The Ave Maria - Latin Lesson #2

In our last Latin Lesson, we learned The Sign of The Cross, with which we begin all things. Now, since we can only access our Savior Jesus Christ through his adorable Mother Mary, the Hail Mary or Ave Maria is our subject. The prayer runs thus:

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen

You can get a rather laughable, yet serviceable, pronunciation here.

Pointing out the obvious is always a good place to start, and thus Ave means "hail" and Maria is Mary in the romance languages. Gratia means "grace". The phrase "ex gratia" is used for legal services which are provided free of charge, and literally translates "by favor" or "out of kindness". This is where we get our word gratuity from (a tip), which is a further payment beyond the required done out of kindness, at least in theory. Plena is where we get the "full of". The word plenary, which is applied to indulgences which grant a full remission of temporal punishment (as opposed to partial) comes from this Latin word. Tecum is two words combined: te and cum. Te means "you" and cum means "with". That shouldn't be too hard for any scholar of a romance language (Spanish especially).

With the next sentence we get into some good grammar. Not that we have "benedicta tu in mulieribus" and then "benedictus fructus ventris tui". The difference is in who they are talking about! The -a is applied to Mary, because she is a woman, thus she gets the feminine ending (benedicta, -us, -um is a routine first declension adjective). The -us is masculine, and thus Jesus gets it. Don't be confused by the -us you think you see in Mary's like in mulieribus. It is actually -ibus, which is in fact feminie, fitting for the embodiment of all femininity. Having a beginning understanding of Latin grammar can get you a long ways, but if you don't get this, it doesn't matter. You can still pray in Latin, and understand what you are praying!

With that out of the way, benedictus is blessed (like our Holy Father Pope Benedict), and fructus is fruit. Ventris means "womb" here, but can mean stomach or belly in the context of eating. A woman with children is called a venter in English.

Mater means mother, like alma mater, which means "nourishing mother" (a proper title for The Mother of God!). Dei is like God, like "deify". Ora (from the first conjugation orare) is a verb meaning "to pray" here, though also to speak other places. Thus we have "to orate". Pro nobis means for us, which again is rather standard for a romance language. Peccatoribus means sinners. I don't know of any English words that come from this, though the Internet tells me peccatophobia is the fear of making mistakes. Peccatoribus is used famously in the Tridintine Mass (the Pre-Vatican II Mass), where the priest says aloud "nobis quoque peccatoribus" surrounded by silence on either side. The phrase means "and also us sinners".

Nunc is "now". Mortis is "death", as in mortuary. And again nostrae, like nobis is the first person plural.

Orate Fratres! (Pray brethren)