Regina Caeli: The Prayer in Latin and English

The Regina Caeli ("Queen of Heaven") is the Marian antiphon of the Easter season. Through Paschal time the Church lays aside the Angelus and sings instead this short hymn of paschal joy, in which she bids the Mother of God rejoice because her Son is risen. It takes its name from its first two Latin words, and it is prayed standing, for the Church does not kneel to greet the Resurrection. Below we give the whole prayer in Latin and in English, with its versicle, response and collect, then what it means, exactly when it is said under the rubrics of the 1962 Breviary, how to pray it, and where it comes from.

The Regina Caeli prayer in English and Latin

The Regina Caeli is made of three parts: the antiphon itself (four lines, each closed by alleluia), a versicle with its response, and a collect. All three are prayed together, exactly as they stand in the traditional Roman use.

Regina Caeli in English

Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia;
for He whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia,
hath risen, as He said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.

V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
R. For the Lord hath truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray.

O God, who through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, didst vouchsafe to give joy to the world: grant, we beseech Thee, that, through His Mother the Virgin Mary, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Regina Caeli in Latin

Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia:
Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia,
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia:
Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.

V. Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia.
R. Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia.

Oremus.

Deus, qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus; ut, per eius Genitricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

The Latin and English line by line

For those learning the Latin, here is the antiphon set word for word against its translation, so that each phrase can be understood as it is sung:

Latin	English
Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia	Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia
Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia	For He whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia
Resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia	Hath risen, as He said, alleluia
Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia	Pray for us to God, alleluia
Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia	Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia
Quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia	For the Lord hath truly risen, alleluia

What the Regina Caeli means

The antiphon is built on a single, radiant logic. Mary is bidden to rejoice, laetare, and the reason follows at once: the very One whom she was found worthy to carry in her womb has risen, just as He foretold. "He is not here, for he is risen, as he said" (Matthew 28:6): the angel's words at the tomb are almost the words of the third line, Resurrexit, sicut dixit. Each line is sealed with alleluia, the cry of praise the Church silences throughout Lent and pours out again at Easter.

There is an ancient delicacy here. A mother's grief at the death of her Son is the deepest of human wounds, and Simeon had foretold that a sword would pierce her soul (Luke 2:35). The Church does not pretend that sorrow was nothing; she proclaims that it is now overturned. "Pray for us to God, alleluia": having shared most fully in her Son's Passion and triumph, the Mother of the Risen Lord is asked to intercede for those still on the way.

The word meruisti, "thou didst merit", is the language of the Church's praise rather than a claim that Our Lady earned the divine motherhood by her own powers: she was made worthy by grace to bear the Son of God, and the same expression runs through the liturgy of her feasts. The closing collect then draws out the petition: that the joy given to the world at Easter may not pass with the season but ripen, through Mary's intercession, into "the joys of everlasting life."

"Regina caeli, laetare": the opening words

The antiphon is known by its first two Latin words, Regina caeli, "Queen of heaven", and it is from the third word, laetare ("rejoice"), that its whole character flows. Some old books and indexes list it under the fuller incipit Regina caeli laetare. The imperative laetare is not a gentle invitation but a command of joy addressed to the Mother of God: she who stood beneath the Cross is now bidden to be glad. The word should not be confused with Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent, which takes its name from a different text, the Introit Laetare Ierusalem. Here laetare is spoken to Our Lady alone, and the cause of her gladness is the empty tomb.

When the Regina Caeli is said

The Regina Caeli belongs to Paschal time, and it does two distinct things in that season: it closes the Divine Office each night, and it takes the place of the Angelus through the day.

