Salve Regina - Background and History

Background and History

The Salve Regina is predominantly used in the Catholic Church, typically around feast days like the Assumption or Immaculate Conception. However, as a hymn it is less used than in the past due to the reforms of Vatican II and the subsequent explosion of vernacular hymns. As a piece of music, it is not part of the much older Gregorian chant repertoire, but may date back to the 11th century.

It is usually attributed either to St. Anselm of Lucca (d. 1080) or St. Bernard. There are two legends connecting the anthem with the Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. One legend relates that, while the saint was acting as legate Apostolic in Germany, he entered (Christmas Eve, 1146) the cathedral to the processional chanting of the anthem, and, as the words "O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria" were being sung, genuflected thrice. According to the more common narrative, however, the saint added the triple invocation for the first time, moved thereto by a sudden inspiration. "Plates of brass were laid down in the pavement of the church, to mark the footsteps of the man of God to posterity, and the places where he so touchingly implored the clemency, the mercy, and the sweetness of the Blessed Virgin Mary" (Ratisbonne, "Life and Times of St. Bernard", American ed., 1855, p. 381, where fuller details are given).

However, the authorship is now generally ascribed to Hermann of Reichenau. Durandus, in his "Rationale", ascribed it to Petrus of Monsoro (d. about 1000), Bishop of Compostela. It has also been attributed to Adhémar, Bishop of Podium (Puy-en-Velay), whence it has been styled "Antiphona de Podio" (Anthem of Le Puy). Adhémar was the first to ask permission to go on the crusade, and the first to receive the cross from Pope Urban II. "Before his departure, towards the end of October, 1096, he composed the war-song of the crusade, in which he asked the intercession of the Queen of Heaven, the Salve Regina" (Migne, "Dict. des Croisades", s. v. Adhémar). He is said to have asked the monks of Cluny to admit it into their office, but no trace of its use in Cluny is known before the time of Peter the Venerable, who decreed (about 1135) that the anthem should be sung processionally on certain feasts.

It was set down in its current form at the Abbey of Cluny in the 12th century, and has been widely used in Catholic liturgy since that time. It is commonly said after the completion of the rosary. Liturgically, it is one of four prescribed Marian Anthems recited after the office of Compline, and, in some uses, after Lauds or other Hours.

In the 18th century, the Salve Regina became a key focus of the classic Roman Catholic Mariology book The Glories of Mary by Saint Alphonsus Liguori. In the first, and key part of this book St. Alphonsus, a Doctor of the Church, discusses the Salve Regina in detail and based on it explains how God gave Mary to mankind as the "Gate of Heaven".