Alma Redemptoris Mater
loving Mother of our Redemer
"Alma Redemptoris Mater" (Ecclesiastical Latin: [ˈalma redempˈtoris ˈmater]; "Loving Mother of our Redeemer") is a Marian hymn, written in Latin hexameter, and one of four seasonal liturgical Marian antiphons sung at the end of the office of Compline (the other three being Ave Regina Caelorum, Regina Caeli and Salve Regina).
History
Hermannus Contractus (also called Herman the Cripple; 1013–1054) is said to have authored the hymn based on the writings of Saints Fulgentius, Epiphanius, and Irenaeus of Lyon. It is mentioned in The Prioress's Tale, one of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
At one time, Alma Redemptoris Mater was briefly used as an antiphon for the hour of Sext for the Feast of the Assumption, but since the 13th century it has been a part of Compline. Formerly, it was recited at the end of the canonical hours only from the first Sunday in Advent until the Feast of the Purification (2 February). It was translated into English by, amongst others, John Henry Newman in "Tracts for the Times", No. 75 (Kindly Mother of the Redeemer).
Text
Latin
Depending on the period, the following combinations of a versicle, response, and collect are added. From the first Sunday of Advent until Christmas Eve, the collect from the Fourth Sunday of Advent is used, and thereafter until the Feast of the Presentation, the collect from Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, is used.
The first collect (“Grátiam tuam quáesumus...”) is notably also used in Masses during Advent, and is exactly the same prayer that concludes the Angelus (another Marian devotion focused on the Incarnation).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Alma Redemptoris Mater” is loving Mother of our Redemer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Alma, Redemptoris and Mater, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q643845. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1013 and 1054.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alma Redemptoris Mater” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.