Friday, October 2, 2020 –
Good heavens! 200 DAYS!?!? Well, today we are going to expound a bit on our very brief history of the Rosary from yesterday’s download.
The history of the Rosary is a bit vague (unclear). This powerful set of prayers developed over the history of the entire church, and it has been through a lot of changes over the years!
The word Rosary come from the Latin word rosarium, which means “rose garden.” Even the name, however, is something that developed over time. The original “Rosary” was basically a set of prayers repeated and counted using fingers, toes, beads, rocks, or basically anything people could put into a pile and count.
Originally, this style of counting prayers was centered around the 150 Psalms in the Bible. Priests and monks would pray them over and over and over. However, much of the laity way back when was illiterate. Since the laity could not read the Psalms, a practice of substituting 150 Pater Nosters (Our Fathers) was devised. Of course, saying 150 Our Fathers back to back can seem a bit daunting, so they were broken down even further into three sets of 50 Pater Nosters.
Eventually, someone had the idea to string 50 beads on a rope in order to make counting easier. These stings of beads were called “Pater Noster Beads.” I know, super original. Over time, the Ave Maria (Hail Mary) prayer started replacing the Pater Noster. Likewise, the Creed was eventually added as well as the Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen).
After a while, someone—we do not know who, specifically—sat down and came up with three sets of mysteries to correspond with the three sets of 50 beads. Naturally, another someone—again, we do not have a specific person to attribute this to—sat down and divided the set of 50 beads into five sets of 10 and assigned a specific mystery to each set.
Now, according to tradition and an account by a fifteenth-century Dominican named Alan de la Roch, the Rosary as we know it today comes from Our Lady as given to Saint Dominic, the founder of the Order of Friars Preachers (AKA the Dominicans) in 1206. Some people dispute this, but I have a personal affinity for the Dominicans, so I tend to subscribe to this tradition.
Anyhoo, Saint Dominic had been praying and doing severe penances because of his lack of success in combating the Albigensian heresy, also known as Catharism. Mary appeared to Saint Dominic and praised him for his brave fight against the Albigensian heretics. Our Lady gave him the Rosary and explained that it was a mighty weapon to be used to teach the people. Defeat of the Albigensians in 1213 at the Battle of Muret is traditionally attributed to the Rosary.
The Rosary has also been used at other times throughout history to spread the truth of Christ and as a successful weapon against those who would seek to destroy God’s Church.
Pope Saint Pius V, also a Dominican, attributed the defeat of the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Lepanto to the Rosary. This battle took place on Sunday, October 7. As a result, Pope Saint Pius V ordered a commemoration (celebration) of the Rosary to be made on that day. Originally, this feast was called Our Lady of Victory, you know because we Catholics are real original with our names.
Another great victory over the Turks attributed to the Rosary was on August 5, 1716, when Prince Eugene of Savoy defeated the Turks at the Battle of Peterwardein in Hungary. It was after this that Pope Clement XI extended the feast of the Rosary to the whole Church. To this day, the feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary is still set on October 7th.
They mysteries of the Rosary are centered around the life of Christ: from His conception to after His Resurrection, and subsequent Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and crowning her as queen of heaven and earth. The prayers of the Rosary—mainly the Pater Noster (Our Father) and Ave Maria (Hail Mary) are Biblical.
At one point in the history of the Rosary, there were hundreds of mysteries! However, over time it was set to three sets of five mysteries each (remember, this goes back to the 150 Psalms!): the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries. Pope Saint John Paul II later added the Luminous mysteries (AKA the “Mysteries of Light”) with his encyclical, Rosarium Virginis Mariae (On the Most Holy Rosary), on October 16, 2002.
Cause of our joy, pray for us!
