The Memorare
"Never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection was left unaided." The Catholic prayer of confidence to Our Lady.
Some prayers ask; the Memorare trusts. It is the prayer you reach for when you are out of other options — a plea to the Mother of God built on the conviction that she does not turn away the desperate. English and Latin are below.
The Memorare — English and Latin
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary
Both texts as printed in the Appendix of common prayers in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on vatican.va (stress accents dropped here, and æ written as ae). Memorare is simply the Latin for Remember — the prayer's first word.
What the prayer actually says
Read it as a legal brief and it makes more sense. The first sentence states the ground: no one who came to her was turned away. The second acts on it — inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee. The third admits who is doing the asking: sinful and sorrowful. And only then does it ask. There is no bargaining in it, no list of merits, no promise to do better. It is a man arriving with nothing and saying so.
One line is worth slowing down on: O Mother of the Word Incarnate. That is the reason the rest of the prayer holds. She is asked as the mother of God made flesh, and everything the Memorare expects of her rests on who her Son is. Mary intercedes; she does not replace Him. For the doctrine under the devotion, see Sed Contra: the Marian Dogmas and why Catholics pray to Mary.
When to pray it
Pray it in any need, and especially the urgent ones — when you do not know how to pray for a thing, hand it to the Mother of God in these words. When the need will not wait, pray it nine times in a row: a novena compressed into a few minutes. It is a fitting prayer at the end of the Rosary, a good one in a hospital corridor, and a strong one to teach a child to pray when he is afraid. It is short enough to keep in your head, which is the only place you will have it when you need it most.
Where the Memorare came from
The Memorare is commonly attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the twelfth-century Cistercian. Treat that as an attribution, not a fact. Wikipedia's article on the Memorare puts it down to an apparent confusion of names.
The Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), in its article on Claude Bernard — a seventeenth-century French priest known for his work among prisoners and the condemned — records that he "contributed much to popularize the beautiful prayer to the Blessed Virgin known as the Memorare, sometimes attributed to him but certainly of an earlier date" (New Advent). So: not his either. Over time the surname Bernard pulled the great Cistercian's name onto a prayer that first appears centuries after his lifetime.
Where did it come from, then? Wikipedia's article on the Memorare traces it to a longer fifteenth-century Latin prayer, Ad sanctitatis tuae pedes, dulcissima Virgo Maria, from which these lines were drawn.
None of which weakens the prayer. What the Memorare asserts is older than its wording: Mary was given to us as Mother at the foot of the Cross (John 19:26–27), and Catholics have gone to her on that basis ever since. The Church prints this prayer among the common prayers in the Compendium of the Catechism. That is its standing — not a signature.
The Priest of Your Home — 30 days, free. One three-minute letter each morning, one order for tonight, one prayer. For the man who wants short prayers his family actually knows by heart.
Start the 30 days →Frequently asked questions
What is the Memorare prayer?
A Catholic prayer of confident appeal to the Blessed Virgin Mary, beginning "Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary…" It rests on the conviction that no one who sought Mary's intercession was left unaided. It is printed among the common prayers in the Appendix of the Compendium of the Catechism.
What does Memorare mean?
"Memorare" is the Latin for "Remember" — the prayer's first word in the Latin text: "Memorare, o piissima Virgo Maria…"
Who wrote the Memorare?
It is commonly attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux, but that appears to be a confusion with Fr. Claude Bernard, a seventeenth-century French priest. The Catholic Encyclopedia says Claude Bernard "contributed much to popularize" the prayer, "sometimes attributed to him but certainly of an earlier date." Wikipedia's article on the Memorare traces the text to a longer fifteenth-century Latin prayer, Ad sanctitatis tuae pedes, dulcissima Virgo Maria.
When do you pray the Memorare?
In any need, and especially urgent ones. When the need will not wait it is often prayed nine times in a row — a novena compressed into a few minutes. It is also commonly prayed at the end of the Rosary.
Is it wrong to ask Mary instead of asking God directly?
No — and the Memorare does not do that. It asks her to hear and to intercede, addressing her as "Mother of the Word Incarnate": everything it expects of her depends on who her Son is. Asking Mary to pray for you is asking for intercession, not worship.