The Rosary

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In the Western Church

"The Rosary", says theRoman Breviary, "is a certain form ofprayer wherein we say fifteen decades or tens ofHail Marys with anOur Father between each ten, while at each of these fifteen decades we recall successively in pious meditation one of themysteries of ourRedemption." The same lesson for theFeast of the Holy Rosary informs us that when theAlbigensian heresy was devastating the country ofToulouse,St. Dominic earnestly besought the help ofOur Lady and was instructed by her, so tradition asserts, to preach the Rosary among the people as an antidote toheresy andsin. From that time forward this manner ofprayer was "most wonderfully published abroad and developed [promulgari augerique coepit] bySt. Dominic whom differentSupreme Pontiffs have in various past ages of theirapostolic letters declared to be the institutor and author of the samedevotion." That manypopes have so spoken is undoubtedlytrue, and amongst the rest we have a series ofencyclicals, beginning in 1883, issued byPope Leo XIII, which, while commending thisdevotion to thefaithful in the most earnest terms, assumes the institution of the Rosary bySt. Dominic to be a facthistorically established. Of the remarkable fruits of thisdevotion and of the extraordinary favours which have been granted to the world, as is piouslybelieved, through this means, something will be said under the headingsF andC. We will confine ourselves here to the controverted question of itshistory, a matter which both in the middle of the eighteenth century and again in recent years has attracted much attention.

Let us begin with certain facts which will not be contested. It is tolerably obvious that whenever anyprayer has to be repeated a large number of times recourse is likely to be had to some mechanical apparatus less troublesome than counting upon the fingers. In almost all countries, then, we meet with something in the nature of prayer-counters orrosary beads. Even in ancient Nineveh asculpture has been found thus described by Lavard in his "Monuments" (I, plate 7): "Two wingedfemales standing before the sacred tree in the attitude ofprayer; they lift the extended right hand and hold in the left a garland or rosary." However this may be, it is certain that among theMohammedans theTasbih or bead-string, consisting of 33, 66, or 99beads, and used for counting devotionally the names ofAllah, has been in use for many centuries. Marco Polo, visiting the King ofMalabar in the thirteenth century, found to his surprise that that monarch employed a rosary of 104 (? 108) precious stones to count hisprayers.St. Francis Xavier and his companions were equally astonished to see that rosaries were universally familiar to theBuddhists ofJapan. Among themonks of theGreek Church we hear of thekombologion, orkomboschoinion, a cord with a hundred knots used to countgenuflexions andsigns of the cross. Similarly, beside the mummy of aChristianascetic,Thaias, of the fourth century, recently disinterred atAntinöe inEgypt, was found a sort of cribbage-board with holes, which has generally been thought to be an apparatus for countingprayers, of whichPalladius and other ancient authorities have left us an account. A certainPaul the Hermit, in the fourth century, had imposed upon himself the task of repeating three hundredprayers, according to a set form, every day. To do this, he gathered up three hundred pebbles and threw one away as eachprayer was finished (Palladius,Hist. Laus., xx; Butler, II, 63). It is probable that otherascetics who also numbered theirprayers by hundreds adopted some similar expedient. (Cf. "Vita S. Godrici", cviii.) Indeed when we find apapalprivilege addressed to themonks ofSt. Apollinaris in Classe requiring them, in gratitude for thepope's benefactions, to sayKyrie eleison three hundred times twice a day (see theprivilege ofHadrian I, A.D. 782, in Jaffe-Löwenfeld, n. 2437), one would infer that some counting apparatus must almost necessarily have been used for the purpose.

But there were otherprayers to be counted more nearly connected with the Rosary thanKyrie eleisons. At an early date among themonastic orders the practice had established itself not only of offeringMasses, but of saying vocalprayers as a suffrage for their deceased brethren. For this purpose the private recitation of the 150psalms, or of 50psalms, the third part, was constantly enjoined. Already in A.D. 800 we learn from the compact betweenSt. Gall andReichenau ("Mon. Germ. Hist.: Confrat.", Piper, 140) that for each deceased brother all thepriests should say oneMass and also fiftypsalms. A charter in Kemble (Cod. Dipl., I, 290) prescribes that eachmonk is to sing two fifties (twa fiftig) for thesouls of certain benefactors, while eachpriest is to sing twoMasses and eachdeacon to read twoPassions. But as time went on, and theconversi, orlay brothers, most of them quite illiterate, became distinct from the choirmonks, it was felt that they also should be required to substitute some simple form ofprayer in place of thepsalms to which their moreeducated brethren were bound by rule. Thus we read in the "Ancient Customs of Cluny", collected by Udalrio in 1096, that when the death of any brother at a distance was announced, everypriest was to offerMass, and every non-priest was either to say fiftypsalms or to repeat fifty times thePaternoster ("quicunque sacerdos est cantet missam pro eo, et qui non est sacerdos quinquaginta psalmos aut toties orationem dominicam", P.L., CXLIX, 776). Similarly among theKnights Templar, whose rule dates from about 1128, theknights who could not attend choir were required to say theLord's Prayer 57 times in all and on the death of any of the brethren they had to say thePater Noster a hundred times a day for a week.

