II. Salutation of the Blessed Virgin

The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi, tr. by Paschal Robinson, [1905], at sacred-texts.com

p. 143

II.

SALUTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

This little prayer enjoys the same title to authenticity as the preceding opuscule, and Professor Boehmer ¹ and M. Sabatier ² are in complete accord with the Quaracchi editors as to its genuinity. With the exception of the Assisi codex, it is found in all the early MS. collections containing the Praises. The text here translated is based on the MS. at Ognissanti and St. Isidore's (1/25), which were collated by the Quaracchi editors with the versions given in the Conformities (fruct. xii, P. II, c. v.) and the Speculum B. Francisci (ed. 1 and 2, fol. 127 r).

SALUTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. ³

Hail, holy Lady, most holy Queen, Mother of God, Mary who art ever Virgin, chosen from Heaven by the most Holy Father, whom He has consecrated with the most holy beloved Son and the Ghostly Paraclete, in whom was and is all the fulness of grace and all good. Hail thou His palace! ⁴ Hail thou His tabernacle.! ⁵ Hail thou His house. Hail thou His garment! Hail thou His handmaid! Hail thou His Mother and all ye holy virtues which by the grace and

p. 144

illumination of the Holy Ghost thou infusest in the heart of the faithful, that from infidels ye mayest make them faithful to God. ¹

Footnotes

143:1 Analekten, p. xxvii.

143:2 Opuscules, fasc. x, p. 134.

143:3 The text given by Wadding (Opusc., p. 105) was copied by him from an Irish MS. at Salamanca.

143:4 Cod. Is. omits from "Hail thou His tabernacle" to "Hail thou His handmaid," inclusive.

143:5 Wadding omits from "Hail thou His house" to " Hail thou His handmaid," inclusive.

144:1 The text of the Conformities and Wadding here add the second part of the antiphon given below in the Office of the Passion beginning "Mother of our most Holy Lord Jesus Christ," etc. In the Speculum (ed. Morin, 1509) this Salutation is followed by another prayer to the Blessed Virgin (see Sabatier, Opuscules, fasc. x, p. 164); but from the beginning of the seventeenth century, the second prayer is no longer found in the text of the Speculum (see the edition of Spoelberch, P. I, pp. 176-178, and Wadding, Opusc., p. 107). In the opinion of Professor Boehmer this Salutation ought to follow immediately after the Salutation of the Virtues given above (p. 20). See his Analekten, pp. vi and xxviii. They are found in this order in the Spec. Vitae of 3504 and the Vatican MS. 4354.