Lesson 1.3: The angelus

• L'Angelus

  - painted by Jean-Francois Millet in the mid-19th century

  - depicts a peasant couple in a potato field, farm tools set aside, their heads bent in prayer; this man and woman are taking time to pause, direct their thoughts to God, and humbly receive His grace
• Angelus - holy moment in which the Angel Gabriel announced God’s invitation for Mary to be the mother of the Messiah, and she said yes
• Three Antiphons - means to pray the Hail Mary three times; the prayer has been traditionally said three times a day: in the morning (usually 6 AM), at noon, and in the evening (usually 6 PM)
• Pope Gregory V - introduced the text of the Regina Coeli
• Regina Coeli - Queen of Heaven
• At the Council of Caen, presided by William the Conqueror and Archbishop Maurille of Rouen and Lanfranc, an evening curfew was instituted followed by a triple ringing of the bells following Compline (evening prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours) to call people to prayer.
• Saint Anthony of Padua - recommended the recitation of three Hail Mary’s.
• Saint Bonaventure - bell rung to call his monks and nuns and the laity in the region to pray three Hail Mary’s after Compline.
• Pope Clement V and John XXII - institute a formal practice of praying three Hail Mary’s following the Compline in Rome
• Pope Sixtus IV - indulgence for praying the midday Angelus; , the triple ringing of the bells can be heard throughout the West at morning, midday, and evening
• Pope Leo X - issues a papal bull granting an indulgence to those who pray an Our Father and Hail Mary when they hear the bell ring at morning, midday, and evening in Paris
• Pope Benedict XIV - asks that the Regina Coeli be prayed in place of the Angelus Domini during the liturgical season of Easter.
• The angelus appeared in the Little Office for the Blessed Virgin, and the Catholics' Manual of Saint Peter Canisius
• Pope Paul VI - begins to pray the Angelus publicly on a weekly basis at St. Peter’s Square accompanied by a short address to the pilgrims there.