To count these accurately there is every reason tobelieve that already in the eleventh and twelfth centuries a practice had come in of using pebbles, berries, or discs of bone threaded on a string. It is in any case certain that the Countess Godiva of Coventry (c. 1075) left by will to the statue ofOur Lady in a certainmonastery "the circlet of precious stones which she had threaded on a cord in order that by fingering them one after another she might count herprayers exactly" (Malmesbury, "Gesta Pont.", Rolls Series 311). Another example seems to occur in the case ofSt. Rosalia (A.D. 1160), in whosetomb similar strings ofbeads were discovered. Even more important is the fact that such strings ofbeads were known throughout theMiddle Ages — and in someContinental tongues are known to this day — as "Paternosters". The evidence for this is overwhelming and comes from every part ofEurope. Already in the thirteenth century the manufacturers of these articles, who were known as "paternosterers", almost everywhere formed a recognizedcraft guild of considerable importance. The "Livre des métiers" of Stephen Boyleau, for example, supplies full information regarding the fourguilds ofpatenôtriers inParis in the year 1268, while Paternoster Row inLondon still preserves the memory of the street in which theirEnglish craft-fellows congregated. Now the obvious inference is that an appliance which was persistently called a "Paternoster", or inLatinfila de paternoster, numeralia de paternoster, and so on, had, at least originally, been designed for countingOur Fathers. This inference, drawn out and illustrated with much learning by Father T. Esser, O.P., in 1897, becomes a practical certainty when we remember that it was only in the middle of the twelfth century that theHail Mary came at all generally into use as a formula ofdevotion. It is morally impossible that Lady Godiva's circlet of jewels could have been intended to countAve Marias. Hence there can be no doubt that the strings ofprayerbeads were called "paternosters" because for a long time they were principally employed to number repetitions of theLord's Prayer.

When, however, theHail Mary came into use, it appears that from the first theconsciousness that it was in its own nature a salutation rather than aprayer induced a fashion of repeating it many times in succession, accompanied bygenuflexions or some other externalact of reverence. Just as happens nowadays in the firing of salutes, or in the applause given to a public performer, or in the rounds of cheers evoked among school-boys by an arrival or departure, so also then thehonour paid by such salutations was measured by numbers and continuance. Further, since the recitation of thePsalms divided into fifties was, as innumerable documents attest, the favourite form ofdevotion for religious and learned persons, so those who were simple or much occupiedloved, by the repetition of fifty, a hundred, or a hundred and fifty were salutations ofOur Lady, to feel that they were imitating the practice ofGod's more exaltedservants. In any case it is certain that in the course of the twelfth century and before the birth ofSt. Dominic, the practice of reciting 50 or 150Ave Marias had become generally familiar. The most conclusive evidence of this is furnished by the "Mary-legends", or stories ofOur Lady, which obtained wide circulation at this epoch. The story of Eulalia, in particular, according to which a client of theBlessed Virgin who had been wont to say a hundred and fiftyAves was bidden by her to say only fifty, but more slowly, has been shown by Mussafia (Marien-legenden, Pts I, ii) to be unquestionably of early date. Not less conclusive is the account given of St. Albert (d. 1140) by his contemporary biographer, who tells us: "A hundred times a day hebent his knees, and fifty times he prostrated himself raising his body again by his fingers and toes, while he repeated at everygenuflexion: 'Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou amongstwomen and blessed is the fruit of thy womb'." This was the whole of theHail Mary as then said, and the fact of all the words being set down rather implies that the formula had not yet become universally familiar. Not less remarkable is the account of a similardevotional exercise occurring in the Corpus Christimanuscripts of theAncren Riwle. This text, declared by Kölbing to have been written in the middle of the twelfth century (Englische Studien, 1885, P. 116), can in any case be hardly later than 1200. The passage in question gives directions how fiftyAves are to be said divided into sets of ten, with prostrations and other marks of reverence. (See The Month, July, 1903.) When we find such an exercise recommended to a little group ofanchorites in a corner ofEngland, twenty years before anyDominican foundation was made in this country, it seems difficult to resist the conclusion that the custom of reciting fifty or a hundred and fiftyAves had grown familiar, independently of, and earlier than, the preaching ofSt. Dominic. On the other hand, the practice of meditating on certain definitemysteries, which has been rightly described as the very essence of the Rosarydevotion, seems to have only arisen long after the date ofSt. Dominic's death. It is difficult to prove a negative, but Father T. Esser, O.P., has shown (in the periodical "Der Katholik", of Mainz, Oct., Nov., Dec., 1897) that the introduction of this meditation during the recitation of theAves was rightly attributed to a certainCarthusian,Dominic the Prussian. It is in any case certain that at the close of the fifteenth century the utmost possible variety of methods of meditating prevailed, and that the fifteenmysteries now generally accepted were not uniformly adhered to even by theDominicans themselves. (See Schmitz, "Rosenkranzgebet", p. 74; Esser in "Der Katholik for 1904-6.) To sum up, we have positive evidence that both the invention of thebeads as a counting apparatus and also the practice of repeating a hundred and fiftyAves cannot be due toSt. Dominic, because they are both notably older than his time. Further, we are assured that the meditating upon themysteries was not introduced until two hundred years after his death. What then, we are compelled to ask, is there left of whichSt. Dominic may be called the author?

