Alma Redemptoris Mater
562
During Advent, it is customary in some places to sing the 11th-century antiphon, ‘Alma Redemptoris Mater’, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Dominican chant tone heard on this recording is somewhat different from the solemn Roman version that is perhaps more well-known. It was recorded by a group of Dominican students in Blackfriars, Oxford.
Alma Redemptoris Mater, quae pervia caeli
Porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti,
Surgere qui curat, populo: tu quae genuisti,
Natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem
Virgo prius ac posterius, Gabrielis ab ore
Sumens illud Ave, peccatorum miserere.
“Kindly Mother of the Redeemer, who art ever of heaven
The open gate, and the star of the sea, aid a fallen people,
Which is trying to rise again; thou who didst give birth,
While Nature marvelled how, to thy Holy Creator,
Virgin both before and after, from Gabriel’s mouth
Accepting the All hail, be merciful towards sinners.”
(translated by Cardinal Newman)
