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The Angelus Bell
The Angelus is a church bell rung three times a day — at 6 in the morning, noon and 6 in the evening — calling people to stop for a short prayer remembering the Annunciation. The traditional pattern is three strokes, a pause, three strokes, a pause, three strokes, then nine.
3 · 3 · 3 · then 9 — eighteen strokes in all.
Why church bells ring at 6, noon and 6
If you have ever heard a church bell ring at six o'clock that wasn't just striking the hour, it was very likely the Angelus. The custom grew out of the medieval evening bell, when people were asked to say a Hail Mary as it rang. Over the following centuries a morning and a midday ringing were added, and by the 1500s the three-times-a-day Angelus was established across Catholic Europe.
For farm workers and townspeople without clocks, it also did a practical job: it marked the start of the working day, the midday break and the end of work.
How the Angelus is rung
- Three strokes, then a pause — one for each of the three short verses of the prayer.
- Repeated three times — the three groups of three.
- Then nine strokes, or in some places a longer free ringing, to close.
Parishes vary: some ring the nine as a continuous swing, some ring the Angelus only at noon, and many still ring all three times every day.
The Angelus prayer
The prayer takes its name from its first words in Latin, Angelus Domini — "the Angel of the Lord." It is made of three short verses and responses, each followed by a Hail Mary, and a closing prayer. It begins:
The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary,
and she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
During the Easter season the Angelus is traditionally replaced by the Regina Caeli ("Queen of Heaven"), rung at the same times.
The painting everyone knows
Jean-François Millet's painting The Angelus (1857–59, now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris) shows two farm workers stopping in a field at dusk, heads bowed, as a distant church bell rings — perhaps the best picture there is of what the Angelus was for.
Questions people ask
What is the Angelus bell?
A church bell rung at 6 am, noon and 6 pm to call people to say the Angelus, a short prayer about the Annunciation.
How many times does the Angelus bell ring?
Traditionally three strokes three times, with pauses between, followed by nine strokes — eighteen in all.
Why do church bells ring at 6 pm?
Very often it is the evening Angelus, one of the three daily Angelus ringings at 6 am, noon and 6 pm.
What prayer is said during the Angelus?
The Angelus, which begins 'The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary', with three Hail Marys and a closing prayer. In the Easter season the Regina Caeli is said instead.
Can my phone ring the Angelus?
Yes. The BELFRY app can ring the Angelus at six, noon and six in your own time zone, on the bell you choose, even with your phone locked.
Hear it on your iPhone
BELFRY is a bell tower in your pocket: twenty real bell voices, the hours struck the way a church clock strikes them, prayer bells and meditation bells, ringing even with your phone locked. Free to download, no ads, ever.
