History Of The Rosary

History Of The Rosary. . , For centuries long before Christ, the faithful said prayers in a repetitive manner. They found different methods of keeping count of their prayers, often by using rocks or pebbles., Third-century Christian hermits and monks in Egypt (known as The Desert Fathers) used stones and later prayer ropes to keep track when praying the 150 Psalms., Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) popularized an early version of the Hail Mary prayer by asking it to be prayed on the fourth Sunday of Advent. After that, many individuals began praying the Hail Mary in a repetitive fashion using a string of beads to keep track of the prayers., By the beginning of the ninth century, monks were reciting all 150 Psalms as part of their daily devotions. Often times in monasteries the monks would read or recite Gabriel's words, "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28) at the end of each Psalm, showing how the Psalms found fulfillment in the New Testament with the coming of Christ through the Virgin Mary. To keep track of their prayers monks would count out 150 pebbles and then would place one pebble in a container or pouch after each Psalm was said. People living near the monks wanted to mimic the monk's devotion of the Psalter (the recitation of all 150 Psalms from the Bible) and by the medieval period, there was a desire to give the laity a form of common prayer similar to that of the monasteries (monks), Most people couldn't read or write at this time, therefore it wasn't possible for them to memorize all the Psalms, So the monks taught Christians to pray Our Father's (referred to as Paternoster, Latin for Our Father) or Hail Mary's (referred to as Ave Maria, Latin for Hail Mary) in place of the Psalms, They were to pray 50 or 150 of these prayers every day or at least weekly. This devotion came to be known as "the poor man's breviary. In order to keep count of their prayers, the people often used string with knots in it instead of counting rocks. Later the knots gave way to small pieces of wood and eventually to the use of beads., In 1365 the structure of the rosary continued to evolve as monk Henry of Kalkar, divided the 150 prayers into 15 groups of 10 Hail Mary prayers each (a decade). He placed an Our Father between each group of the ten Hail Mary's; this prayer form was thus made up of 10 Hail Mary's (in place of the Psalms), repeated 15 times with an Our Father in between each set of prayers., In the early fifteenth century with continued development in monastic prayer, monks began contemplating Christ's life while reciting the Psalms (or the Our Father's and Hail Mary's for the common people). Some monasteries began associating each Psalm with an aspect of Jesus's life at the end of the Psalm, and the monks would recite a phrase relating that Psalm to the life of Jesus or Mary., Between 1410 and 1439, the mysteries of the rosary were introduced by Dominic, a Prussian monk. Taken together, these phrases formed a brief story of the life of Christ and His mother., Since 50 points of reflection typically could not be recalled without a book, the devotion was simplified by a Dominican priest in 1480. He retained the pattern of the decades but reduced the meditation points to 15 episodes (which became known as the Mysteries) in the life and work of Jesus and Mary. Rather than meditating on a different event of Christ or Mary's life for each of the individual 50 or 150 prayers that were said, people could now meditate more deeply on a specific mystery over the time it took to recite 10 Hail Mary's or Our Father's devoutly; they would then be focusing on the heart of the Mystery itself., In 1569, Saint Pope Pius V officially approved the rosary in this form: 15 decades of Hail Mary's introduced by the Our Father and concluded with the Glory Be. He established the devotion to the rosary in the Catholic Church., The rosary gained great popularity in the 1500s, when Muslim (Moslem) Turks were ravaging Eastern Europe, With Muslims raiding the coast of Italy, the control of the Mediterranean was at stake, therefore Christianity itself was at stake., In 1571, under the threat of Muslim attack, Saint Pope Pius V organized a fleet under the command of Don Juan of Austria, While preparations were underway, the Holy Father (Pope) asked all of the faithful to say the rosary and implore our Blessed Mother's prayers, under the title "Our Lady of Victory," that our Lord would grant victory to the Christians, With the Muslim fleet greatly outnumbering that of the Christians in both vessels and sailors, the forces were ready to meet in battle. The Christian flagship flew a blue banner depicting Christ crucified. On October 7, 1571, the Muslims were defeated at the Battle of Lepanto. The following year, Saint Pope Pius V established the Feast of the Holy Rosary on October 7, 1572, where the faithful would not only remember this victory, but also give thanks to the Lord for all of His benefits and remember the powerful intercession of our Blessed Mother., By the end of the fifteenth century, the basic structure of the rosary was in place: Our Father's dividing decades of Hail Mary's, with meditations on the life of Christ and Mary. This prayer form became known as the rosarium ("rose garden")., In the sixteenth century, the five Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries as we know them today began to emerge. The Glory Be was added to the end of every decade, and the second half of the Hail Mary was formalized: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen., After the full development of the Hail Mary prayer, the term "rosary" was given in 1597, For 320 years, from 1597 until 1917, the form of both the Hail Mary and the rosary remained the same., On May 13, 1917, Mary appeared to three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. She told them to come back to that exact place on the 13th day for the next six months. She promised she would appear to them each time and entrust a message to them. Mary told the children to pray f for world peace by reciting the rosary every day. On July 13, 1917, Mary asked the children to add a short prayer to the end of each decade of the rosary:"Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, Lead all souls. to heaven, especially those who are most in need of thy mercy.", Today this prayer is referred to as the Fatima Prayer, and many Catholics incorporate it into the rosary as Mary requested., On October 16, 2002, almost 600 years after the original Mysteries of the rosary were established, Saint Pope John Paul II proposed adding a new set of mysteries called the Luminous Mysteries (the Mysteries of Light)., Today, Roman Catholics use a rosary made up of 59 beads. The 6 large beads are used for praying the Our Father prayer, and the 53 smaller beads are used for praying the Hail Mary prayer. Other prayers of the rosary include the Sign of the Cross, Apostles' Creed, Glory Be, Fatima Prayer, Hail, Holy Queen, and the Rosary Prayer.