Regina Caeli: Queen of Heaven
From the Easter Vigil to Pentecost
Queen of heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
For He whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia.
Has risen, as He said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.
V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.
Let us pray. O God, who through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, didst vouchsafe to give joy to the world; grant, we beseech Thee, that through His Mother, the Virgin Mary, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Where Does This Prayer Come From?
Nobody knows who wrote it.
That's the honest answer.
The oldest traces go back to the 1100s.
By the first half of the 1200s, Franciscans were singing it after Night Prayer during Easter.
But there's a better-known story.
Rome.
A plague.
Pope St. Gregory the Great leads a procession through the streets, carrying an image of Our Lady.
Suddenly, angels are heard singing the first three lines.
Gregory answers with the fourth: "Pray for us to God, alleluia."
Then he sees an angel on top of a great tomb by the river, putting his sword away.
The plague ends.
That building is still called Castel Sant'Angelo, the Castle of the Angel.
It's a beautiful story, but it's a legend, told in a book of saints' tales from the 1200s, more than six hundred years after Gregory died.
You don't need it.
The prayer stands on the Gospel.
He is not here, for he is risen, as he said.
— Matthew 28:6
Wait.
"As he said."
That's right there in the prayer: "Has risen, as He said, alleluia."
And the response?
The Lord is risen indeed…
— Luke 24:34
In 1742, Pope Benedict XIV set it in place of the Angelus for the whole Easter season.
Think about why.
Mary stood at the Cross.
She watched her Son die.
Now the Church turns to her and says one word:
Rejoice.
You may see prayer to Mary differently.
But you at least have to admit: the heart of this prayer is the empty tomb.
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