Friday 28 August 2015

The Carthusian Salve


4 comments:

Pelerin said...

I am curious to know which prayer came first - the Salve Regina with 'Mater' and 'Virgo' and if so why were these two important words dropped by the Carthusians? Or was this the original and 'Mater' and 'Virgo' added later?

Such a beautiful prayer which I have been able to sing with great gusto recently in Lourdes to the more familiar tune.

Pastor in Monte said...

There are actually lots of variants on it—both text and music; what we think of the 'standard' one only became so really during the Counter-Reformation.
Musical variations still exist widely among the religious orders: Benedictines, Dominicans, Carthusians and probably Carmelites have their own versions. Not sure about Cistercians.

Pelerin said...

Thank you Father. I had no idea there were other tunes to the Salve Regina. Googling around I discovered the prayer is believed to have been written by Blessed Herman the Cripple - a name unknown to me till now.

On Youtube there is a beautiful rendering by Virtual Choirs of Carmelites around the world all brought together in one video. An amazing feat of technological wizardry!

Emanuel Nonato said...

Cistercians have the own versão todo.