Hail Mary the greeting and praise of Mary of which the prayer thus consisted, a petition "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen." was added later. The petition first appeared in print in 1495 in Girolamo Savonarola's "Esposizione sopra l’Ave Maria." The "Hail Mary" prayer in Savonarola's exposition reads: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen"
Veneration of Mary in the Catholic Church with the Virgin Mary, to magnify with her the great things the Lord has done for her, and to entrust supplications and praises to her. The earliest known Marian prayer is the Sub tuum praesidium, or "Beneath Thy Protection", a text for which was rediscovered in 1917 on a papyrus in Egypt dated to c. 250. The papyrus contains the prayer in Greek and is the earliest known reference to the title Theotokos (confirmed by the Council of Ephesus in 431): Beneath your compassion, We take refuge, O Mother of God: do not despise our petitions in time of trouble: