Pater noster and Ave Maria: the Latin Prayers with Translation

“Pater noster, qui es in caelis”: with these words begins the prayer that Catholics said for many centuries in the language of the Church. In the Middle Ages ordinary people in many places also prayed the Pater noster in Latin, and according to the 1962 Missal the priest prays it at the altar in every Holy Mass. This guide sets the Pater noster, the Ave Maria, the sign of the cross, the Gloria Patri and the Credo line by line beside the English translation and explains how to pronounce Church Latin correctly.

What are the words of the Our Father in Latin?

In the Pater noster you pray in Latin: “Pater noster, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum”, in English “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”. After the address come seven petitions; the last is “sed libera nos a malo”, but deliver us from evil.

Part	Latin	English
Address	Pater noster, qui es in caelis,	Our Father, who art in heaven,
1st petition	sanctificetur nomen tuum:	hallowed be thy name;
2nd petition	adveniat regnum tuum:	thy kingdom come;
3rd petition	fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra.	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
4th petition	Panem nostrum cotidianum da nobis hodie:	Give us this day our daily bread;
5th petition	et dimitte nobis debita nostra, sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris:	and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us;
6th petition	et ne nos inducas in tentationem:	and lead us not into temptation,
7th petition	sed libera nos a malo. Amen.	but deliver us from evil. Amen.

In Holy Mass the priest prays the Pater noster after the Canon alone, with hands outstretched. The last petition, “Sed libera nos a malo”, is said by the server as the response, and the priest concludes quietly with “Amen”. This is what the Ritus servandus in the 1962 Missal prescribes. The liturgy of Good Friday, on which no Mass is celebrated, is different: before Holy Communion all present, clergy and faithful, pray the whole Pater noster together with the celebrant, “solemnly, gravely and distinctly, in the Latin language”.

Where is the Our Father in the Bible?

The Pater noster appears twice in the Bible: in the Sermon on the Mount in St Matthew (6:9–13) and in St Luke (11:2–4), where a disciple asks: “Domine, doce nos orare”, Lord, teach us to pray. The Church prays the longer version from St Matthew, with seven petitions.

The version in St Luke is shorter and begins simply with “Pater”. One word distinguishes the two passages in the Vulgate: in St Luke the bread is called quotidianum, daily, in St Matthew supersubstantialem, supersubstantial. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910, St Jerome replaced the older quotidianum only in St Matthew and left it standing in St Luke. The 1962 Missal spells cotidianum, the Breviary of 1568 quotidianum; both are the same word.

In the 1839 edition of his translation of the Bible, Joseph Franz Allioli calls the Our Father “a model of a prayer that, without many words, contains the right disposition” (translated from the German): according to St Augustine, the first three petitions concern the glory of God, the last four our own salvation and that of our neighbour.

What are the words of the Hail Mary in Latin?

In the Ave Maria you pray in Latin: “Ave Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum”, in English “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee”. The first part follows the Gospel of St Luke; the second part, “Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus”, is the petition of the Church.

Origin	Latin	English
Lk 1:28	Ave Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum: benedicta tu in mulieribus,	Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women,
Lk 1:42	et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus.	and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
The Church	Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.	Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

In the Vulgate the Angel Gabriel greets the most Blessed Virgin with “Ave gratia plena: Dominus tecum: benedicta tu in mulieribus” (Lk 1:28). St Elizabeth exclaims: “Benedicta tu inter mulieres, et benedictus fructus ventris tui” (Lk 1:42). According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, in liturgical use the Ave Maria ended with “Jesus. Amen” until 1568. In the Breviary that Pope St Pius V issued in that year, it stands complete in the Psalter, with the petition for us sinners, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae, now and at the hour of our death.

What are the sign of the cross and the Glory Be in Latin?

In Latin the sign of the cross is “In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen”, the Gloria Patri “Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto”. With both the priest begins Holy Mass: he signs himself and, at the foot of the altar, usually prays Psalm 42 with the Gloria Patri.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Latin from the 1962 Missale Romanum, Ordo Missae. English in the traditional form used in our prayer guide.

Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Latin from the Breviarium Romanum. English in the traditional form used in our prayer guide.

In the Missal the priest says the first part, “Gloria Patri”, and the server answers with “Sicut erat in principio”. In saecula saeculorum means literally “unto the ages of ages”, that is, for all eternity. The Synod of Vaison in 529 prescribed the addition “Sicut erat in principio” for Gaul as well, because it was already being prayed in Rome and elsewhere. In Requiem Masses and in Passiontide, Psalm 42 together with the Gloria Patri is omitted.

What are the words of the Creed in Latin?

