Salve Regina (English)

I wanna talk about one of my favorite prayers, one that's pretty related to me. First of all, pardon for my messy language, yea, i always be like that, but, I hope y'all get what I mean. I'm grateful that this prayer was exist, cause it's represents what i'm trying to say or pray.

In Latin called as Salve Regina, English called as Hail Holy Queen.
This prayer predicted to be come from around 11th century.
It has some stories of its origin, some says it's authorized by Adhémar of Monteil (1087-1100), bishop of Le Puy, France,
some other say it was Blessed Hermann Contractus or Hermann of Reichenau, also called as Hermann the Cripple (1013-1054), a German monk.

Most scholars agree that it was Hermann who wrote this prayer.
Hermann was came from a noble family, but he's disabled, weak, and has many physical illnesses.
He sent by his dad to a Benedictine monastery at Island of Reichenau in Southern Germany since 7 years old.
He spend his life on that island, in that monastery.

Even though disabled, he's very good at theology, astronomy, math, and history, he was also master of languages, he fluent in Greek, Arabic, and Latin.

His life was full of suffering, and in his darkness he look upon Our Lady and invoke her as the Mother of Mercy and the Comforter of the Afflicted.
He wrote 2 famous Marian hymns, Salve Regina and Alma Redemptoris Mater.
The Salve Regina one was the one that i want to talk about, as i said before.
Traditionally sung at Compline in the time from the Saturday before Trinity Sunday until the Friday before the first Sunday of Advent. It's is also the final prayer of the Rosary.
So those who pray rosary frequently or daily, must be familiar with it.

It's sounds like this:
"Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, hail our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
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."

This prayer made us feel the suffering of Hermann. This also represents the lament of those who are in affliction. This is a prayer of a very suffering person, asking the intercession of Our Lady.
He call this world as the valley of tears, and that is right.
He call this world as an captivity, an exile, it's refer to Genesis 3.
Along the prayer, he's trying to show the gentleness of Our Lady, that the Virgin Mary is a gentle, merciful, and consoling Mother, and it is emphasized in the end of the prayer, where he said,
"O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary".
And he also show that he's longing to experience the beatific vision, to see Our Lord, Jesus.
This is also what we're longing for.
Truly, this prayer was very representing us, afflicted ones, and also representing the longing of most of Christians

Our Lady entitled as Comforter of the Afflicted isn't without a reason, she do really did it, she really comfort and console those who are afflicted, and pray for them.
As an example, the apparition of Our Lady of Tsuwano.
During 16th-19th century persecution of Japanese Christians, exactly in 19th century, one of the Christian martyrs in Tsuwano, Yasutaro, was locked in a sanjakuro (cage).
Before his death in this small prison, many of the captives worried about him because he was weak from sharing what food he had with others. One night, two of Yasutaro’s friends, Senemon Takagi and Jinzaburo Moriyama, went to visit him, hoping to give him comfort. Yasutaro told them,
“I am not lonely at all in this sanjakuro. For just after midnight, a lady appears, clothed in a blue gown and wearing a blue veil just like the image of Santa Maria. She tells me stories so I am not lonely at all. But please do not tell anyone about this while I am still alive.”
Yasutaro said that the Virgin Mary came to visit him every night from the 7th to the 19th of January, 1869, just before his death inside the sanjakuro.
By this, she reveal herself as Our Lady of Consolation.