The Rosary (from Latin rosarium , meaning "rose garden") or "garland of roses" is a popular and traditional Roman Catholic devotion. The term denotes both a set of prayer beads and the devotional prayer itself, which combines vocal (or silent) prayer and meditation. The prayers consist of repeated sequences of the Lord's Prayer followed by ten prayings of the Hail Mary and a single praying of "Glory Be to the Father"; each of these sequences is known as a decade . The praying of each decade is accompanied by meditation on one of the Mysteries of the Rosary, which are events in the lives of Jesus Christ and his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The traditional 15 Mysteries of the Rosary were standardized, based on the long-standing custom, by Pope St. Pius V in the 16th century. The mysteries are grouped into three sets: the joyful mysteries, the sorrowful mysteries, and the glorious mysteries. In 2002, Pope John Paul II announced five new optional mysteries, the luminous mysteries, bringing the total number of mysteries to 20.
The term has come to be used to refer to similar beads in other religions.
Theological relevance
The rosary is part of the Catholic veneration of Mary, which has been promoted by numerous popes, especially Leo XIII, known as "The Rosary Pope", who issued twelve encyclicals and five apostolic letters on the rosary and added the invocation Queen of the most Holy Rosary to the Litany of Loreto. Pope Pius V introduced the rosary into the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar as the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrated on October 7 . Most recently, on May 3, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI stated that the Rosary is experiencing a new springtime: "It is one of the most eloquent signs of love that the young generation nourish for Jesus and his Mother." To Benedict XVI, the rosary is a meditation on all important moments of salvation history. Before him, Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae built on the "total Marian devotion" pioneered by Saint Louis de Montfort. Pope Pius XII and his successors actively promoted the veneration of the Virgin in Lourdes and Fatima, which is credited with a new resurgence of the rosary within the Catholic Church.
The theologian Romano Guardini defined the Roman Catholic emphasis on the rosary as “participation in the life of Mary, whose focus was Christ”. His statement echoed the view that in Roman Catholic Mariology the path to Christ is through Mary, with Mariology being inherent in Christology; a sentiment also expressed by saints such as Louis de Montfort who was a strong rosary advocate. Pope Leo XIII also viewed the rosary as a vital means to participate in the life of Mary and to find the way to Christ (see the section on Rosary Pope below).
Many similar prayer practices exist in other Christian communities, each with its own set of prescribed prayers and its own form of prayer beads, such as the prayer rope in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. These other devotions and their associated beads are usually referred to as "chaplets." The rosary is sometimes used by other Christians, especially in the Anglican Communion and the Old Catholic Church, and also by many Lutherans. Other Protestants, however, such as Baptists and Presbyterians, do not use it and actively discourage their members from using this method of prayer.
History
There are differing views on the history of the rosary. According to tradition, the rosary was given to Saint Dominic in an apparition by the Blessed Virgin Mary in the year 1214 in the church of Prouille. This Marian apparition received the title of Our Lady of the Rosary. In the 15th century Saint Alanus de Rupe (aka Alain de la Roche or Saint Alan of the Rock), who was a learned Dominican priest and theologian, received a vision from Jesus about the urgency of reinstating the rosary as a form of prayer as His Blessed Mother had requested. St. Alanus de Rupe also received the Blessed Mother's "15 Promises". Saint Alan is responsible for having many rosary confraturnites. Before his death on Sept. 8, 1475 and through his devotion to the Blessed Mother, he reinstituted the rosary in many countries just as Jesus had requested. Before St. Dominic and St. Alan, however, most scholarly research suggests a more gradual and organic development of the rosary.
Prayers with beads like the rosary may have begun as a practice by the laity to imitate the monastic Liturgy of the Hours, during the course of which the monks prayed the 150 Psalms daily. As many of the laity and even lay monastics could not read, they substituted 150 repetitions of the Our Father ( Pater noster in Latin) for the Psalms, sometimes using a cord with knots on it to keep an accurate count. During the middle ages, evidence suggests that both the Our Father and the Hail Mary were recited with prayer beads. In the 7th century, Saint Eligius wrote of using a counting device to keep track of the 150 Hail Marys of the Psalter of Mary . In 13th century Paris, four trade guilds existed of prayer bead makers, who were referred to as paternosterers , and the beads were referred to as paternosters , suggesting a continued link between the Our Father ( Pater noster in Latin) and the prayer beads. In the 12th century, the rule of the English anchorites, the Ancrene Wisse , specified how groups of 50 Hail Marys were to be broken into five decades of ten Hail Marys each. Gradually, the Hail Mary came to replace the Our Father as the prayer most associated with beads. Eventually, each decade came to be preceded by an Our Father, which further mirrored the structure of the monastic Divine Office.
