticità e di data incerta. Commenti celebri: s. Pietro Canisio, De Maria Virgine, Ingolstadt 1577 (pp. 616-25); Francesco Coster, De cantico S. R., Anversa 1587; s. Alfonso M. de' Liguori, Le glorie di Maria (parte 1ª).