Deir Rafat center for believers and Holy Land pilgrims. The façade of the convent church bears the Latin inscription "Reginae Palaestinae", lit. "to the Queen of Palestine", and carries a 6-metre statue of the Virgin Mary. The church ceiling is decorated with a painting showing angels carrying banners with the first words of the Hail Mary prayer in 280 languages. Since 2009, the convent is in the care of the female branch of the Catholic order known as "the Monastic Family of Bethlehem, of the Assumption of the Virgin and of Saint Bruno", called the monastic Sisters of Bethlehem. Deir Rafat Deir
Hail Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star Hail Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star "Hail, Queen of Heaven, the Ocean Star" is a Marian hymn written by Father John Lingard (1771–1851), a Catholic priest and historian who, through the works of William Cobbett, helped to smooth the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Act in England. Lingard is also credited with translating the carol ""The Snow Lay on the Ground"" from the traditional Irish. Loosely based on the medieval Latin plainchant Ave Maris Stella, the hymn is generally sung to the modified traditional English melody "Stella". This melody was published in 1851 by Henri Frederick Hemy in his