[ Featuring Choir of Keble College, Oxford ]
Ave, maris stella,
Dei mater alma,
Atque semper virgo,
Felix cœli porta.
Solve vincla reis,
Profer lumen cæcis,
Mala nostra pelle,
Bona cuncta posce.
Monstra te esse matrem,
Sumat per te preces
Qui pro nobis natus
Tulit esse tuus.
Vitam præsta puram,
Iter para tutum,
Ut videntes Jesum
Semper collætemur.
Sit laus Deo Patri,
Summo Christo decus,
Spiritui Sancto
Tribus honor unus. Amen.
Hail, star of the sea,
Nurturing Mother of God,
And ever Virgin
Happy gate of Heaven
Loosen the chains of the guilty,
Send forth light to the blind,
Our evil do thou dispel,
Entreat (for us) all good things.
Show thyself to be a Mother:
Through thee may he receive prayer
Who, being born for us,
Undertook to be thine own.
Bestow a pure life,
Prepare a safe way:
That seeing Jesus,
We may ever rejoice.
Praise be to God the Father,
To the Most High Christ (be) glory,
To the Holy Spirit
(Be) honour, to the Three equally. Amen.
8th 9th Century attr. St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153)
