Hermanus Contractus (1013–1054), a monk of Reichenau, poet and composer of sequences, is generally credited as the author of this Marian Antiphon, but recent scholarship finds the evidence insufficient. The antiphon is found in a Munich manuscript probably of the thirteenth century and in a Sacrum Breviary of the fourteenth century. Alma Redemptoris Mater is one of the four Marian Antiphons [Ave, Regina caelorum, Regina coeli, and Salve Regina]. It is sung at the end of Compline from the Vespers of Saturday before the first Sunday in Advent to the second Vespers of the Purification (Feb. 2).