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The Evening Antiphon
Hail, holy Queen — the Church's good-night to Our Lady.
Salve, Regína, mater misericórdiæ;
vita, dulcédo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamámus éxsules fílii Hevæ.
Ad te suspirámus geméntes et flentes
in hac lacrimárum valle.
Eia ergo, advocáta nostra,
illos tuos misericórdes óculos ad nos convérte.
Et Iesum, benedíctum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsílium osténde.
O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo María.
Hail, holy Queen, mother of mercy; our life, our sweetness and our hope, hail. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
Marian antiphon, probably 11th century
Since the thirteenth century the Salve Regina has been the Church's good-night. Probably composed in the eleventh century — tradition names the monk Hermann of Reichenau, called Hermann the Lame — it became the antiphon sung at the very end of Compline, the last office of the day: the lights low, the community turning to Our Lady before the great silence of the night.
The Cistercians sang it daily in procession; Dominicans still gather at their mother's statue each night to sing it; sailors sang it at sea, and Columbus's crews sang the Salve at dusk crossing the Atlantic. Few melodies in Western history have been sung so many evenings in a row.
The simple-tone chant is one of the most consoling melodies in the repertoire — it does not soar; it leans. Its phrases bow toward their endings the way tired people bow toward rest, until the final threefold sigh: O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.
Pray it at night, once, slowly — it is the traditional close of the Rosary and of the day itself. The prayer is honest about exile and tears, which is why it belongs to the end of real days rather than ideal ones; it turns the day's residue toward a mother.
If you keep only one Latin prayer by heart, generations of Christians would tell you to make it this one.
Listen for the three O's near the end. The whole antiphon gathers itself into those three cries — clement, loving, sweet — each one a little softer, like a household falling asleep.
Questions
At the end of Compline (night prayer), especially from Trinity Sunday until Advent, and at the close of the Rosary. In many religious houses it is sung every single night.
Tradition ascribes it to Hermann of Reichenau (Hermann the Lame), an 11th-century Benedictine monk and scholar; the attribution is ancient though not certain.
'Hail, Queen.' The antiphon greets Mary as Queen and mother of mercy, and asks her to turn her eyes on us and show us Jesus after our exile.
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