Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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HOLY MARY

The second part of the prayer "Hail Mary," in which the Blessed Virgin is invoked, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death." It began as an invocation added to the Ave Maria in the eleventh century, and came into general use by the sixteenth century. Pope St. Pius V gave it official recognition in 1568 by including the Holy Mary in the Roman Breviary.