A History Of The Holy Rosary Of The Blessed Virgin Mary And Its Feast Day (Jesus Christ, priests)

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The history of the Holy Rosary of Our Lady is a mosaic of stories that spans the history of the Church. Among these stories is the famous legend of St. Dominic. This thirteenth century legend tells us that Mary appeared to St. Dominic and commissioned him to spread devotion to the Holy Rosary. However, the Holy Rosary did not begin with that vision but predated it by a thousand years. The history of the Holy Rosary of Our Lady shows how Jesus and Mary have enjoyed beautiful relationships with their devoted loving children throughout history and have used them to develop and spread this devotion. Learning the accurate story of the Holy Rosary enables you to appreciate how Jesus and Mary lovingly use their children to accomplish their work through time so that successive generations would be empowered to continue the chain of prayerful love to them and their neighbors.

1. The History of the Feast of the Holy Rosary.

In 1570 the Ottoman Turks, ruled by Ali Pasha, invaded the island of Cyprus, then owned by Venice, initiating the Turkish-Cyprian War of 1570-1573. They captured and destroyed the city of Famagusta, massacring its inhabitants. The Venetians were fearful of loosing control of Cyprus, which was important to the them since it allowed them to dominate trade in the Mediterranean. However, the Ottomans posed an enormous threat to gain this control for themselves. These Turkish peoples had developed a fierce reputation for moving into an area and taking over. When they invaded Cyprus, they terrorized all of Europe. Only the islands of Malta and Crete remained in the eastern Mediterranean as European outposts. The Ottomans were in a strategic position to invade Europe. When the Ottomans advanced into the western Mediterranean they were immediately placed in check at the battle of Lepanto.
Pope St. Pius V (1566-1572), organized the Holy League between Rome and the Papal States, which included: Genoa, Venice and Spain. This union brought together Pius V, Sebastiano Veniero (1496-1578), the Doge of Venice, and Philip of Spain (1527-1598), who together formed a Christian fleet. This navy consisting of 208 galleys and 6 galleasses (huge oar-driven ships with 44 guns), was placed under the command of Don Juan of Austria (1547-1578), son of Charles V, and a half brother of Philip of Spain. In the first week of October 1571, the Christian armada sailed to engage the Turkish Ottoman fleet of 273 galleys, and met them at the Bay of Lepanto. The Christians were completely outnumbered. However, their skill in maneuvering, and in battle tactics brought about a great victory nearly destroying the Ottoman fleet on October 7, 1571. The pitch of battle lasted only three hours. The Ottoman armada lost between 190-230 galleys. At least 15 of these were destroyed and the remainder were captured. Turkish losses ranged about 20,000 and about another 10,000 wounded. It is reported that about 13,000 Christian slaves, who served as rowers on the Ottoman Turkish galleys were set free. The Christian fleet celebrated a great victory losing only 12 galleys. To assure safety to the land, Christian knights stood along the banks of the shore to capture or fight any Ottoman Turkish sailor who managed to escape.
This victorious day has been especially marked since Pope Pius V called for all of Christendom to pray the rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The victory at Lepanto occurred the very day the Roman Rosary confraternity offered solemn prayers for the Holy League's success. To commemorate the victory in thanksgiving for Our Lady's assistance Pius V declared the first Sunday of every October as the feast of Our Lady of Victory. In 1573, Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585), changed the name of the feast to the Holy Rosary, in honor of the prayer used to bring about the victory. The feast date was set as October 7th in commemoration of the victory at Lepanto.

