Talk 1 - History of the Holy

(Prepared and presented by Sr. Aurora Barinque at the Holy Rosary Retreat on October 13, 2013, St. Peter’s Mission Church, Ninth Line, Mississauga, Ontario. Aurora is member of the at St. Josephine Bakhita .)

Today will be a day of prayer, devotion, sharing and study. I know the word “study” brings to mind books and a busy mindset. But “study” in the spirit of a retreat will mean silence and listening, since we all came at Mother Mary’s call. I am here to talk to you about the history of the Rosary.

But before I start with my talk this morning, I’d like to ask, did anyone bring their rosary? (Pause)

I always have my rosary in my purse. For me it gives me a feeling of security and protection, knowing that everywhere I am Mother Mary is with me somehow. To some the rosary is a beautiful prayer, to others it is refuge prayer, and as you will hear from me today you will know the rosary is a powerful prayer. Aren’t those enough reasons to know how it originated, how it came about, how we are so blessed to call on Mother Mary through this beautiful, refuge and powerful prayer.

My parents raised us 7 children through a bakery business. I remember it being a very labour-intensive means of living, had to get up very early in the morning, bread had to rise! But it had blessings of its own too, which brings me to some childhood memories.

As a growing child I could recall Ignacio, an older man who would sell bread in his small barrio on a consignment basis with my father. He would take bread and pastries very early in the morning, distribute them and come back early evening to endorse his sales. But we knew Ignacio better for his stories, legends he call them. They were countless legends about rivers, trees, flowers, animals, mainly how they came about and why they are around. We believed him so much, we enjoyed his stories, we would be waiting for him most evenings, usually after the . In our terms now, I’d say we were mesmerized with Ignacio’s legend stories.

And much like that child-like interest, I hope I will be able to engage you for the next 45 minutes or so in the history of the rosary.

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Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary

I will divide my talk into several parts to make this presentation easy. Part I will be about the “Evolution of the Beads of Prayers”, or the rosary in other words. How did the beads of prayers evolve?

As we all know the rosary is composed principally and substantially of the Our Father and the . The Our Father is a prayer that Our Lord Jesus Christ taught himself and the Hail Mary is the angelic salutation. It is no doubt then that the Rosary is the first prayer and first devotion of the faithful and has been in use through the centuries from the apostles and the disciples down to the present.

Through the centuries the Dominicans, as initiated by St Dominic had a big role in the history of the Rosary, from the time of St Dominic to Blessed Alan. In the early times Irish would recite and chant the 150 of David as a major part of their worship. People living near the monasteries were drawn towards this beautiful and harmonious devotion and they became very eager to join in with the monks’ prayer.

But the people found it difficult to adapt to the psalms because they were hard to memorize. Imagine 150 of them! As a result, it was suggested to the people outside the monastery that they recite a series of 150 “Our Father’s” in place of the psalms.

As this form of devotion became popular, people started to devise methods in order to keep track of their prayers. At first, 150 little pebbles were placed inside small leather pouches to keep count. Later, a thin rope having 50 knots on it was used instead, being used 3X for a total of 150 prayers. Lastly the instrument of choice became the use of string with small pieces of wood.

In later years, the Irish monks traveled throughout Europe and brought this form of devotion with them. In some areas, both clergy and lay people began to recite the "Angelic Salutation" (the first part of what we now know as the "Hail Mary") as part of this devotion. The popularity of this prayer led to the adoption of 50 Angelic Salutations being said for each piece of wood or knot on the prayer string.

During the 13th century, Medieval theologians began to interpret the 150 psalms as mysteries about the life, death, and Christ. They began to write a series of Psalters, or praises, in honour of Jesus for

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Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary each interpretation of the psalms. In addition, 150 Psalters honouring Mary were also composed. In order to fit the existing prayer string, these Psalters were divided into groups of 50 and were referred to as "Rosariums". Although "rosarium" refers to roses and rose gardens, it was used to signify a collection of prayers which could be compared to a bouquet of roses.

The interpretation of the psalms into written Psalters led to the implementation of special thoughts or meditations being attached to each bead.

