He preached on this prayer for forty days

Saint Jerome said that "the truths contained in the Hail Mary are so sublime, so marvelous, that no man, no angel could fully understand them."

Saint Thomas Aquinas, the prince of theologians, "the wisest of the saints and the most holy of the wise" according to Pope Leo XIII, preached on this Marian prayer for forty straight days in Rome, filling his audience’s hearts with a sense of ecstasy.

Father Suarez, a scholarly Jesuit, declared that at the time of his death he would gladly exchange all the books he had written and all the works he had produced, for the merit of a single Ave Maria recited with devotion.

One day, Saint Mathilda, who was very fond of the Virgin Mary, endeavored to compose a beautiful prayer in her honor. Our Lady appeared to her carrying on her bosom the angelic greeting written in gold letters: "Ave Maria, gratia plena." And she said to her: "My daughter, no prayer that you could compose would give me as much joy as the Ave Maria."

Aleteia