(see below). [L. and It.], and Ave Mary. [See AVE.] The Hail Mary! the angelic salutation to the Virgin (Luke i. 28), combined with that of Elizabeth (v. 42), used as a devotional recitation, with the addition (in more recent times) of a prayer to the Virgin, as Mother of God; so named from its first two words.
The words are: ‘Ave [Maria] gratia plena, Dominus tecum; benedicta tu in mulieribus; et benedictus fructus ventris tui [Jesus; Amen]. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus nunc et in hora mortis nostræ.’ (The words Jesus, Amen, were added by Pope Urban IV., 1261–6. They are now omitted, since the addition of the prayer first sanctioned by Pius V., 1568.)
a. 1230. Ancr. R., 46. Þritti Pater nostres, & aue Maria efter euerich Pater noster.
c. 1365. Chaucer, A. B. C., N., An Avemary or twey.
1552. Abp. Hamilton, Catechism (1884), 273. The Salutatioun of the Angel Gabriel, callit the Ave Maria: ‘Hail Marie ful of grace, our lord is with the, blissit art thow amang wemen, and blissit is the fruit of thi wambe.’
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., II. i. 162. Numb’ring our Aue-Maries with our Beads.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. IV. (1676), 180/1. To say so many paternosters, avemarias, creeds.
1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 414. Mumbling over Paternosters and Ave Mary’s.
1876. S. Curtis, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXIII. 52. Death gives him time only to recite an Avemaria and a Paternoster.
b. = AVE sb. 2 a, 3 a.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1632), 6. The devotion advised is the Ave Marie, and the Bell which rings to it hath also that name.
1835. Penny Cycl., III. 166/1. Ave Maria is in Italy … about half an hour after sunset…. In many churches … the bells are also rung at the first dawn of day, and this is called in Italy the morning Ave Maria.
