Attributed to Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604), this hymn is used in the Roman Breviary at Vespers for Sundays after Epiphany and Sundays after Pentecost. In the Liturgia Horarum it is used for Sunday evening Vespers for Ordinary time for the first and third weeks of the Psalter.

There are two Pange Linguas in use, one by St. Thomas Aquinas and then this one, by Venantius Fortunatus (530-609) which extols the triumph of the Cross. He wrote it for a procession that brought a part of the true Cross to Queen Radegunda in 570. This hymn is used on Good Friday during the Adoration of the Cross and in the Liturgy of the Hours during Holy Week and on feasts of the Cross. The concluding stanza was not written by Fortunatus, but was added later.
When used in the Liturgy the hymn is often broken into smaller hymns such as: Lustra sex qui iam peregit, En acetum, fel, arundo, and Crux fidelis inter omnes.
There is a charming ancient legend that is hinted at in the second verse of this hymn. According to this legend, the wood of the Cross upon which Christ was crucified was taken from that tree which was the source of the fruit of the fall in the Garden of Eden. When Adam died, the legend states, Seth obtained from the Cherubim guarding the Garden a branch of the tree from which Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Seth planted this branch at Golgotha (the place of the skull), which is so named because Adam was buried there. As time went on, the Ark of the Covenant, the pole upon which the bronze serpent was lifted, and other items were made from this tree.

Written by Prudentius (348-413). This hymn is taken from his Morning Hymn from his Cathemerinon. This hymn is a traditional morning hymn for Thursday Lauds and can be found there in the Roman Breviary. The Liturgia Horarum uses the same basic hymn, but cast in different form for Thursday Lauds for the first and third weeks of the Psalter. In the Liturgia Horarum, the title is Sol ecce surgit igneus.

Attributed to Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604). This hymn continues with the theme of Creation present in the Vespers Hymns for the week. Here the work of the fifth day of creation (Thursday) chronicles the creation of the birds and fishes from the waters (Gen 1, 20-23). This hymn is traditionally sung at Thursday Vespers and is used in the Liturgia Horarum at Vespers for Thursday of the first and third weeks of the Psalter during Ordinary Time. Likewise the hymn is also found in the Roman Breviary for Thursday Vespers.

The Magnificat has occupied an important place in the Liturgy of the Church since around the fourth century. The canticle is taken from the Gospel of Luke (1:46-55) where the events of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth are recorded. Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist at the time, greeted Mary with the well known phrase "Blessed art thou amongst women, blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus". Mary responded with the canticle. Today the Magnificat is used during Vespers every evening. A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who recite it.

This simple prayer from the Roman Ritual is taken from the second verse of the hymn Memento, salutis Auctor. It is graced with a partial indulgence.

Written by St. Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444, feast May 20th). The prayer appears at the end of his writings in the Office of the Readings for the Feast of St. Joseph (March 19).

This is the traditional hymn for the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary for the Little Hours (Terce, Sext, and None) and for Compline. The first verse is taken from Christe, Redemptor Omnium, the Vespers hymn for the Christmas season. The second verse has been claimed to be a part of a continuation to Quem, terra, pontus, aethera, which is very unlikely.