The prayers of the Rosarium were later broken out into sets of 10 and these groupings became known as decades. Each decade of ten "Hail Mary" prayers would be preceded by one "Our Father".

Around the year 1700, the thoughts used in the rosary started to become narratives. St. composed the most common set of narratives that eventually became used as meditations for each decade of the rosary. These narratives were divided into five Joyful, five Sorrowful, and five Glorious meditations that are referred to as "mysteries".

Just recently, in 2002, John Paul II introduced another set of five meditations referred to as the "Luminous Mysteries".

We now come to Part II and will see the emergence of St Dominic and his connection to the history of the Rosary. I will relate his experiences and most of all, in many events.

It was only in 1214 that the Church received the Rosary in its present form and according to the method we use today. It was given to St Dominic who received it from the Blessed as a powerful means of conversion against the Cathar heretics.

This sect of heretics known as Cathars or Albigensians took over a large province of southern called Languedoc and other neighbouring regions. One of the mainstream of the heresy was the challenge to the Incarnation, which is of course, core to our Roman faith. The influence of the Cathars was widespread and presented the greatest doctrinal challenges faced by the at that time.

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Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary

At that time of unrest made by the Cathars, a Spanish travelled into the heart of Cathar country to preach the true faith to these heretics in the person of Domingo Guzman, whom we now know as St Dominic, and later founded of .

At the start, St Dominic with six followers subjected themselves to the monastic rules of prayers and penance. The bishop of Fanjeaux, saw the good work began by St Dominic and his companions through their persuasive preaching. The bishop therefore gave them authority to preach throughout the territory of Toulouse.

It was St Dominic and his other fellow Dominicans who did the turning point on the resistance by the Cathars. But this was not made easy for St Dominic. He saw the gravity of the people’s sins at that time and the hindrance to the conversion of the Albigensians.

Knowing that the odds of preaching and conversion were great, St.Dominic withdrew into a forest near Toulouse where he prayed unceasingly for three days and three nights. At this time he wept and did harsh penances in order to appease the anger of God. He used his discipline so much that his body was lacerated and finally he fell into a coma.

It was at this point that Our Lady appeared to him, accompanied by three angels and told him that the weapon the Blessed wants him to use to reform the world was the Angelic Psalter. Our Lady told St Dominic that in order to reach out to these hardened souls and win them over to God, preach the Rosary.

St. Dominic arose from this coma and was very comforted. He was burning with zeal for the conversion of the people in that district and continued with his preaching, even at the Cathedral. He attracted a good number of people to listen to his preaching.

One time at the very beginning of his preaching as he said his sermon a storm broke out, the earth shook, the sun was darkened and there was so much thunder and lightning that all were afraid. Even greater was their fear when looking at a picture of Our Lady which was in a prominent place in the Cathedral, they saw her raise her arms to heaven three times to call down God’s vengeance upon them if they failed to be converted, to amend their lives and seek the protection of the Holy Mother of God. God wished to

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Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary spread the new devotion of the holy rosary and to make it more widely known.

At the prayer of St Dominic, the storm came to an end and he went on preaching. He fervently and compellingly explained the importance and value of the Holy Rosary.

In a very short time a great improvement was seen in the town. Most people of Toulouse embraced the holy rosary and started to renounce their false beliefs. People began leading Christian lives and gave up their former bad habits.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Crusaders met the Cathar army under Simon de Montfort in the battle of Muret. The heretics were routed and years later the Cathar heresy was finally extinguished. Many Catholics attribute its defeat as much to the zeal of the prayerful St. Dominic.

This was the start of further preaching by St. Dominic and he did this for the rest of his life, inspired by the Holy Spirit, instructed by the Blessed Virgin and by his own experience as well. He preached by his example and by his sermons, in cities and in country sites, to people of high and low profiles, to scholars and uneducated, to Catholics and heretics. In other words St Dominic’s preaching reached far and wide.

In preparation for any of his sermons St Dominic would say the rosary and then would say it again immediately after his sermon.

