A Brief History of the Rosary

PATRICE FAGNANT-MACARTHUR
October has long been the month dedicated to the Rosary. Pope St. Pius V established the feast
of Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7th) in 1573 to thank God for the victory of Christians over
the Turks at Lepanto, a victory attributed to the praying of the rosary. Pope Clement XI
expanded the feast to the universal Church in 1716. The dedication of the entire month to this
devotion was officially established by Pope Pius XII in 1884. While devotion to this prayer form
waned a bit in the years immediately after Vatican II, interest in this long-practiced devotion is
experiencing a resurgence as the faithful rediscover the beauty and spiritual benefit of this
meditative practice. The name “rosary” comes from the Latin “rosarium” which means “rose
garden.” A rosary is widely considered a gift of roses to Our Blessed Mother in heaven.

The rosary has had a long history and gone through many stages of development. The use of
prayer beads actually precedes the time of Christ. Hindus used them to help keep track of prayers
said throughout the day. In the Christian tradition, early monastic orders would pray the 150
psalms daily. At first they would use 150 pebbles in a small pouch in order to keep track. This
later developed into a string with 150 knots and finally a rope with 150 wooden beads. Members
of the laity who did not necessarily know the psalms by heart wanted to have a comparable
version of this practice and so the tradition of praying 150 “Our Fathers” each day was born. A
similar string of beads was used to keep track of this as well. In time, the “angelic salutation” of
Gabriel was added before each “Our Father”: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.”
Later on, Elizabeth’s greeting was added to this: “Blessed are you among women.” Still later, the
prayer of “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death” was
added and the “Hail Mary” as we know it was developed.

Meanwhile, in the year 1214, Mary appeared to St. Dominic and encouraged him to spread
devotion to the rosary. She promised him that if he did so, he would be successful in converting
the Albigensians and that his religious order that he founded would prosper. He spent the rest of
his life encouraging others to pray the Rosary and founded a Rosary Confraternity to aid in this
task. One hundred years later, Blessed Alan de la Roche picked up where Dominic’s work had
ended. He divided the rosary into 10 “Hail Mary” decades preceded by the “Our Father.” In the
15th century, the mysteries of the rosary were assigned to each of the decades. This gave people
an opportunity to reflect on Scripture while offering up this meditative prayer. In 1917, Our Lady
appeared to three young shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. She declared herself to be “Our
Lady of the Rosary” and repeatedly urged the children to recite the rosary daily.

In more recent times, Pope John XXIII taught that the Rosary must have a
threefold purpose: “mystical contemplation, intimate reflection, and pious
intention.” On October 16, 2002, Pope John Paul II added a new set of five
mysteries to the rosary. Known as the “Luminous Mysteries” or “The Mysteries of
Light,” they focus on Jesus’ public ministry. In his apostolic letter “The Rosary of
the Virgin Mary”, he wrote that “The rosary, though clearly Marian in character,
is at a heart a Christ-centered prayer. It has all the depth of the gospel message in
its entirety. It is an echo of the prayer of Mary, her perennial Magnificat for the
work of the redemptive Incarnation which began in her virginal womb.”

A Brief History of the Rosary

WRITTEN BY DAN RUDDEN

The rosary is a form of combined prayer and meditation that has been around for over 1200 years. The origin of the
rosary dates back to the ninth century where Irish monks would recite and chant the 150 Psalms of the Bible as a
major part of their worship. People living near the monasteries were drawn towards this beautiful and harmonious
devotion, and they became very eager to join in with the monks' prayers.

The 150 Psalms of the Bible

Unfortunately, the people were not able to adapt to this form of prayer because the psalms were very hard to
memorize and printed copies of the psalms were not readily available. As a result, it was suggested to the people
outside the monastery that they recite a series of 150 "Our Father" prayers in place of the psalms.

As this form of devotion became increasingly popular, people started to devise methods in order to keep track of their
prayers. At first, 150 little pebbles were placed inside small leather pouches to keep count. Since this method was
rather troublesome, a thin rope having 50 knots on it was used instead (it was used three times for a total of 150
prayers). Eventually, the instrument of choice became the use of string with small pieces of wood.

In later years, the Irish monks traveled throughout Europe and brought this form of devotion with them. In some
areas, both clergy and lay people began to recite the "Angelic Salutation" (the first part of what we now know as the
"Hail Mary") as part of this devotion. The popularity of this prayer led to the adoption of 50 Angelic Salutations being
said for each piece of wood or knot on the prayer string.

During the 13th century, Medieval theologians began to interpret the 150 psalms as veiled mysteries about the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. They began to write a series of Psalters, or praises, in honor of Jesus for
each interpretation of the psalms. In addition, 150 Psalters honoring Mary were also composed. In order to fit the
existing prayer string, these Psalters were divided into groups of 50 and were referred to as "Rosariums". Although
"rosarium" refers to roses and rose gardens, it was used to signify a collection of prayers which could be compared to
a bouquet of roses.
 Our Lady of Guadalupe

As we see today, the rose is a very popular symbol associated with our Blessed Mother Mary and it is a sign that she
often uses as she did in the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The interpretation of the psalms into written Psalters lead to the implementation of special thoughts or meditations
being attached to each bead. This innovated version of the rosary was widely spread by Blessed Alan de la Roche of
the Dominican Order, as it revived the divinely inspired works that St. Dominic and his Rosary Confraternity had
initiated some hundred years earlier. The prayers of the Rosarium were later broken out into sets of 10 and these
groupings became known as decades. Each decade of ten "Hail Mary" prayers would be preceded by one "Our
Father".
Around the year 1700, the thoughts used in the rosary started to become narratives. St. Louis de Montfort composed
the most common set of narratives that eventually became used as meditations for each decade of the rosary. These
narratives were divided into five Joyful, five Sorrowful, and five Glorious meditations that are referred to as
"mysteries". Just recently, in 2002, Pope John Paul II introduced another set of five meditations referred to as the
"Luminous Mysteries".

As you can see, the rosary we know today is the result of many evolutions dating back several hundred
years. Although the manner in which the rosary is recited has changed, the results of praying the rosary are still the
same. Countless interventions still occur today, and the power and divine graces the rosary offers are available to
everyone who is willing to give it a chance.