Maris Amme Lyrics by JayaSri

Shaping generations of students to build a nation
filling every heart to go and win the world
finding shelter in the embrace of the Divine Mother
gaining a hundred years of life, shining in the land of Lanka

O Mother, Maris Mother
your name is written in golden letters in all ten directions
O Mother, Divine Mother
your protection is felt across our whole lives

Bringing smiles to our lips with sweet memories
keeping us ever close, bringing friends together
guarding our lives like the rising sun
forever honouring the teachers who share their learning

In the embrace of Maristella school
our wisdom, virtue and strength were raised and made firm
to stand upright before the whole world
it is you who gave us our pride

O Mother, Maris Mother
your name is written in golden letters in all ten directions
O Mother, Divine Mother
your protection is felt across our whole lives

Forever spreading the glory of the students’ strength
raising disciplined citizens
winning victory, victory, victory every day and everywhere
may you flourish on for another hundred years

This is a school anthem, a song of love and gratitude to Maristella College and to the “Divine Mother” the school is named for. Stella Maris means “Star of the Sea,” a title of Our Lady, so the “Maris Amma” and “Deva Amma” the singers keep calling to is both Mother Mary and, tenderly, the school itself imagined as a protecting mother. Every verse folds the two together: the institution and the maternal figure who watches over it.

The song’s pride is in what the school makes of its children. It shapes “generations of students to build a nation,” fills their hearts to go out and “win the world,” and raises “disciplined citizens” who can stand upright before anyone. The teachers are honoured directly, praised as those who “guard our lives like the rising sun,” an image of steady, life-giving care, since in this island the sun is what keeps everything alive. Learning here is treated as something sacred, shared and passed on.

The refrain lifts it into devotion. The Mother’s name is “written in golden letters in all ten directions,” meaning her fame and blessing reach everywhere, and her protection is felt “across our whole lives,” long after the school years end. The song closes the way alma-mater songs always hope to, with a blessing turned outward: victory every day, and may the school flourish “another hundred years.” What the listener is left with is the warm, grateful pride of former students bowing to the mother, human and divine, who made them who they are.