The Holy Rosary

[Marlane]

Who or how was the Holy Rosary invented?

 

[Luigi]

Tradition says that The Holy Mother presented it to St. Dominic. There are a lot of artistic depictions of that event from the Renaissance and afterward. http://catholicexchange.com/st-dominic-and-the-rosary

This article mentions another concept I've heard before, that the rosary is the uneducated lay person's version of the psalter.

 

Culturally, I've heard it said that they are a Christianized version of Arabic "worry beads."

Who knows the full story?

[Fr. Antony Maria OSB]

While there is a tradition that says that Mary presented the Rosary to St. Dominic when he was trying to convert the Albigensians, this is most likely not how the Rosary was invented. This telling of how the Rosary developed can be traced back to another Dominican named Alan de la Roche, who lived about 200 years after St. Dominic. At this time, saying that a saint had received a popular devotion from God or Mary was a common way of spreading that devotion.

Most likely, the Rosary developed over time. There was an ancient tradition among the first monks wherein if they could not recite all 150 Psalms in a day, they were allowed to pray 150 Our Fathers. To help keep track of how many Our Fathers they prayed, they made a string of beads which they called 'paternosters,' which is Latin for Our Father.

In the 12th century, devotion to Mary developed even more than it was before, and the Hail Mary prayer started to be formed. There was a great emphasis on Gabriel's greeting to Mary ("Hail, full of grace!"), because it was thought that this would help Mary relive the joy of the Annunciation.

Following the tradition of the paternosters, people started praying Chaplets of 50 Hail Marys, Groups of 100 Hail Marys, and Psalters of 150 Hail Marys.

The development of the Mysteries of the Rosary is a bit more complicated.

As I mentioned above, when devotion to Mary started increasing in the 12th century, there was an emphasis on Gabriel's greeting to Mary, and this led to the development of the Joyful Mysteries, which was the first set of Mysteries developed.

In the 14th century, devotion to Our Lady's Sorrows developed, and so a second set of Mysteries, the Sorrowful, developed. This left a third logical set of Mysteries to come into being, the heavenly joys of Mary.

At first, an entire psalter of Hail Mary’s was said.  The first chaplet (50 Hail Mary’s) was said while meditating on the joys of the Annunciation.  The second chaplet was dedicated to meditating on the sorrows of Mary (Sorrowful Mysteries), which then left the third chaplet to be dedicated to the heavenly joys of Mary (Glorious Mysteries). People would typically focus on one Mystery for a chaplet (for example, if we would meditate on the Mystery of the Annunciation while praying the entire Rosary today, instead of just the 1st decade).

In addition to the major Mysteries that were meditated on in each chaplet, there were also minor Mysteries that were meditated on each Hail Mary. You needed a booklet to pray the Rosary!

This situation was simplified by a booklet entitled Our Dear Lady’s Psalter, which was written by a Dominican in 1483. This lessened 150 mysteries down to 15, and all but the last two the same as we have today. The Assumption and Coronation of Mary were combined, and the Last Judgment was the final Mystery. However, the person praying this still meditated on one mystery for every chaplet.

The Dominican Alberto da Costello simplified this even further. In his book The Rosary of the Glorious Virgin Mary (1521), he gave each decade (1 Our Father and 10 Hail Mary’s) a Mystery to be meditated upon, but also kept the other 150 mysteries to be meditated on each Hail Mary as ‘submysteries.’

By the 16th century the version of the Rosary with 15 mysteries prevailed: our current Rosary (minus the Luminous Mysteries)!

Please let me know if there's something in what I wrote that doesn't make sense: I refurbished this post from a presentation I put together about the Rosary from a couple of years ago and was using my notes as the basis for this.

[Luigi]

Excellent - and interesting- information! 

Many thanks, Brother!