2. The History of the Hail Mary Prayer.

The rosary recited by Pope St. Pius V and the Christian world in 1571, was that of the 15th century. Just as the Holy Rosary today it consists of reciting the oral prayer called the “Angelic Salutation” or the “Hail Mary” or in Latin “Ave Maria.” This prayer is recited one hundred and fifty times. It is divided into fifteen groups of meditations. Therefore, each meditation has ten Hail Mary prayers. Each of these meditations is begun by praying the “Lord's Prayer” or “Our Father” (in Latin “Pater Noster”). These fifteen meditations are divided into three categories or classifications: the Joyful, the Sorrowful, and the Glorious episodes from the lives of Jesus and Mary.
The recitation of the “Hail Mary” goes back to paleochristian (the earliest years of the church) and patristic times (1st-6th cents.). However, this prayer formula was not the one used by Pius V, but a simpler and more rudimentary one. The prayer has its origins in the Gospel of Luke "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee, blessed art thou among women." (Luke 1:28). Added to this was another verse from Luke’s Gospel "Blessed is the fruit of thy womb" (Luke 1:48). Together these two passages from Luke’s Gospel formed the first half of the “Hail Mary” prayer we assume was recited by Christians during the first four hundred years of the Church. The first written record is found in the offertory text - Feast of the Annunciation and 4th sunday of Advent of the 7th century. Nevertheless, in the fifth century the second part of the prayer was introduced, "Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners," by the Council of Ephesus in 431. Six centuries later, about 1043/57 Peter Damian (d. 1072), the great Benedictine Abbot-Cardinal, advocated widespread use of this prayer which he called the angelic versicle "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with Thee, blessed art thou among women, Blessed is the fruit of thy womb. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners.” In 1262 , Pope Urban IV (1261-1264), added the name of "Jesus" at the end of the first half of the “Hail Mary.” The coda at the end of the “Hail Mary” prayer "now and at the hour of our death.” came into use, probably in Florence, about 1420. This new addition to the “Hail Mary” is found in a Codex edited by St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence. Later, in 1477, a book at Venice, Collection of Christian Praises, also contains this ending which we recite today. Again, in 1493 in a decree of Berthold, the Archbishop of Mainz, the “Hail Mary” prayer was given an added coda at the end "now and at the hour of our death." The modern form of the “Hail Mary” appeared officially in the Roman Breviary of 1568, just three years before the battle of Lepanto.

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3. The History of the Holy Rosary.

