Immaculate Mary

The beautiful history of the beloved Lourdes hymn

In honour of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, which is next week (11 February), today’s hymn traces its origins to the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. “Immaculate Mary” is one of the most well-known Marian hymns and was written in 1873 for pilgrims from Vendée who were travelling to Lourdes.

The author of the hymn was most likely a parish priest from Vendée, Abbé Jean Gaignet, a theologically brilliant priest who was appointed superior of the French seminary of Limoges. During his time as superior of the seminary, Abbé Gaignet’s two brothers died in the Frenco-German War of 1870, a loss that deeply affected their priestly brother. In his grief, which took a physical toll on the priest, the Abbé took some time off from his seminary duties and visited southern France. It seems likely that he may have visited the then-new pilgrimage site of Lourdes, where Our Lady had appeared in 1858.

Abbé Gaignet was struck by the beautiful traditional music that he heard in southern France, and a few years later, in 1873, he wrote a Marian hymn to one of these southern melodies that he had enjoyed so much. Pilgrims from his diocese sang it at Lourdes, where people immediately fell in love with the simple hymn. The hymn soon drew the attention of the local bishop, who asked Abbé Gaignet to write a longer version. The Abbé wrote a total of sixty-eight verses describing the Lourdes apparitions and the subsequent response by the Church and her faithful. In 1925, some fifty years after Abbé Gaignet first wrote his poem, the Luçon diocese bulletin wrote, “The Ave Maria [the original title of “Immaculate Mary”] would not exist without Lourdes. But one can say that the pilgrims of the world could not imagine Lourdes without the Ave Maria.”

The verses that we hear today are so well-known that I don’t need to copy them below. Instead, I would like to give you the original six verses that Abbé Gaignet wrote in 1873. Below the verses is a recording of the modern hymn, sung by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles.

1. The saints and angels
In glorious chorus
Sing your praises
O Queen of heaven.

Ave, Ave, Ave Maria (repeat)

2. For the salvation of the world
To work better
May a deep faith
help us to pray.

Ave, etc.

3. Be the refuge
Of poor sinners
O Mother of the Judge
Who knows our hearts.

Ave, etc.

4. With you, O Mother
We want to pray
To save our brothers
And sanctify them.

Ave, etc.

5. See the misery
Of all humans.
Have pity, sweet Mother,
Reach out to them.

Ave, etc.

6. At the last hour,
Close our eyes;
At your prayer
The heavens will open.

Ave, etc.

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