Alanus de Rupe

was instrumental in disseminating the throughout Europe. St. Alanus published nothing during his lifetime, but im- mediately after his death the brethren of his province were commanded to collect his writings for publication. These were edited at different times and have occasioned some controversy among scholars.[1] A list of writings at- tributed to Alanus was compiled by J. G. T. Graesse in Trésor des livres rares et précieux (1859).[2]

2 Alanus on and the Rosary

According to age-old Dominican tradition, during the time of the Albigensians in southern France in the lat- ter part of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th cen- turies, St. Dominic was distressed at his lack of success in his preaching in countering their teachings, and turned to the Mother of God for help. She reportedly appeared to him and told him to use her Psalter in conjunction with his preaching, as an instrument in combatting the great Woodblock in the Alanus Psalter, 1492 heresy of his day.[3] The Marian Psalter, (a custom of praying 150 “Aves” rather than Psalms) developed into Alanus de Rupe (also Alan, Alain de la Roche, Blessed the Rosary. Alan or Blessed Alain de la Roche); (c. 1428 – 8 September 1475) was a Roman Catholic theologian noted The tradition of Alanus de Rupe’s revelation concerning for his views on prayer. Some writers claim him as a St. Dominic receiving the Rosary was generally accepted native of Germany, others of Belgium; but his disciple, until the 17th century when the Bollandists concluded Cornelius Sneek, assures us that he was born in Brittany. that the account of Dominic’s supposed apparition of Our He died at . Lady of the Rosary is not mentioned in any documents of the Church or prior to the writings of Blessed Alanus over two hundred years later. Duffner argues that the lack of documentation is not determina- 1 Life tive, as records that may have been available to Alanus de Rupe could have been destroyed in the intervening three A native of Dinan, Brittany, early in life he entered the hundred years.[3] Dominican Order, and while pursuing his studies at Saint Jacques, Paris, he distinguished himself in philosophy Alanus’ descriptions of the visions and sermons of and theology. From 1459 to 1475 he taught almost un- Dominic, supposed to have been revealed to him in 1460, interruptedly at Paris, Lille, Douay, Ghent, and Rostock are, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, not to be re- in Germany, where, in 1473, he was made Master of Sa- garded as historical. Some of Alanus’ more colorful ac- cred Theology. During his sixteen years of teaching he counts have been attributed to oratorical imaginings de- became a most renowned preacher. He was indefatigable signed to enliven sermons. While granting that Alanus de in what he regarded as his special mission, the preach- Rupe was a pious and learned person, Herbert Thurston held that his visions were those of an individual “deluded” ing and re-establishment of the Rosary, which he did [4] with success throughout northern France, Flanders, and and “a victim of the most astounding hallucinations”. the Netherlands.[1] He established a Confraternity of the According to Alanus, the Blessed Virgin Mary reportedly Psalter of the Glorious Virgin Mary, around 1470 which made fifteen specific promises to Christians who pray the

1 2 6 EXTERNAL LINKS rosary.[5] The fifteen rosary promises range from protec- tion from misfortune to meriting a high degree of glory in heaven. A commonly printed pamphlet of the promises carries the imprimatur of Patrick J. Hayes DD who was Archbishop of New York from 1919 to 1938. The pamphlet may pos- sibly be an excerpt from an earlier work carrying Hayes’ imprimatur.[6] Such an imprimatur would have been is- sued following the issuance of a “nihil obstat” (meaning nothing obstructs) by a censor who reviewed the mate- rial to determine if it contradicted Catholic teaching. Un- der the rules of Canon Law, neither a “nihil obstat” nor an “imprimatur” would necessarily reflect the personal opinion of either the censor or the archbishop regarding the document reviewed. It was Hayes’ predecessor, John Cardinal Farley, who issued an imprimatur for the edi- tion of the Catholic Encyclopedia that holds the rosary promises as not historical.[6]

3 See also

• Rosary devotions and spirituality

4 Notes

[1] McNicholas, John. “Alanus de Rupe.” The Catholic En- cyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Com- pany, 1907. 2 Aug. 2014

[2] Graesse, J.G.T., Trésor des livres rares et précieux, Volume 6, pt. 1, pg 193, 1859.

[3] Duffner O.P., Paul A., “In Defense of a Tradition”

[4] Thurston, Herbert. “Alan de Rupe and his Indulgence”, The Month, Vol. 100, p.284, Longmans, Green and Co., London 1902

[5] Rosary Center, Dominican Fathers

[6] Akin, Jimmy. “Are the 15 Rosary Promises Reliable?", National Catholic Register, October 14, 2010

5 Further reading

• Winston-Allen, Anne. Stories of the Rose

6 External links

• De dignitate et utilitate psalterii praecelsae ac in- temeratae semper virginis Mariae http://www.ub. uni-kiel.de/digiport/bis1800/typboliste.html • Quodlibet de veritate fraternitatis rosarii seu psalterii beatae Mariae Virginis. 3

7 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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