Prayers for all Occasions, Needs, and Intentions

ORIGIN OF THE ROSARY

Origination and Background

  The traditional story of the rosary was that Mary herself appeared to Saint Dominic in the twelfth century. At that time, tradition says she gave him the rosary and promised Dominic that if he spread devotion to the rosary, his religious order would flourish. It is quite true that Dominic was quite devoted to the Blessed Mother, but no one knows for sure if Our Lady herself gave Dominic the rosary. If she did, it is quite certain that she did not give him a rosary that looks like the one we have today.

  The complete rosary consists of 150 beads, the same number of psalms in the Bible. In the twelfth century, religious orders recited together the 150 Psalms as a way to mark the hours of the day and the days of the week. In order to pray the Psalms, though, people had to know how to read. People who didn't know to read wanted to share in the practice, so the rosary, or praying on beads began as a parallel to the psalms. It was a way that illiterate persons could remember the Lord and his mother throughout the day.

  The first rosaries consisted of a string of 150 beads, and as much as we do now, a person would pass over each bead after saying a prayer, usually the "Our Father". The "Hail Mary" as we know it wasn't even around at that time.

  Various persons have added other things to the rosary over the centuries. In the fifteenth century, a Carthusian monk divided the rosary into fifteen brackets (or decades), and a Dominican assigned mysteries to each of the decades. His decades were the same as ours except for the last two. In those two, the Coronation and the Assumption together made up the fourteenth decade, and the fifteenth decade was the Last Judgment.

  The "Hail Mary" owes its origin to the rosary. When people said the rosary in the twelfth century, Gabrielle's greeting "Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee" was often said along with the "Our Father". Later, Elizabeth's prayer, "Blessed are you among women" was added. It was not until the sixteenth century that the words "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death" were added.

  Today's complete rosary is made up of fifteen decades of the "Hail Mary" separated by an "Our Father" and a "Glory Be", and sometimes the Fatima prayer "O My Jesus". We usually break the rosary up into three sets of five mysteries, and say a different set of mysteries each day. There are variations however, and in some countries the rosary may even have different mysteries.

  Despite all the additions and changes, the important core of the rosary has always remained the same. It is a way for God's people to make holy the day and to remember the life of Jesus and his mother. May these humble origins always be with us each time we pray the rosary.