The Origin of the Rosary

The rosary is a powerful prayer and one of the most potent weapons of the Catholic faith against heresy and error. Sadly, though many Catholics are devoted to the rosary and its daily recitation, few know about it’s beautiful history and origin. As such, I thought it would be a valuable lenten exercise to learn a little about the history of this prayer and share it. What follows is a very brief and concise history.

From the early ages of the Church, the 150 psalms were recited by its laity. Monks would recite all 150 of these either daily or weekly and, as these are the Davidic psalms, this is knows as Psalter of David. Those who could not read, or did not have a copy of the scriptures to read were unable to join in these prayers and would substitute either 150 Paters or Aves instead.

By the 11th century, Christians, out of love for Our Lady, were starting to compose Rosariums in her honor. The word Rosarium means “a garden of roses” in Latin. These were psalms composed to praise Mary, and each was offered as a spiritual rose to Our Lady. From what I can tell, there was not a consistent set of these, many composed their own. In the 13th century, St. Bonaventure divided his 150 Marian Psalms into three groups of 50. These Rosaries took the name Our Lady’s Psalter.

What is commonly known is that the Rosary, in its current form, was spread by St. Dominic through his order, the Dominicans. In the 13th century, Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic referring to the Angelic Psalter as the battering ram to be used in the kind of warfare currently hampering the Church. St. Dominic was fighting the Albigensian heresy, and had spent three days imploring heaven for help in converting those spreading its error. St. Gabriel’s greeting to Our Lady in the first chapter of Luke is known as the Angelic Salutation, the prayers we currently know as simply the Hail Mary.

Though there does not seem to be a detailed account of the institution of the current form of Rosary by St. Dominic,  it is widely traced to the Dominican order, and thus St. Dominic himself.

Throughout the centuries the Popes often referred to the Rosary as the Psalter of Mary. Commonly, the Psalter of Mary was known as the entire 150 prayers, while the word Rosary was applied to a section of the prayer. St. Pius V in his Consueverunt Romani in 1569, in response to the current immorality facing the Church, wrote:

the inspired Blessed found of the Order of Friars Preachers in circumstances similar to those in which we now find ourselves… raised his eyes up unto heaven, unto that mountain of the Glorious Virgin Mary, loving Mother of God…

And so Dominic looked to that simple way of praying and beseeching God, accessible to all and wholly pious, which is called the Rosary, or Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which the same most Blessed Virgin is venerated by the angelic greeting repeated one hundred and fifty times, that is, according to the number of the Davidic Psalter…

Interposed with these prayers are certain meditations showing forth the entire life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, thus completing the method of prayer devised by the Fathers of the Holy Roman Church.

(Read Consueverunt Romani in its entirety here)

This was written just before the battle of Lepanto in 1571, in which the Christian armada, led by Don Juan of Austria, defeated the Muslim forces in a decisive naval victory, obtained by the intercession of Our Lady through the power of the Rosary.

What is also interesting about this words of St. Pius V in his encyclical is his reference to the meditative part of the Rosary. I have often heard the discussion around me of whether one should concentrate on the mystery or the actual words of the Hail Mary. Separately from the human difficulties of concentrating on a single prayer 50 times when saying a third of the Rosary, it is obvious that the meditative aspect of the Rosary is what makes it a complete prayer.

Also of note is the strong importance of the number of Hail Mary’s in the Rosary – 150. This is why it is referred to as a Psalter and why it was prayed originally. This is also why the inclusion of the Luminous mysteries pose such a problem. With another set of mysteries comes another 50 Hail Mary’s, bringing the total to 200. This is no long a Psalter at all. In addition, it makes the request of Our Lady of Fatima (to pray a third of the Rosary every day) very difficult. One third of 150 is the common 5 mysteries accompanied by 10 Hail Mary’s whereas one third of 200 is a very uneven number.

The Rosary is truly a gift from heaven. Knowing its origin and some of its history should give us all a much deeper appreciation for it, and should help us all to cherish it and unite our thoughts and prayers with Christians from the past who simply wished to give Our Lady a spiritual rose.

Some of the resources I came across while reading and were used in writing this post: