The Holy Rosary: History and Trivia

October is The Holy Rosary month. In celebration of this, I'm now posting the history of the Holy Rosary and give some more trivia about it. So if you have a school assignment or homework about the history of the Holy Rosary, then I hope this article can help.

The Holy Rosary is one of the most popular lay devotions for Roman Catholics worldwide. Its formal name is the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Church historians call it the Dominican Rosary, the Marian Rosary, and the Vita Christi or Life of Christ Rosary, to distinguish it from other Roman Catholic bead-prayers (devotions that use beads to keep count).

The Holy Rosary is closely associated with Saint Dominic de Guzmán (1170-1221 A.D.). He is a Spaniard who founded of the Order of Preachers, or better known as the Dominicans. From the 15th century onwards, the Dominicans were the foremost promoters of the Rosary. Recent scholarship suggests, however, that the first groups to combine the repetition of the Hail Mary with the contemplation of Mysteries were other religious orders in Prussia around 1300 A.D. Over the next 250 years the devotion to the Holy Rosary spread across Europe. It reached the laity via voluntary confraternities and rosary picture-books.

There were numerous competing versions, advocating as few as five Mysteries and as many as 200. In 1569, St. Pope Pius V, issued an apostolic letter establishing the fifteen-Mystery form of the Holy Rosary as the official, Church-authorized version.

This format was used in next four centuries. In the year 2002, Pope John Paul II published an apostolic letter that added five more Mysteries, making a total of twenty authorized Mysteries.

The Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7. This commemorates the day in 1571 when Christian forces defeated the Turkish (Moslem) fleet in a sea battle at Lepanto, off the western coast of Greece. St. Pope Pius V had asked all Christians to pray the Rosary for victory.

Rosary means a crown of roses, a spiritual bouquet given to the Blessed Mother. It is sometimes called the Dominican Rosary, to distinguish it from other rosary-like prayers (e.g. Franciscan Rosary of the Seven Joys, Servite Rosary of the Seven Sorrows). It is also, in a general sense, a form of chaplet or corona (also referring to a crown), of which there are many varieties in the Church. Finally, in English it has been called "Our Lady's Psalter" or "the beads." This last derives from an Old English word for prayers (bede) and to request (biddan or bid).

The mysteries of the Holy Rosary

Joyful Mysteries
1. The Annunciation
2. The Visitation
3. The Nativity
4. The Presentation
5. The Lost and Finding at the Temple

Mysteries of the Light
1. The Baptism at Jordan
2. The Marriage at Cana
3. The Proclamation of the Kingdom
4. The Transfiguration
5. The Institution of the Eucharist

Sorrowful Mysteries
1. The Agony in the Garden
2. The Scourging at the Pillar
3. The Crowning with Thorns
4. The Carrying of the Cross
5. The Crucifixion

Glorious Mysteries
1. The Resurrection
2. The Ascension
3. The Descent of the Holy Spirit
4. The Assumption
5. The Coronation of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven and Earth

I hope you learned something today about The Holy Rosary. As they say, the family that prays together, stays together.



If you want more information about October as the Holy Rosary month, I suggest that you look for it on the internet.