These positive reasons for distrusting the current tradition might in a measure be ignored asarchaeological refinements, if there were any satisfactory evidence to show thatSt. Dominic had identified himself with the pre-existing Rosary and become its apostle. But here we are met with absolute silence. Of the eight or nine early Lives of thesaint, not one makes the faintest allusion to the Rosary. The witnesses who gave evidence in the cause of hiscanonization are equally reticent. In the great collection of documents accumulated by Fathers Balme and Lelaidier, O.P., in their "Cartulaire de St. Dominique" the question is studiously ignored. The early constitutions of the different provinces of the order have been examined, and many of them printed, but no one has found any reference to thisdevotion. We possess hundreds, even thousands, ofmanuscripts containing devotional treatises, sermons, chronicles, Saints' lives, etc., written by theFriars Preachers between 1220 and 1450; but no single verifiable passage has yet been produced which speaks of the Rosary as instituted bySt. Dominic or which even makes much of thedevotion as one specially dear to his children. The charters and other deeds of theDominicanconvents for men andwomen, as M. Jean Guiraud points out with emphasis in his edition of the Cartulaire of La Prouille (I, cccxxviii), are equally silent. Neither do we find any suggestion of a connection betweenSt. Dominic and the Rosary in thepaintings andsculptures of these two and a half centuries. Even thetomb ofSt. Dominic at Bologna and the numberless frescoes byFra Angelico representing the brethren of his order ignore the Rosary completely.

Impressed by this conspiracy of silence, theBollandists, on trying to trace to its source the origin of the current tradition, found that all the clues converged upon one point, the preaching of theDominicanAlan de Rupe about the years 1470-75. He it undoubtedly was who first suggested theidea that thedevotion of "Our Lady's Psalter" (a hundred and fiftyHail Marys) was instituted or revived bySt. Dominic.Alan was a very earnest and devoutman, but, as the highest authorities admit, he was full of delusions, and based his revelations on the imaginary testimony of writers that never existed (see Quétif andEchard, "Scriptores O.P.", 1, 849). His preaching, however, was attended with much success. TheRosary Confraternities, organized by him and his colleagues atDouai,Cologne, and elsewhere had great vogue, and led to the printing of many books, all more or less impregnated with theideas ofAlan.Indulgences were granted for thegood work that was thus being done and the documents conceding theseindulgences accepted and repeated, as was natural in that uncritical age, thehistorical data which had been inspired byAlan's writings and which were submitted according to the usual practice by the promoters of theconfraternities themselves. It was in this way that the tradition ofDominican authorship grew up. The firstBulls speak of this authorship with some reserve: "Prout in historiis legitur" saysLeo X in the earliest of all. "Pastoris aeterni" 1520; but many of the laterpopes were less guarded.

