Holy Mother / Song About The Blessed Virgin Mary.
Martial canticle, 14th-16th c.

The music and lyrics are by an unknown author of the 13th-15th centuries. The words of the Belarusian variant of Baharodzica are written down in a mixed Church Slavic and Old Belarusian language in the first Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1529. Its music is taken from the Latin Sermons Book compiled by Mateusz of Grochów in 1408 (now kept in Jagiełło Library in Kraków, signature № 1619).
The first mention of the song dates back to the battle of Grunwald, when the Lithuanian and Polish armed soldiers started singing Baharodzica before the action ('Chronicle' of Jan Długosz). The song was also performed during official ceremonies, funerals and sanctification of Belarusian saints. In the 15th century, the Poles made it their national anthem. Since that time, Baharodzica was called Homeland’s Song and was considered to be very old.
The song is recorded in two versions in 'Litvin's Treasures: Middle Ages' (2004) album and in 'Heroic Epos'(2006) album.