In the Latin Credo, the Symbolum Apostolorum, you profess the faith of the Apostles in twelve articles. It begins with “Credo in Deum, Patrem omnipotentem”, I believe in God, the Father almighty. In the Breviary of St Pius V it stood at the beginning of Matins and Prime and at the end of Compline.

Article	Latin	English
1	Credo in Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae.	I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth;
2	Et in Jesum Christum, Filium ejus unicum, Dominum nostrum:	and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord;
3	qui conceptus est de Spiritu Sancto, natus ex Maria Virgine,	who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,
4	passus sub Pontio Pilato, crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus:	suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried;
5	descendit ad inferos; tertia die resurrexit a mortuis;	he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead;
6	ascendit ad caelos; sedet ad dexteram Dei Patris omnipotentis:	he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
7	inde venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos.	from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.
8	Credo in Spiritum Sanctum,	I believe in the Holy Ghost,
9	sanctam Ecclesiam catholicam, Sanctorum communionem,	the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints,
10	remissionem peccatorum,	the forgiveness of sins,
11	carnis resurrectionem,	the resurrection of the body,
12	vitam aeternam. Amen.	and life everlasting. Amen.

What is meant here is the Apostles’ Creed; in Holy Mass, by contrast, the Credo begins with “Credo in unum Deum”. At Confirmation the bishop names, by their Latin names, the three prayers that sponsors are to teach those they present: Credo in Deum, Pater noster and Ave Maria. So it stands in the rite of Confirmation from the Pontificale Romanum, which the 1962 Missal prints in its appendix.

How do you pronounce Church Latin correctly?

Church Latin is pronounced in the Roman manner: c before e and i like “ch” in “church”, g before e and i soft like “j” in “gem”, gn like “ny” in “canyon”, ti before a vowel usually like “tsee”, ae like e. “Regnum” therefore sounds like “renyum”, “caelis” like “chelis”.

Spelling	Pronunciation	Example
c before e, i, ae	like “ch” in “church”	caelis like “chelis”
c otherwise, ch	like k	Credo, Christum
g before e, i, ae, oe	soft, like “j” in “gem”	Regina, genitor
gn	like “ny” in “canyon”	regnum like “renyum”
sc before e, i	like “sh”	descendit like “deshendit”
ti before a vowel	like “tsee”, but not after s, x, t	gratia, tentationem
ae, oe	a single e, as in “bed”	caelum, aeternam
j	like English y	Jesus, ejus
h	silent; in mihi and nihil like k	mihi like “miki”
u	like “oo” in “moon”	Dominus, tuum

In this the Liber Usualis, the chant book of the Benedictines of Solesmes, expressly follows the wish of Pope St Pius X that Latin be pronounced in the Roman manner. For plainchant it names the open, warm vowels a and u as the most important feature. Then there is the stress: the accented syllable is raised slightly and the final syllables stay soft. Many liturgical editions mark it with an accent, for instance sanctificétur, advéniat and cotidiánum in the Breviary. Every syllable keeps its weight: Domine is not swallowed into “Domne”.

Why does the Catholic Church pray in Latin?

The Church prays in Latin because a common language unites the faithful of the Latin rite in every country in the same words and guards doctrine against corruption. In 1947 Pope Pius XII called the use of Latin a clear and beautiful sign of unity.

How natural Latin once was, the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 describes using the example of England: in the Middle Ages the Our Father was prayed there in Latin, even by the unlettered, and was therefore usually called simply the Pater noster. A prayer heard in the same form in Rome, in Cologne and in a village in Bavaria needs no translation to be prayed together. The 1962 Missal gives Good Friday precisely this form: all pray the Pater noster with the priest, and in Latin.

“The use of the Latin language, as it prevails in a great part of the Church, is a clear and beautiful sign of unity and an effective remedy against every corruption of true doctrine.”

Pius XII: encyclical Mediator Dei of 20 November 1947, no. 60. Translated from the Latin.

In the Latin original the use of Latin is called perspicuum venustumque unitatis signum, a clear and beautiful sign of unity, and remedium efficax, an effective remedy against every corruption of doctrine.

Do you have to understand Latin to pray in Latin?

Whoever prays in Latin need not be able to translate every word. St Thomas Aquinas distinguishes three kinds of attention in vocal prayer: to the words, to their sense and to God himself. The third is the most necessary, and it is open even to the unlearned.

St Thomas writes that this attention to God and to the thing prayed for can be had even by the idiotae, the uneducated (Summa theologiae II-II, q. 83, a. 13). Even so, whoever knows the meaning prays more easily. That is why it is worth reading the translation above once, line by line, before learning the Pater noster by heart. Whoever prefers to pray in his mother tongue may do so: the Raccolta of 1910 records that even indulgenced prayers may be said in any language, provided the translation is faithful and approved by the Church (decision of 20 December 1884).

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Frequently asked questions about Latin prayers