𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕳𝖔𝖑𝖞 𝕽𝖔𝖘𝖆𝖗𝖞The Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the most pop…

𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕳𝖔𝖑𝖞 𝕽𝖔𝖘𝖆𝖗𝖞

The Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the most popular devotions of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. The image of the Rosary is inseparable from the Roman Catholic Church. Certainly, there are countless devotions in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the East. But, where then did the Rosary come from? How did it gain such popularity in the West?

𝓐𝓵𝓫𝓲𝓰𝓮𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓪𝓷𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓢𝓽. 𝓓𝓸𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓲𝓬

In southern France in the end of the 12th Century and the early 13th Century, the Albigensian heresy was spreading rapidly and causing great upheaval in Christian culture. They were vehemently opposed to the priesthood and the hierarchy of the Church. They saw the eternal battle between good and evil manifest in the war between the material realm of Satan and the spiritual realm of God.

At this time, St. Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans), was preaching primarily against this heresy. He was largely unsuccessful and pleaded for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to a pious tradition, Mary appeared to St. Dominic and told him to use the Marian Psalter while preaching the Gospel.

In St. Dominic’s time, there were some significant differences in what we now call the Rosary.

Let us begin with the Hail Mary. The Hail Mary prayer comes from the Gospel according to St. Luke, from the words of the Angel Gabriel and Mary’s kinswoman Elizabeth: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!… Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb (Lk 1:28, 42).”

In fact, this was the entirety of the Hail Mary until the 14th Century. It was only then that the Name of Jesus was added at the end.

The second half of the prayer, as it is prayed today, came even later.

At that time, the Our Father and the Glory Be prayers were also not part of the Rosary. The pendent, which is the cross and the five extra beads, also was not part of it.

Likewise, the Mysteries of the Rosary were not fixed until Pope St. Pius V officially established the fifteen Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries in 1569.

𝓢𝓽. 𝓓𝓸𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓲𝓬 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓡𝓸𝓼𝓪𝓻𝔂

St. Dominic and his connection to the Holy Rosary is debatable among historians.

However, there seems to be great evidence that the heart of the Rosary was borne out of the practice, preaching, and prayer of St. Dominic.

The Rosary comes from the Latin word rosarium which means a rose garden or bouquet of roses. When we pray the Holy Rosary, we are offering a bouquet of roses to the Blessed Mother to honour her. In return, out of motherly love, she leads us to her Son and forms and shapes us to be more like Him.

Source: Catholic-link.org