A miraculous Salve Regina!

When Blessed Sadoc and his companions were martyred in1260 at the Dominican convent in Sandomir, Poland, a unique wonder occurred. Before the massacre, letters of gold appeared in the Divine Office book at the beginning of the martyrology passage that was to be read at the conclution of matins and lauds. The inexplicable entry was: "At Sandomir, the passion of 49 martyres."

Of course, "passion" signified suffering and death. The prior, Blessed Sadoc, counted his friars- 49 in all! He interpreted the miraculous appearance of these words as warning of death from the barbarous Tartars who were camped nearby. As the friars sang compline the following evening, a band of the Tartars, traitorously let in to the city by some Russians, cut 48 of them to peaces.

One friar fled to the belfry; there he heard a wonderful sound. The mangled bodies of his 48 brethren, though dead, were chanting the sweet melody of the Salve Regina. From the midst of the bloody corpses of those ever-devoted children of Mary, those preachers of her Holy Rosary, rose those dear words: "Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope..." which are sung at eventide in monasteries and religious houses throughout the world.

Who can imagine the emotions of the 49th friar in the belfry as he heard the 48 dead martyrs chanting to their Blessed Mother! Already they were heroes and saints, welcomed into their reward in another and far more glorious world, even as their voices rose from bodies dead on the field of spiritual combat. Overwhelmed with that beauty, that heroism, and that message, the last friar regained his courage. He descended from the belfry and submitted to the swords of the barbarians; then there were 49 voices raised in singing the Salve Regina to the Mother of God. From this miraculous event began the Dominicans' custom of singing the Salve Regina at the deathbed of each of the Order's bembers.

(From the book "Saints who raised the dead, true stories of 400 resurrection miracles", by Father Albert J. Hebert)

Salve, Regina: English and Latin
This is one of four Marian antiphons, with following versicles and prayers, traditionally said or sung after night prayer, immediately before going to sleep. It is said from the end of Eastertide until the beginning of Advent. (That is, from the day after Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter (or from the following Sunday, if Pentecost is celebrated with octave), through the Friday before the fourth Sunday before Christmas).

Hail, holy Queen
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee to we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, Who by the working of the Holy Spirit didst prepare both body and soul of the glorious Virgin Mother, Mary, that she might deserve to be made a worthy dwelling for Thy Son, grant that we who rejoice in her memory, may, by her loving intercession, be delivered from present evils and from lasting death, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Salve, Regina
Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae;
vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo, advocata nostra,
illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte.
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.

V. Ora pro nobis, sancta Dei Genitrix.
R. Ut digni efficamur promissionibus Christi.

Oremus. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui gloriosae Virginis Matris Mariae corpus et animam, ut dignum Filii tui habitaculum effici mereretur, Spiritu Sancto cooperante, praeparasti, da, ut cuius commemoratione laetamur; eius pia intercessione, ab instantibus malis et a morte perpetua liberemur. Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

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