There was one instance when St Dominic had to preach at University of in Notre Dame on the feast St John the Evangelist. St Dominic was very anxious to give his brilliant sermon because of the intellectual stature of the congregation. An hour before it was time for him to preach he was in a little chapel behind the high altar saying his usual rosary before his sermon when he fell into an ecstasy and saw Our Lady coming towards him with a book in her hand saying that although all his sermons have been very good, she has brought a book with a sermon that Our Lady preferred.

When it was time for his sermon, he saw that the University of Paris was fully packed with a large number of noblemen. He went up the pulpit and began preaching. Although it was the feast of St John, he never mentioned

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Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary anything about St John except to say that he had been found worthy to be the guardian of the Queen of Heaven.

The congregation listening to him consisted of theologians and other eminent people who were used to his intellectual and polished sermons. But this time St Dominic told them that it was not his wish to give them a learned discourse. Rather he said he would like to speak in the simplicity and forcefulness of the Holy Spirit about the greatness of God. Then he started to explain the angelic salutation using simple comparisons and examples from everyday life.

This was just the start of numerous sermons of St Dominic. St Dominic exerted greater influence by his sermons and widely spread the devotion of the Rosary.

This led to the founding of the of the Rosary and we now come to Part III. The Confraternity of the Rosary was an association of lay Catholics, led by the Dominican priests, whose main mission was to lead the stories of the Blessed Virgin and promote the rosary. It gained fervour for about a century after the death of St Dominic, then people forgot and neglected their devotion.

Our Lady appeared to St Dominic on numerous occasions and narratives of these appearances have been made known to us through the writings of Blessed Alan de la Roche, one of the Dominican priests who carried on the works of the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary after the death of St Dominic.

Blessed Alan tells about a vision of Our Lady to St Dominic saying that if people really persevere, God, in His mercy would hardly refuse to give His grace. There was yet another request from Our Lady to St Dominic to preach her Rosary.

Blessed Alan says at another time that in a revelation from Our Lady to St Dominic, she said: Do not be surprised if your sermons fail to bear the results you had hoped for. When you give a sermon, urge people to say my Rosary and in this way your words will bear much fruit for souls.

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Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary

St Dominic spent the last years of his life organizing the order, travelling all over Italy, Spain, France and attracting new members and establishing new houses of Dominicans. He died in 1221.

In 1349 the whole of Europe suffered a terrible plague. It spread throughout Italy, , France, Poland, and Hungary. Big and little towns, villages and monasteries were almost deserted during the three years of plague. St Louis de Montfort cites the neglect of devotion to Christ and Our Lady as the reason for the disasters that befell Europe at that time.

Also called Black Death, when the plague was over, the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary regained foothold through the works of Blessed Alan, leading us now to Part IV.

Part IV will relate to the connection of the works of Blessed Alan as he continues the work of St Dominic. As previously said, the Confraternity of the Rosary was strong for about a century after the death of St Dominic. But after that people neglected their prayers and devotion. Blessed Alan’s first step was to revive the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary.

Early in the life of Blessed Alan he entered the Dominican Order while pursuing his studies at Jacques, Paris. During his sixteen years of teaching he became a most renowned preacher. He was tireless in what he regarded as his special mission, the preaching and re-establishment of the Rosary, which he did with success throughout northern France, , and the . The of the Rosary he founded still exist today and continue to accept new members.

Blessed Alan himself tells: One day when he was saying , Our Lord spoke to him in the Sacred Host: saying that if only Blessed Alan would preach His Mother’s Rosary he would lead many souls the right path.

St Dominic appeared to Blessed Alan as well and told him of the great results of his ministry by preaching the Rosary unceasingly.

With all the foundation works in prayer and devotion to the Rosary by St Dominic and Blessed Alan, the Rosary became a very significant devotion set forth by the Dominican community. The Confraternity of Rosary

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Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary regained its strength and the devotion to the Rosary was seen to be so powerful.

In 1566 became the first Dominican pope. He zealously promoted the Rosary, setting up the first official standard for its practice. He officially approved the five-decade Rosary and the 15 sacred mysteries.