The Memorare is a very popular Marian prayer that is sometimes attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), Confessor, Abbot, and Doctor of the Church. While some of his writings do indeed echo the words of the Memorare, he did not in fact compose it. The prayer was first popularized not by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, but by another Bernard, namely Fr. Claude Bernard (1588-1641). More than likely the association of St. Bernard of Clairvaux's name with the prayer is a case of mistaken identity with Fr. Claude Bernard.
Fr. Claude Bernard, known as the "Poor Priest", zealously dedicated himself to the preaching and aiding of prisoners and criminals condemned to death. Trusting his charges to the care and intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Fr. Bernard employed the Memorare extensively in his work of evangelization to great effect. Many a criminal was reconciled to God through his efforts. At one time he had more than 200,000 leaflets printed with the Memorare in various languages so he could distribute the leaflets wherever he felt they would do some good.
Part of the reason Fr. Claude Bernard held the prayer in such high regard was because he himself felt that he had been miraculously cured by its use. In a letter to Queen Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII, he wrote that he was deathly ill once. In fear of his life he recited the Memorare and immediately began to get well again. Feeling unworthy of such a miracle, he attributed the cure to some unknown natural cause. Sometime later, Brother Fiacre, a discalced Augustinian, came to call upon Fr. Bernard. The good brother begged Fr. Bernard's pardon for disturbing him, but he desired to know how Fr. Bernard was getting along. Brother Fiacre then went on to say that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him in a vision, told him of Fr. Bernard's illness, told him how she had cured Fr. Bernard of it, and that he was to assure Fr. Bernard of this fact. Fr. Bernard then goes on to write in his letter that he was ashamed of his ingratitude in attributing the cure to natural causes, and asked for God's forgiveness in the matter.
Further evidence of association of the Memorare with Fr. Claude Bernard can be found in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris where 18 engraved portraits of this holy priest have the prayer engraved below the picture. The prayer there is basically identical in substance with the Memorare we have today and the heading simply says: ORAISON DU R. P. BERNARD A LA VERGE (Prayer of Rev. Fr. Bernard to the Virgin). In as much as some of these engravings are contemporary portraits of Fr. Bernard, his association with the prayer is very clear. It is easy to see how sometime after his death the Prayer of Fr. Claude Bernard became the Prayer of St. Bernard , and in most people's minds the Prayer of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
While we have Fr. Claude Bernard to thank for promoting the Memorare, he is certainly not its original author. First, Fr. Bernard stated that he learned the prayer from his own father. Secondly, the prayer was known to and used by St. Francis de Sales who is 21 years older than Fr. Bernard. Thirdly, and most importantly, the prayer appears as part of the much longer 15th century prayer, Ad sanctitatis tuae pedes, dulcissima Virgo Maria .
Ad sanctitatis tuae pedes, dulcissima Virgo Maria is a rather long prayer that appears in a number of printed books and manuscripts from the last quarter of the 15th century and onwards. It appears in such works as the Hortulus Animae (15th cent.), the Antidotarius Animae (15th cent.) of Nicholas de Saliceto (Cistercian abbot of Bomgart, near Strasbourg), and the Precationum piarum Enchiridion, compiled around 1570 by Simon Verepaeus. The Memorare is an integral part of the text in each case. Exactly when the Memorare was extracted from this longer prayer has not yet been determined, but it likely occurred in the later part of the 16th century, around the time of Fr. Bernard and his father.
Since the later part of the 16th century several variants of the Memorare have appeared such as that found in the Coeleste Palmetum below. It is also found embedded in the Ave augustissima. The exact wording of the prayer stabilized during the 19th century to that given below and was first indulgenced by Pope Pius IX in 1846.
A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who recite the Memorare.

From the Raccolta, #339 (S. C. Ind., Dec. 11, 1846; S. P. Ap., Sept. 8, 1935) Encr. Ind. #32. For information about Fr. Claude Bernard, see Claude Bernard, dit "le Pauvre Pretre", Commandeur de Broqua, 12ed, Lethielleux, 1913. De Broqua was the postulator for the cause of Fr. Bernard's canonization.

Below is a version of the Memorare from a 1741 edition of the Coeleste Palmetum. Not only does it contain the elements of the Memorare, but also phrases from the Sub Tuum Praesidium, Salve Regina, and the Ave Maria

Below is part of the Ad sanctitatis tuae pedes, dulcissima Virgo Maria in which the Memorare appears. The basic text is taken from the 1518 Paris edition of the Antidotarius Animae. The part in brackets is not found in the Antidotarius Animae, but it does appear in other sources such as the Precationum Enchiridion. It is clear that the underlying text of today's Memorare is embedded in this prayer.

Based upon the Memorare to the Blessed Virgin Mary, this prayer was originally composed in Italian.

This hymn is usually attributed to Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604), though some ascribe the hymn to Alcuin. In the Roman Breviary this hymn is used at Sunday Matins on the fourth and subsequent Sundays after Pentecost through September 27. In the Liturgia Horarum it is used for the Office of the Readings on Tuesdays during the second and fourth weeks of the Psalter during Ordinary Time.

See the CCC: 1868

A novena to the Blessed Virgin Mary composed of several popular prayers.