Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

Where Does This Prayer Come From?

Ask around, and many people will tell you St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote this prayer.

It makes sense.
Bernard loved Our Lady.
He is a Doctor of the Church.
He died in 1153.

But there's a problem.

The Memorare is nowhere in St. Bernard's writings.

His sermons share its spirit.
None of them come close to its words.

The oldest copies we have are from the 1400s.
There, these lines sit inside a much longer Latin prayer to Mary.

Someone lifted them out.
And they took on a life of their own.

So where did "Bernard" come from?

Wait a second.

There was another Bernard.

Fr. Claude Bernard.
Born in Dijon, France, in 1588.
Died in Paris in 1641.

People called him "the poor priest."
He spent his life with the poor, the sick, and prisoners.
Even men condemned to death.

He didn't write the Memorare.
He said he learned it from his father.

And he taught it to everyone.
He had it printed by the thousands, in several languages.

That's most likely how it happened.
Father Bernard slowly became Saint Bernard.

In 1846, Pope Pius IX attached an indulgence to the prayer.
The words most of us pray today come from that text.

You may see prayer to Mary differently.
But you at least have to admit where "my Mother" comes from:

After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.
— John 19:27

That's all the Memorare does.

It takes Jesus at His word.

We don't know who wrote it.

We know who it's written to.

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