The rosary was based on the Our Father Psalter, which was to pray 150 Our Fathers. As early as AD 248, St. Cyprian of Carthage warned his Church that they are to respect the command of God by saying the Paternoster (Lord’s Prayer) lest you ‘establish your own tradition’. About a hundred years later, in AD 341, it was recorded that St. Paul, an Egyptian Abbot and hermit, was 'praying in the manner old and beyond memory', praying 300 daily Paternosters by moving pre-counted pebbles from one pile to another. So, we can see that perhaps going back to the first or second century praying the Our Father Psalter was part of the earliest pious practices in the Church. About two hundred years after St. Paul the Abbot, people began to use a circle of beads to count their prayers on. In the 7th century the custom emerged to bury the dead with beads wrapped around their fingers imitative of how they prayed with them during their lifetime. The Abbess Gertrude of Nivelles (d. AD 659), for example, was buried with prayer beads in her tomb.
The term "rosary" has its origins in the medieval Latin title given to the Virgin Mary, namely, Rosa Mystica (Mystical Rose). The rosary or rosarium (rose garden or rose garland) was a popular Marian devotion which probably has its earliest origins in the practice of praying 150 Paternosters or Psalms by AD 800 . In that year it is recorded in the Benedictine compact between St. Gall and Reichenau ("Mon. Germ. Hist.: Confrat." Piper, 140) that for each deceased brother all the priests should say one Mass and also fifty psalms. In 9th century Ireland and Iceland lay people prayed on knotted string or beads, and recited one hundred and fifty “Our Fathers.” Cluniac monks of the 10th century, during the time of Abbot Odo of Cluny (d.942), who could not read the Divine Office were asked to recite the “Our Father” 150 times in place of the Psalms . The custom of reciting 150 “Hail Mary's,” undoubtedly, grew out of this practice. Since the rosary of 150 “Hail Mary’s” was developed by imitating the 150 Psalms it became known as Mary's Psalter. By 1130 a popular form of the Psalter was known by a German word as the Grusspsalter “Hail Psalter,” signifying the 150 “Hail Mary’s” recited in place of one of the Psalms. This Grusspsalter contained short poetic verses which demonstrated the Psalm's relevance to Mary. These 150 verses called antiphons began with the “Hail Mary.” Eventually these became separated in time and the recitation of the 150 “Hail Mary's” became an independent prayer form. It is likely that the recitation of the Hail Mary retained some biblical references or meditating on some mystery or episode related to the incarnation, crucifixion etc. It is also likely that some antiphon or verse was attached to the Hail Mary in order to expound its meaning.
The term rosary refers to a string of roses, sometimes also called a Rosenkranz, corona (crown), circlet, garland, capellina, or chaplet, but did not become used to refer to the string of beads prior to the fifteenth century. William of Malmesbury (d. 1143) in his book called Gesta, relates that, in 1040/1, Lady Godiva of Coventry left in her will a circulus gemmarum (chaplet of gemstones) which she received from her husband Count Leofric used for counting her prayers to Mary. In the tomb of St. Rosalia (A. D. 1160), a similar strings of beads was discovered.
The Cistercian abbot, Aelred of Rievaulx (d.1167), of the monastery of Rievaulx in Yorkshire, suggested in his rule to anchoresses that they should meditate on the episode of Mary's Annunciation by the angel Gabriel, or upon Elizabeth's greeting and Mary's response during the Visitation, as they pray repeatedly the Angelic salutation (the Hail Mary prayer). Aelred, therefore, was one of the first to transfer the rosary from the Old Testament Psalms to the New Testament episodes.
In AD 1198 Bishop Ordo of Siliac during the Synod, required the clergy make sure that not only was the Creed and the Pater being recited but to add the Ave. This created a new interest and soon it is being included in the councils of many other countries to do the same. It becomes very very popular into the next century.
According to legend, St. Dominic Guzman (1170-1221), founder of the Dominican Friars or Order of Preachers, was given the rosary in a miraculous vision from the hands of the Blessed Virgin. However, this does not appear to relate to the historical facts regarding the history of the rosary as we know them. Rather, it appears that the rosary came about through centuries of devotional evolution. For example, in the 13th century, Stephen of Salley (d.1252), another Cistercian of Yorkshire, suggested meditating on the joys of Mary. There are fifteen meditations grouped into three sections of five each. The first group spans the birth of Mary to the birth of Christ; the second to the Cross; and the third from the Passion to Mary's Assumption.
In fourteenth century England, the rosary (beads) were usually called paternosters. London, at this time, had a street called Paternoster Row, so-called because it housed the turners of wooden beads or paternosters. The will of Sir Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, in 1361, records that he left his nephew a string of fifty gold paternosters, with a golden cross reliquary containing a relic of the true cross. In 1362 students of Canterbury Hall of Oxford were required by a regulation in its statutes to say the Apostle's Creed for the benefit of the Hall's founder, whenever they recited the rosary (Fuerst 1942).
Probably in the last quarter of the 14th century the Dutch Carthusian, Henry van Egher (1328-1408), also known as Calkariensis, introduced the practice of beginning each meditation with the recitation of an Our Father. In the inventory of Charles V of France, in 1380, we find nineteen rosaries enumerated, and described as having a small cross made of coral or gold (Fuerst 1942).
In the first half of the fifteenth century a Prussian Carthusian, Dominic Rutenus (active 1414-1434) advocated meditating on the life of Jesus Christ while reciting the Hail Marys of the rosary.
A record at Eton College dated 1440 states that in the recitation of our Lady's Psalter the Hail Marys are divided into decades by the praying of the Our Father.
In the last half of the fifteenth century the spread of the rosary was prompted by the Dominican friar, Alanus de Rupe (d. 1475), and the German Dominican friar, Jacob Sprenger, Prior of the Convent of St. Dominic in Cologne. The rosary grew strong in Germany at this time as testified by the several books on the subject printed there. De Rupe published, On the Recitation of Mary's Psalter (c. 1470), which was translated into German and published at Augsburg, in 1492. He founded the first rosary confraternity in 1470 at Douai. In 1475 Sprenger formed the second lay confraternity devoted to the rosary. An anonymous German author wrote a book on the rosary describing the fifteen mysteries, based on the preaching of Alanus de Rupe, and Jacob Sprenger, called Our Loving Mother's Psalter, in 1489. Ulrich Pinder (d. 1519) published The Enclosed Garden of Mary's Rosary, at Nuremberg in 1505. Marcus von Weida (1450-1516), wrote on the Rosary Confraternity in, The Mirror of High Praise, published at Leipzig in 1515. Bernard of Luxembourg (d.1535), published, The Fifteen Mysteries of the Glorious Virgin Mary, at Cologne in 1517.
In 1495, Pope Alexander VI was the first pope to mention the rosary. Pope Leo X (1513-1521) in his papal bull Pastoris Aeterni, is the second pope to speak about the rosary. In that papal bull he laid the claim to St. Dominic as its originator, and stands as the primary source as the promoter of the legend.
After the battle of Lepanto, St. Francisco Borgia (1510-1572), added the rosary meditations to his Practice of Christian Works. In 1577, Peter Canisius (d.1597), wrote, De Maria Virgine Incomparabili, where in book three he discusses the Hail Mary and its use in the rosary.
The Jesuit, Johannes Leunis (1535-1584) established Marian Congregations in 1584 that were obligated to say the rosary daily. Upon his death, Gregory XIII made this congregation "Maria Annunciata" the principle one to be established in all colleges of the Jesuit Order