The practice of meditation during the praying of the Hail Marys is attributed to Dominic of Prussia (1382-1460), a Carthusian monk, who called it "Life of Jesus Rosary" The German monk from Trier added a sentence to each of the 50 Hail Marys already popular at his time, using quotes from scriptures. Promoted by his superior Adolf von Essen and others, his practice became popular among Benedictines and Carthusians from Trier to adjoining Belgium and France, where it was greatly promoted by the preaching of the Dominican priest Alan de Rupe, who helped to spread the devotion in France, Flanders, and the Netherlands between 1460 and his death in 1475. From the 16th to the early 20th century, the structure of the rosary remained essentially unchanged. There were 15 mysteries, one for each of the 15 decades. In the 20th century the addition of the Fatima Prayer to the end of each decade became popular. After Vatican Council II, Msgr. Annibale Bugnini, architect of the liturgical reform, proposed further changes to the structure of the Rosary, but Pope Paul VI refused to implement the proposal on the grounds that changing such a well-established and popular devotion would unsettle the piety of the faithful and show a lack of reverence for an ancient practice. There were thus no other changes until 2002 when John Paul II instituted five optional new Luminous Mysteries.
Since the 17th century, the Rosary began to appear as an element in key pieces of Roman Catholic Marian art, often in art that depicts the Virgin Mary. Key examples include Murrillo's Madonna with the Rosary at the Museo del Prado in Spain, and the statute of Madonna with Rosary at the church of San Nazaro Maggiore in Milan. Several Roman Catholic Marian churches around the world have also been named after the rosary, e.g. Our Lady of the Rosary Basilica , in Rosario Argentina, the Rosary Basilica in Lourdes and Nossa Senhora do Rosário in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Key dates
The following table are key dates in the development of the rosary.
- 4th century prayer rope used by the Desert Fathers to count repetitions of the Jesus Prayer
- In the 7th century, St. Eligius (c.588-660) wrote of making a chair adorned with 150 gold and silver nails to aid in the praying of the Psalter of Blessed Mary , which substituted one Hail Mary for each of the Psalms.
- In the early 8th century, Venerable Bede (d. 733) attests that churches and public places in France and England had prayer beads available for the faithful to use.
- c. 1075 Lady Godiva refers in her will to "the circlet of precious stones which she had threaded on a cord in order that by fingering them one after another she might count her prayers exactly" (Malmesbury, "Gesta Pont.", Rolls Series 311)
- A rule for anchorites in mid-12th century England gives directions on how 50 Hail Marys are to be said divided into sets of ten, with prostrations and other marks of reverence.
- It is recorded in 12th century Mary-legends (Marien-legenden) that a certain Eulalia was told to pray five decades slowly and devoutly instead of 15 decades in a hurry.
- It is recorded by a contemporary biographer that St. Aibert, who died in 1140, recited 150 Hail Marys daily, 100 with genuflexions and 50 with prostrations.
- 1160 Saint Rosalia is buried with a string of prayer beads
- 1214 traditional date of the legend of Saint Dominic's reception of the rosary from the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of the
Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary
In Marialis Cultus (1974), Pope Paul VI proposed principles for the renewal of Marian devotion, speaking at length on the Rosary. Since that time, practical suggestions have ...
Rosary - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2002 Pope John Paul II introduces the Luminous Mysteries as an option for Roman Catholics in an Apostolic Letter on the Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae.
Scriptural Rosary – Luminous Mysteries | Rosary Army: Free Rosary ...
The prayer of the Rosary is divided up into four different sets of Mysteries (each set has 5 Mysteries). A truly powerful way to pray the Rosary, the Scriptural
The Luminous Mysteries
The First Luminous Mystery THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD. John is baptizing in the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance. "I am the voice of one crying in the desert, make straight ...
The Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary
The Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter which introduced the Luminous Mysteries in October 2002.
Scriptural Rosary for Children: the Luminous Mysteries
Introduction; How to pray the Rosary; site map; The Joyful Mysteries; learn about the Joyful Mysteries; pray the Joyful Mysteries; The Luminous Mysteries; learn about
Scriptural Rosary for Children: the Luminous Mysteries
Introduction; How to pray the Rosary; site map; The Joyful Mysteries; learn about the Joyful Mysteries; pray the Joyful Mysteries; The Luminous Mysteries • learn about
RA Podcast Extra: The Luminous Mysteries | Rosary Army: Free Rosary ...
An audio version of the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. To save this file to your computer, right click on the link below and select Save Target As. You can
Luminous Mysteries definition of Luminous Mysteries in the Free Online ...
rosary [rose garden], prayer of Roman Catholics, in which beads are used as counters. The term, applied also to the beads, is extended to Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist prayers that ...
Luminous Mysteries - definition of Luminous Mysteries in the Medical ...
rosary /ro·sa·ry/ (ro´zah-re) a structure resembling a string of beads. rachitic rosary see under bead. ro·sa·ry (r z-r) n. An arrangement or structure that is beadlike in ...