MEMORARE

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Remember O Most Gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence I fly to you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions but, in your clemency, hear and answer me. Amen.

LATIN
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Memorare, O piissima Virgo Maria, non esse auditum a saeculo, quemquam ad tua currentem praesidia, tua implorantem auxilia, tua petentem suffragia, esse derelictum. Ego tali animatus confidentia, ad te, Virgo Virginum, Mater, curro, ad te venio, coram te gemens peccator assisto. Noli, Mater Verbi, verba mea despicere; sed audi propitia et exaudi. Amen.

The MEMORARE is a popular Catholic prayer invoking the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Its name comes from the Latin word MEMORARE (“Remember”), the first word of the prayer.

Origins

The MEMORARE as we know it today is an excerpt from a longer 15th-century Latin Marian prayer titled Ad sanctitatis tuae pedes, dulcissima Virgo Maria (“At the feet of your sanctity, O most sweet Virgin Mary”). Its exact author remains unknown, and it likely existed in some earlier form.

The MEMORARE is frequently (though incorrectly) attributed to St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), the Cistercian monk and Doctor of the Church known for his deep devotion to Mary (often called “Mary’s Troubadour”). This misattribution probably arose from confusion with the name of its main popularizer, another Bernard, and St Bernard’s strong Marian piety. Modern scholarship regards this attribution as unlikely.

The MEMORARE gained widespread popularity through Fr Claude Bernard (1588-1641), a French priest known as the “Poor Priest.” He dedicated much of his ministry to prisoners and those condemned to death, promoting recourse to Mary’s intercession.

Fr Claude learned the prayer from his father. He credited it with his own miraculous healing from a serious illness and subsequently printed and distributed an estimated 200,000 copies in multiple languages across Europe to spread it.

This effort helped make it a go-to prayer in times of need. St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) reportedly prayed it as a young man in Paris during a period of spiritual desolation and found great comfort in it.

A version was indulgenced by Pope Pius IX in 1846 (in the Raccolta), helping standardize the modern form.

Today

It has been beloved by many saints and figures, including St Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and is often used in emergencies, conversions, or desperate situations due to its confident appeal to Mary’s unfailing help.

While rooted in ancient Marian devotion, the MEMORARE became a powerhouse prayer thanks to Fr Claude Bernard’s zealous promotion in the 17th century. It remains a classic expression of trust in Mary’s maternal intercession.

The image at the head of this page, has a phrase from the MEMORARE itself: “Mother of the Word Incarnate”. Referring to John 1:14—”The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us”.

From this powerful mystery of salvation, Mary draws her special powerful grace of intercession for the body of Christ, the Church.

Mother of the Word Incarnate
HAS A UNIQUE INTERCESSORY GRACE

In the Church’s Tradition, Mary has received a unique intercessory grace precisely because she is the Mother of the Word Incarnate. Her role is not merely passive but deeply participatory in the mystery of salvation.

By giving flesh to the Eternal Word, Mary shares a singular bond with Him that no other creature possesses. This maternal relationship grounds her intercessory power—she intercedes not as a distant servant but as the Mother of our King.

At the Annunciation, Gabriel greets her as “full of grace” (Luke 1:28). Catholic Tradition sees this as a preparation for her vocation: she is uniquely graced to cooperate in Christ’s mission and thus uniquely empowered to intercede.

Just as at Cana she interceded for the wedding couple, Mary continues to intercede for the faithful. Her maternal role makes her advocacy tender yet powerful—she presents our needs with a mother’s urgency.

St Alphonsus Liguori in The Glories of Mary emphasizes that Mary’s intercession is effective because it flows from her divine maternity: “Her prayers are the prayers of a mother, and therefore most powerful with her Son.”

The Council of Ephesus (431), by affirming Mary as Theotokos (Mother of God), implicitly recognized that her maternal relationship with Christ elevates her role in the economy of grace.

The Salve Regina calls her “our life, our sweetness, and our hope” — titles that reflect confidence in her merciful intercession.

Mary’s intercessory grace is not separate from Christ’s mediation but flows from it. She is the Mother who, having received the Word into her womb, now receives our petitions into her heart and carries them to her Son. To honor her intercession is to acknowledge the mystery of the Incarnation: that God chose to come to us through Mary, and so we may confidently go to Him through her.

“Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation… Therefore, the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix.” (CCC §969)