BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ANGELUS
Before the
year 1000, it was a pious custom for the layfolk to recite three Hail Marys to honor Our Lady in her singularly exalted role as the
Mother of God. This was done towards evening, usually as the bell rang when
religious in local monasteries were chanting that part of the Divine Office
called Compline. Through the years this practice was expanded to include a
morning recitation, then another at noon. Later, holy details from the scene
of the Annunciation—during which moment the Incarnation took place—were inserted
before and after the Hail Marys, and a closing prayer was attached. Named after the first word
of its Latin form, this devotion is the prayer we now call the Angelus. To say it is to replay the drama of the Annunciation once
more, placing it vividly before our eyes and within our hearts.
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