Two considerations strongly support the view of the Rosary tradition just expounded. The first is the gradual surrender of almost every notable piece that has at one time or another been relied upon to vindicate the supposed claims ofSt. Dominic.Touron andAlban Butler appealed to the Memoirs of a certain Luminosi de Aposa who professed to have heardSt. Dominic preach at Bologna, but these Memoirs have long ago been proved to be aforgery. Danzas, Von Löe and others attached much importance to a fresco at Muret; but the fresco is not now in existence, and there is good reason forbelieving that the rosary once seen in that fresco was painted in at a later date ("The Month" Feb. 1901, p. 179).Mamachi, Esser, Walsh, and Von Löe and others quote some alleged contemporary verses aboutDominic in connection with a crown of roses; the originalmanuscript has disappeared, and it is certain that the writers named have printedDominicus where Benoist, the only person who has seen themanuscript, readDominus. The famous will of Anthony Sers, which professed to leave a bequest to theConfraternity of the Rosary atPalencia in 1221, was put forward as a conclusive piece of testimony byMamachi; but it is now admitted byDominican authorities to be aforgery ("The Irish Rosary, Jan., 1901, p. 92). Similarly, a supposed reference to the subject byThomas à Kempis in the "Chronicle of Mount St. Agnes" is a pure blunder ("The Month", Feb., 1901, p. 187). With this may be noted the change in tone observable of late in authoritative works of reference. In the "Kirchliches Handlexikon" ofMunich and in the last edition ofHerder's "Konversationslexikon" no attempt is made to defend the tradition which connectsSt. Dominic personally with the origin of the Rosary. Another consideration which cannot be developed is the multitude of conflicting legends concerning the origin of thisdevotion of "Our Lady's Psalter" which prevailed down to the end of the fifteenth century, as well as the early diversity of practice in the manner of its recitation. These facts agree ill with the supposition that it took its rise in a definiterevelation and was jealously watched over from the beginning by one of the most learned and influential of the religious orders. No doubt can exist that the immense diffusion of the Rosary and itsconfraternities in modern times and the vast influence it has exercised forgood are mainly due to the labours and theprayers of the sons ofSt. Dominic, but thehistorical evidence serves plainly to show that their interest in the subject was only awakened in the last years of the fifteenth century.

That the Rosary is pre-eminently theprayer of the people adapted alike for the use of simple and learned is proved not only by the long series ofpapal utterances by which it has been commended to thefaithful but by the daily experience of all who are familiar with it. The objection so often made against its "vain repetitions" is felt by none but those who have failed to realize how entirely the spirit of the exercise lies in the meditation upon the fundamentalmysteries of ourfaith. To the initiated the words of theangelical salutation form only a sort of half-conscious accompaniment, a bourdon which we may liken to the "Holy, Holy, Holy" of theheavenly choirs and surely not in itself meaningless. Neither can it be necessary to urge that the freest criticism of thehistorical origin of thedevotion, which involves no point ofdoctrine, is compatible with a full appreciation of thedevotional treasures which this pious exercise brings within the reach of all.

As regards the origin of the name, the wordrosarius means a garland or bouquet of roses, and it was not unfrequently used in a figurative sense — e.g. as the title of a book, to denote an anthology or collection of extracts. An early legend which after travelling all overEurope penetrated even toAbyssinia connected this name with a story ofOur Lady, who was seen to take rosebuds from the lips of a youngmonk when he was recitingHail Marys and to weave them into a garland which she placed upon her head. AGerman metrical version of this story is still extant dating from the thirteenth century. The name "Our Lady's Psalter" can also be traced back to the same period.Corona orchaplet suggests the sameidea asrosarium. The oldEnglish name found inChaucer and elsewhere was a "pair ofbeads", in which the wordbead originally meantprayers.

