Hermann of Reichenau - Salve Regina

I made this video in November, 2007, during one of my visits to Villers-la-Ville. It shows the Villers Abbey church ruins. Villers Abbey used to be one of the most important Cistercian abbeys of Europe. Villers Abbey (abbaye de Villers) is an ancient Cistercian abbey located in the town of Villers-la-Ville in the Walloon Brabant province of Wallonia (Belgium). Founded in 1146, the abbey was abandoned in 1796. Most of the site has since fallen into ruins. The music you hear - " Salve Regina" is a Marian hymn and one of four Marian antiphons sung at different seasons within the Christian liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. The hymn was composed during the Middle Ages most probably by German monk Hermann of Reichenau (1013-1054) and originally appeared in Latin, the prevalent language of Western Christianity until modern times. Traditionally it has been sung in Latin, though many translations exist. It sometimes also attributed either to St. Anselm of Lucca (d. 1080) or St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Yet another legend attributes "Salve Regina" to Adhémar, Bishop of Podium (Puy-en-Velay), whence it has been styled "Antiphona de Podio" (Anthem of Le Puy). Adhémar was the first to ask permission to go on the crusade, and the first to receive the cross from Pope Urban II. Before his departure, towards the end of October, 1096, he composed the war-song of the crusade, in which he asked the intercession of the Queen of Heaven, the Salve Regina" (Migne, "Dict. des Croisades", s. v. Adhémar).