Orchestra Orchestra and voices
The Hail Mary, also commonly called the Ave Maria
(Latin) or Angelic Salutation, is a traditional Catholic prayer asking for the
intercession of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus. In Roman Catholicism, the
prayer forms the basis of the Rosary and the Angelus prayers. In the Eastern
Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, a similar prayer is used in formal
liturgies, both in Greek and in translations. It is also used by many other
groups within the Catholic tradition of Christianity including Anglicans,
Independent Catholics, and Old Catholics. Some Protestant denominations, such
as Lutherans, also make use of a form of the prayer. Based on the greeting of
the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary in the Gospel of Luke, the prayer takes
different forms in various traditions.