In the Divine Office: from Holy Saturday to the eve of Trinity Sunday

In the Breviary, one of four seasonal antiphons to Our Lady is said at the close of Compline, the Church's night prayer, as her last word before the great silence. The Alma Redemptoris Mater belongs to Advent and Christmastide, the Ave Regina Caelorum to the weeks from the Purification to Holy Week, and the Hail Holy Queen (Salve Regina) to the long season after Pentecost. The Regina Caeli is prescribed in the Roman Breviary from Compline of Holy Saturday until None of the Saturday after Pentecost inclusive. That Saturday, the Ember Saturday of the Pentecost octave, is the eve of the Holy Trinity: from First Vespers of Trinity Sunday, the Salve Regina returns.

So the Regina Caeli does not stop on Pentecost Sunday itself, as is often said, but runs through the whole octave, the last days of the paschal cycle. In choir it is said standing throughout. You can pray the Office it crowns, beginning with today's Lauds, in our 1962 Breviary, and our page on what is the Divine Office explains how the hours fit together.

In place of the Angelus

This is the use most of the faithful know best. Outside Paschal time, the Angelus is prayed three times a day, morning, noon and evening, at the sound of the bell. By a disposition of Pope Benedict XIV in 1742, the Angelus gives way during Paschal time to the Regina Caeli, said at those same three hours with its versicle and collect. The Raccolta, the Church's collection of indulgenced prayers, carries the two side by side for this reason.

The change is one of mood as well as words. The Angelus meditates on the Incarnation, the Word made flesh in the Virgin's womb; the Regina Caeli rejoices in the Resurrection of that same flesh. And the posture changes: the Angelus was traditionally said kneeling (save on Saturday evenings and Sundays, when the rubrics call for standing), whereas the Regina Caeli is always said standing, because in the Resurrection the Church stands upright in hope. When the Saturday after Pentecost is over, the Angelus returns at the bell.

How to pray the Regina Caeli

There is no complexity to it, and the whole takes under a minute.

1. Stand, as a sign of paschal joy, at morning, noon and evening (or at the bell, where a church still rings it).
2. Say or sing the antiphon, from "Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia" through "Pray for us to God, alleluia."
3. Say the versicle and response: "Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia." / "For the Lord hath truly risen, alleluia."
4. Say the collect, beginning "Let us pray. O God, who through the resurrection of Thy Son...", and close with Amen.

When prayed in common, the leader begins the antiphon and gives the versicle, all answer with the response, and the leader alone says the collect. Prayed alone, we simply carry both parts. However it is said, the Regina Caeli tethers the day to the central fact of the faith: Resurrexit, sicut dixit. He is risen, as He said.

Who wrote the Regina Caeli? History and legend

The author of the Regina Caeli is unknown. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia traces the antiphon to the twelfth century; in the first half of the thirteenth it was in use among the Franciscans, and through the Office of the Friars Minor, which became the Office of the Roman Curia, it spread across the whole Latin Church. An attribution to Pope Gregory V (d. 999) is sometimes repeated, but without good reason.

The legend of St Gregory the Great

A beautiful legend gives the antiphon a more ancient birth. On a certain Easter morning in Rome, it is said, St Gregory the Great was walking barefoot in procession when he heard angels singing the first three lines, Regina caeli, laetare, alleluia; quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia; resurrexit, sicut dixit, alleluia, and he answered them with the fourth: Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia. Later tellings set it in the procession Gregory led through Rome to beg the end of a plague. We give it as what it is, a legend: Gregory died in 604, and no trace of the antiphon is found for centuries afterwards. But the legend has caught something true, for the last line is precisely the voice of the pilgrim Church answering the joy of heaven with a petition.

The Regina Caeli chant

The Regina Caeli is above all a sung prayer. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia notes two plainsong melodies: a simple tone, the one most parishes and households sing, and an ornate or solemn tone, a long and joyful melody with flowing alleluias, printed in the Solesmes Liber Usualis. Both are in the sixth mode, bright and settled, with the final on F. Our page on Gregorian chant explains why the Church holds this music as the model of her song.

