The Catholic Encyclopedia
Catholic
1907–1914
“The hexameter verses are credited to Hermannus Contractus, or Hermann "the Cripple" (d. 1054).”
A prayer of the Church · its history
Alma Redemptoris Mater — Loving Mother of the Redeemer
The Advent antiphon of Our Lady — 'Loving Mother of the Redeemer' — its hexameters credited to the crippled monk Hermann of Reichenau (d. 1054), sung at Compline from the First Sunday of Advent until Candlemas.
From the early Church Fathers to now.
The prayer
Mother of Christ, hear thou thy people's cry, Star of the deep and Portal of the sky! Mother of Him who thee from nothing made, Sinking we strive and call to thee for aid: O, by that joy which Gabriel brought to thee, Thou Virgin first and last, let us thy mercy see.
Medieval
c. 750 – 1100
1050
A.D.
150 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic
c. 1100 – 1500
1200
Event
The antiphon of Advent
One of the four seasonal Marian antiphons of Compline, the Alma Redemptoris Mater is sung from the first Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent until Compline of Candlemas (2 February).
190 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
1390
Event
Chaucer's Prioress's Tale
In Chaucer's Prioress's Tale (c. 1390) a little schoolboy learns to sing the Alma Redemptoris by heart, "as children lerned hir antiphoner" — a witness to the antiphon's hold on late-medieval English devotion.
Modern · 1953 →
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.