In the Greek Church, Catholic and schismatic

The custom of recitingprayers upon a string with knots orbeads thereon at regular intervals has come down from the early days ofChristianity, and is still practised in theEastern as well as in theWestern Church. It seems to have originated among the earlymonks andhermits who used a piece of heavy cord with knots tied at intervals upon which they recited their shorterprayers. This form of rosary is still used among themonks in the variousGreek Churches, althougharchimandrites andbishops use a very ornamental form of rosary with costlybeads. The rosary is conferred upon theGreek monk as a part of his investiture with themandyas or fullmonastic habit, as the second step in themonastic life, and is called his "spiritual sword". ThisOriental form of rosary is known in theHellenic Greek Church askombologion (chaplet), orkomboschoinion (string of knots orbeads), in theRussian Church asvervitza (string),chotki (chaplet), orliestovka (ladder), and in theRumanian Church asmatanie (reverence). The first use of the rosary in any general way was among themonks of theOrient. Our everyday name of"beads" for it is simply the Old Saxon wordbede (aprayer) which has been transferred to the instrument used in reciting theprayer, while the wordrosary is an equally modern term. The intercourse of the Western peoples of theLatin Rite with those of theEastern Rite at the beginning of theCrusades caused the practice of sayingprayers upon knots orbeads to become widely diffused among themonastic houses of theLatin Church, although the practice had been observed in some instances before that date. On the other hand, the recitation of the Rosary, as practised in theWest, has not become general in theEastern Churches; there it has still retained its original form as amonasticexercise of devotion, and is but little known or used among thelaity, while even thesecular clergy seldom use it in theirdevotions.Bishops, however, retain the rosary, as indicating that they have risen from themonastic state, even though they are in the world governing theirdioceses.

The rosary used in the presentGreek Orthodox Church — whether inRussia or in theEast — is quite different in form from that used in theLatin Church. The use of the prayer-knots orprayer-beads originated from the fact thatmonks, according to therule of St. Basil, the onlymonastic rule known to theGreek Rite, were enjoined by their founder topray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17;Luke 1), and as most of the earlymonks werelaymen, engaged often in various forms of work and in many cases without sufficienteducation to read the prescribedlessons,psalms, andprayers of thedaily office, the rosary was used by them as a means of continually reciting theirprayers. At the beginning and at the end of eachprayer said by themonk upon each knot orbead he makes the "great reverence" (he megale metanoia), bending down to the ground, so that the recitation of the rosary is often known as ametania. The rosary used among theGreeks ofGreece,Turkey, and theEast usually consists of one hundredbeads without any distinction of great or little ones, while the Old Slavic, orRussian, rosary, generally consists of 103beads, separated in irregular sections by four largebeads, so that the first largebead is followed by 17 small ones, the second largebead by 33 small ones, the third by 40 small ones, and the fourth by 12 small ones, with an additional one added at the end. The two ends of aRussian rosary are often bound together for a short distance, so that the lines ofbeads run parallel (hence the nameladder used for the rosary), and they finish with a three-cornered ornament often adorned with a tassel or other finial, corresponding to thecross ormedal used in aLatin rosary.

The use of theGreek rosary is prescribed in Rule 87 of the "Nomocanon", which reads: "The rosary should have one hundred [theRussian rule says 103]beads; and upon eachbead the prescribedprayer should be recited." The usual form of thisprayer prescribed for the rosary runs as follows: "OLord Jesus Christ,Son andWord of theliving God, through theintercessions of thyimmaculate Mother [tes panachrantou sou Metros] and of all thySaints, have mercy andsave us. If, however, the rosary be said as apenitential exercise, theprayer then is: OLord Jesus Christ,Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. TheRussian rosary is divided by the four largebeads so as to represent the different parts of thecanonical Office which the recitation of the rosary replaces, while the four largebeads themselves represent the fourEvangelists. In themonasteries ofMount Athos, where the severest rule is observed, from eighty to a hundred rosaries are said daily by eachmonk. InRussianmonasteries the rosary is usually said five times a day, while in the recitation of it the "great reverences" are reduced to ten, the remainder being simply sixty "little reverences" (bowing of the head no further than the waist) and sixty recitations of thepenitential form of the prescribedprayer.

Among theGreek Uniats rosary is but little used by thelaity. TheBasilian monks make use of it in theEastern style just described and in many cases use it in theRoman fashion in somemonasteries. The more active life prescribed for them in following the example ofLatin monks leaves less time for the recitation of the rosary according to theEastern form, whilst the reading and recitation of theOffice during thecanonical Hours fulfils the originalmonasticobligation and so does not require the rosary. Latterly theMelchites and theItalo-Greeks have in many places adopted among theirlaity a form of to the one used among thelaity of theRoman Rite, but its use is far from general. TheRuthenian andRumanian GreekCatholics do not use it among thelaity, but reserve it chiefly for themonastic clergy, although lately in some parts of Galicia its lay use has been occasionally introduced and is regarded as a latinizing practice. It may be said that among theGreeks in general the use of the rosary is regarded as a religious exercise peculiar to themonastic life; and wherever amongGreek Uniats its lay use has been introduced, it is an imitation of theRoman practice. On this account it has never been popularized among thelaity of the peoples, who remain strongly attached to their venerableEastern Rite.

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