The text has also drawn the great composers. Mozart set it three times, as a young man in Salzburg (K. 108 and K. 127) and again in his C major Regina coeli, K. 276, for soloists, choir and orchestra; polyphonic settings by Renaissance masters and later composers such as Antonio Lotti are still sung at Easter. Fine as they are, these belong to the concert of the Church's feasts; the simple tone remains the prayer of every day.

Regina Caeli prayer PDF and printable text

The full text of the Regina Caeli in Latin and English, with the versicle, response and collect, is given at the top of this page, and it prints as it is on a single sheet: antiphon, versicle and prayer, ready to keep by the door or in a missal through Paschal time. The older custom is to learn it by heart, which takes a day or two, so that the words rise to the lips at the bell rather than being read.

Better than a printed sheet, Join early access here. gives you the day's prayer in Latin and English, with a reminder at the hours you choose, and it works offline: the Angelus through the year, the Regina Caeli through Paschal time.

Why so many churches are named "Regina Caeli"

Because the antiphon is among the best-loved Marian texts of the Latin Church, its opening words have long been borrowed as a title for parishes, churches, chapels, schools, religious houses and hermitages dedicated to Our Lady. To name a church Regina Caeli is to place it under the patronage of Mary as Queen of Heaven and to claim for it the paschal joy of the antiphon. The title belongs to the same devotional vocabulary as Salve Regina ("Hail, Holy Queen") and Stella Maris ("Star of the Sea"); it does not denote a particular apparition, but simply honours the Blessed Virgin under one of her most ancient liturgical titles. To find a parish where the traditional liturgy, and the Regina Caeli with it, is still kept, begin with our directory of Latin Masses near you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Regina Caeli prayer?

It is the Easter antiphon to the Blessed Virgin Mary, "Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia", one of the four seasonal Marian antiphons of the Roman rite. With its versicle and collect it forms a complete short devotion, the Church's greeting to the Mother of the Risen Lord.

Who is Regina Caeli?

Regina Caeli, "Queen of Heaven", is a title of Our Lady. She is Queen because she is the Mother of Christ the King, and because she is united with Him in His work of redemption. Pope Pius XII set out this doctrine in his encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam (11 October 1954), by which he instituted the feast of the Queenship of Mary on 31 May.

How do you pronounce Regina Caeli?

In the Church's Latin it is said "reh-JEE-nah CHAY-lee". The g before i is soft, as in "gem", and the diphthong ae is pronounced like the "ay" of "day", with the c before it softened to "ch". The Regina coeli spelling is pronounced the same way.

Is it Regina Caeli or Regina Coeli?

Both spellings name the same prayer. Caeli is the correct classical form of the Latin for "of heaven"; coeli (often printed cœli) is a spelling found in many medieval manuscripts and in older prayer books and music, which is why Mozart's settings are titled Regina coeli. Modern liturgical books generally print caeli.

When do we start praying the Regina Caeli?

In the Breviary it begins at Compline of Holy Saturday. For most of the faithful, the first Regina Caeli in place of the Angelus is the one said on Easter morning, and the last is said on the Saturday after Pentecost, the eve of Trinity Sunday.

When is the Regina Caeli sung?

Only in Paschal time, for its alleluias belong to the Easter season. Within it, the simple tone is the one sung by a congregation or a family, while the solemn tone belongs to the choir's Office and to festive occasions. Outside Paschal time it is not sung liturgically: the Salve Regina, Alma Redemptoris Mater or Ave Regina Caelorum takes its place at the end of the day, though as a private prayer any hymn to Our Lady may be said at any time.

The Iter Fidei app gives you the Regina Caeli and the Angelus at the right season, in Latin and English, with the Breviary and the Missal of 1962. Join early access here.

Sources. Breviarium Romanum (1962), rubrics of the final antiphons of the Blessed Virgin; Raccolta, the Angelus and the Regina Caeli; Benedict XIV, disposition of 1742 on the Regina Caeli in Paschal time; Pius XII, encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam (1954); Matthew 28:6 and Luke 2:35, Douay-Rheims.