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Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary (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 Legion of Mary at St. Josephine Bakhita Parish.) 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 Angelus. 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. 1 | P a g e 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 Hail Mary. 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 monks would recite and chant the 150 Psalms 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 resurrection of Jesus Christ. They began to write a series of Psalters, or praises, in honour of Jesus for 2 | P a g e 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. Louis de Montfort 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, Pope 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, the power of the rosary 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 Virgin 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 France 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 Catholic faith. The influence of the Cathars was widespread and presented the greatest doctrinal challenges faced by the Catholic church at that time. 3 | P a g e Talk 1 - History of the Holy Rosary At that time of unrest made by the Cathars, a Spanish priest 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 Dominican Order of priests. 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 Trinity 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.
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