Pope St Pius V used the Rosary to save Europe from the Turkish conquest. He formed a Holy League to fight the Turks. He called on all Christians to pray the Rosary for victory. The Confraternity of the Rosary filled the streets of Rome and other cities with processions of fervent believers, calling on to save Christendom. Their prayers were heard. The Holy League defeated the Turkish fleet in the .

In gratitude Pope Pius V gave a new title to the Virgin Mary – Our Lady of Victories. He set aside October 7 as her feast day to commemorate the victory at Lepanto which occurred on October 7,1571.

The successor to Pope Pius V, Pope Gregory XIII changed the name of the holiday to Feast of the Holy Rosary, to honour the decisive role of the Rosary in bringing victory at Lepanto.

By order of Pope John XXIII we have called this holiday the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary since 1960.

That pretty much is the history of the Rosary, but there is more to be said about the prayers of the Rosary. ______

The concluding portion, Part V , will give you a better insight to the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary.

The word Rosary means “Crown of Roses”, that is to say that every time people say the Rosary they place a crown of one hundred and fifty-three white roses and sixteen red roses upon the heads of Jesus and Mary.

Our Lady has shown her thorough approval of the name Rosary and revealed to several that each time they say a Hail Mary they are giving her a beautiful rose and that each complete Rosary makes her a crown of roses.

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Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary

The prayers of the Rosary, as we now say consists of the Apostles’ , the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory Be.

The Our Father, the Lord’s prayer has great value because of the author himself, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

With the Lord’s prayer we ask God for everything we need; we praise Him in the very best way; we lift up our souls from earth to heaven and unite them with God. We acknowledge not only His supremacy, but we profess our love for Him as we say “Thy will be done”.

At the very beginning of the Lord’s prayer we touch God’s heart. He is the dearest of fathers: all powerful in His creations, wonderful in the way He maintains the world, completely lovable in His Divine Providence, always good and infinitely so in the Redemption. We have God for our Father, so we are all brothers and heaven is our homeland and our heritage.

And now for the Hail Mary, Ave Maria! The value of the Hail Mary is due to Our Lady, to whom it was addressed; due to the purpose of the Incarnation of the Word; and also due to Archangel Gabriel who was the first ever to say it.

It consists of two parts: the first is a praise showing all that goes to make up Mary’s greatness. The latter part of praise was added by Saint Elizabeth who was inspired by the Holy Spirit on the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth.

The second part is a petition for all that we need to ask her for, and all that we may expect to receive through her goodness. Holy Mother Church gave us the second part when she defined that the Blessed Virgin is truly the Mother of God by saying: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death”.

The beauty of the Hail Mary: God is so pleased when we sing His praises. Archangel Gabriel’s greeting to Our Lady is one of the most beautiful hymns which we can possibly sing to the glory of the Most High, because this Angelic Salutation brought the following marvels: 1) God Father, because He so loved the world that He gave us His only Son as our Saviour

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Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary

2) God the Son left heaven and came down upon earth was made man and redeemed us 3) God the Holy Spirit is glorified because He formed Our Lord’s pure Body in Our Lady’s Womb, this Body which was the Victim of our sins.

Blessings of the Hail Mary: This heavenly salutation draws down upon us the blessings of Jesus and Mary in abundance, for Jesus and Mary reward in a marvellous way those who glorify them.

We give Our Lady the same honour that God gave her when He sent the Archangel Gabriel to greet her for Him.

Our Lady would never let us show her honour and respect without repaying us one hundred-fold, since she surpasses us all in the virtue of gratitude.

This ends my talk on the History of the Rosary. I hope you learned something out of it, and if any of what you heard today is something you already know, then I hope it was a refreshing “re-view” of the Rosary, the beads of Prayers, which is what our retreat today is all about. I think, us, Marian devotees, will never be tired of hearing about Mother Mary and her beloved devotion, the Rosary.

It is now that I hope you are mesmerized by the Rosary!!!!

I would like to invite all of you to please stand up as I lead you to the most beautiful and powerful prayer, the “Hail Mary”.

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